quarks is smaller or electrons ?

Question

quarks is smaller or electrons ?

Answer 1

First of all, contrary to what some answers have declared, electrons are absolutely not made of quarks.



Current understanding is that electrons and quarks are both point-like objects. By firing electrons at one another one can come up with an upper limit on the radius of the electron, but so far no experiment has been whose results are inconsistent with a zero-radius object. Quark dimensions can be similarly probed by colliding baryons at high energies, or firing electrons at baryons and scattering from individual quarks. Again, no measurable size has ever been found for the radius of a quark.



So, there is no experimental evidence that quarks are smaller than electrons, or that electrons are smaller than quarks. At present, we have nothing that proves they have any size at all.

Answer 2

Electrons do not really have a defined volume, they behave a bit like a cloud of electricity.

On the other hand, protons and neutrons have a measurable volume.

So which is smaller? Impossible to tell.

What we know is that an electron is 1/1836 the mass of a proton. And a proton is made of 3 quarks; so a quark should be about 600 times more massive than an electron. Will this do for an answer?

Answer 3

quarks, definetly are smaller.

Answer 4

quarks are smaller than electrons.

Answer 5

Electron vs Quark Size

2002067



name Tania N.

status educator

age 30s



Question - If a proton/neutron is very much larger than an electron,

is a quark bigger or smaller than an electron? -- Question from one of

my little year seveners. (grade~2)

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Tania,

A quark has never demonstrated any measurable size. Like an electron, it is

a "fundamental particle", one of the few particles from which all else is

made. The size of a proton or neutron comes from the motion of the quarks

as they orbit around each other, sending energy and particles(called mesons)

back and forth between each other. The three quarks are the primary

particles of a proton/neutron, the particles that identify the proton or

neutron for what it is. Still, the proton/neutron is essentially a cloud of

motion with low energy particles flashing in and out of existence all the

time. It is this cloud of motion that gives the proton/neutron its size.



Dr. Ken Mellendorf

Physics Instructor

Illinois Central College

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It takes "seveners" to ask those questions we wish we had asked in graduate

school.

The "size" of atomic and sub-atomic particles loses its meaning, because

these "particles" behave as though they are waves, or wave packets. So

"size" becomes kind of "squishy". However, with that caveat, the "classical"

radius of a "free" electron is taken to be about 3x10^-15 meters, and the

"classical" radius of a "free" proton is taken to be about 1x10^-15 -- only

about 1/3 the radius of the electron. However, the "classical" radius of a

hydrogen atom consisting of 1 proton and 1 electron, the Bohr radius, is

about 5x10^-9 meters about one million times the radius of either component

particle.



I do not know that anyone really thinks of quarks and other sub atomic

particles as having a particular "size", in fact their masses are usually

given in energy units of c^2 from the Einstein relation E = mc^2.

=========================================================

Answer 6

Correct.



If memory serves; it takes six quarks to make one electron.



Quarks have no mass (only energy).

Answer 7

Quarks are smaller if I remember correct.

In the link scroll down. Electrons and Protons are made up of Quarks.