Subatomic Particle

Key Stage 3

A subatomic particle is any particle smaller than an atom.

The subatomic particles you should know are:

A subatomic particle is any particle smaller than an atom.

The subatomic particles you should know are:

A subatomic particle is any particle smaller than an atom.

Subatomic particles include all fundamental particles as well as some other low mass particles made from a combination of fundamental particles.

Some subatomic particles you should know are:

Leptons - A group of fundamental particles
- Electron - A type of lepton with a mass of 9.11x10^-31 and a charge of -1.60x10^-19.
- Muon - A type of lepton often referred to as a 'heavy electron' same charge as an electron (-1.60x10^-19) but a mass 206 times the mass of an electron.
- Neutrino - A type of lepton with zero charge and negligible mass.
Quarks - A group of subatomic particle believed to be fundamental but have never been on their own. They always exists in either a triplet of quarks or a quark-antiquark pair.
Hadrons - Subatomic particles made of quarks.
- Baryons - A type of hadron made of 3 quarks.
  - Proton - A type of baryon with a mass of 1.67x10^-27 and a charge of 1.60x10^-19, made of 2 Up-quarks and 1 Down-quark.
  - Neutron - A type of baryon with a mass of 1.67x10^-27 and zero charge, made of 2 Down-quarks and 1 Up-quark.
- Mesons - Types of hadron consisting of a quark-antiquark pair.
Bosons - Subatomic particles which mediate the fundamental interactions.
- Photon - A type of boson which mediates the electromagnetic interaction.
- W-boson - A type of boson which mediates the weak nuclear interaction.
- Z-boson - A type of boson which mediates the weak nuclear interaction.