• Question: what are protons, neutrons and electrons made of?

    Asked by rory the racing car to Philip, Kerry, Ali on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Kerry O'Shea

      Kerry O'Shea answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Protons and neutrons are made of 3 elementary particles called quarks, there are 6 different types (flavors): up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top.

      A proton is made of 2 up quarks and 1 down quark, whilst a neutron is made of 2 down quarks and 1 up quark.

      Electrons are elementary particles, and cannot be split up into smaller parts.

    • Photo: Philip Ratcliffe

      Philip Ratcliffe answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Protons and neutrons are made of quarks, which, like electrons are what we call elementary, that is they are not made of anything. That said, we can’t really be sure that anything is really elementary. What we really mean is that we have been able to cut them up into anything smaller or see inside them. So we just say an electron is an electron.

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