What kind of particles are protons neutrons and electrons

But it takes more than energy to make new particles. You can create photons by accelerating electrons through a magnetic field, but you can't make neutrinos or more electrons that way. The key is how those particles interact using the three fundamental quantum forces of nature: electromagnetism, the weak force and the strong force. However, those forces are also described using particles in quantum theory: electromagnetism is carried by photons, the weak force is governed by the W and Z bosons, and the strong force involves the gluons.

Despite the vagueness of the concept, fields describe everything. Two electrons approach each other and they stir up the electromagnetic field, creating photons like ripples in a pond. Those photons then push the electrons apart. Waves are the best metaphor to understand particles and fields. Photons are like water ripples: they can be big or small, violent or barely noticeable. The fields describing matter particles are more like waves on a guitar string. Unlike protons and electrons, which are electrically charged, neutrons have no charge—they are electrically neutral.

The zero stands for "zero charge". As you might have already guessed from its name, the neutron is neutral.

In other words, it has no charge whatsoever and is therefore neither attracted to nor repelled from other objects. Neutrons are in every atom with one exception , and they are bound together with other neutrons and protons in the atomic nucleus. Before we move on, we must discuss how the different types of subatomic particles interact with each other. When it comes to neutrons, the answer is obvious.

Since neutrons are neither attracted to nor repelled from objects, they don't really interact with protons or electrons beyond being bound into the nucleus with the protons. Even though electrons, protons, and neutrons are all types of subatomic particles, they are not all the same size. When you compare the masses of electrons, protons, and neutrons, what you find is that electrons have an extremely small mass, compared to either protons or neutrons. On the other hand, the masses of protons and neutrons are fairly similar, although technically, the mass of a neutron is slightly larger than the mass of a proton.

Because protons and neutrons are so much more massive than electrons, almost all of the mass of any atom comes from the nucleus, which contains all of the neutrons and protons.

The third column shows the masses of the three subatomic particles in "atomic mass units. Negative and positive charges of equal magnitude cancel each other out.

This means that the negative charge on an electron perfectly balances the positive charge on the proton. In other words, a neutral atom must have exactly one electron for every proton. If a neutral atom has 1 proton, it must have 1 electron. If a neutral atom has 2 protons, it must have 2 electrons. If a neutral atom has 10 protons, it must have 10 electrons. You get the idea. Electrons occupy a space that surrounds an atom's nucleus.

Each electron has an electrical charge of Quarks make up protons and neutrons, which, in turn, make up an atom's nucleus. Each proton and each neutron contains three quarks. A quark is a fast-moving point of energy.