Pick the Particles Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The proton is a positively charged particle found in the nucleus of every atom. It's not fundamental, because it's made of three quarks, two up quarks and one down quark, held tightly together by gluons. The number of protons in an atom determines what element it is.

The neutron has no electric charge and sits alongside protons in the atomic nucleus. Like the proton, it's composed of quarks (one up and two down). Neutrons help stabilise the nucleus and can decay into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino when outside the atom.

The electron is a fundamental lepton that carries a negative charge. It orbits the nucleus at various energy levels and is responsible for chemical bonding and electrical phenomena. Unlike protons and neutrons, electrons are not made of smaller particles.

The photon is the particle of light and the carrier of the electromagnetic force. It has no mass or electric charge, allowing it to travel at the speed of light. Photons are emitted when charged particles change energy states.

Gluons are the force carriers of the strong nuclear force, the most powerful of the four fundamental forces. They 'glue' quarks together inside protons and neutrons, holding atomic nuclei intact.

The Higgs boson is linked to the Higgs field, which gives mass to fundamental particles that interact with it. Discovered in 2012 at CERN, it confirmed the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics.

The W boson carries the weak nuclear force and comes in positively and negatively charged versions. It plays a key role in radioactive beta decay, where one type of quark changes into another.

The Z boson is the neutral partner of the W boson and also mediates the weak nuclear force. Its discovery in the 1980s helped confirm the relationship between the weak and electromagnetic forces.

The up quark is one of the six types of quarks and has a positive charge of +2/3. It's a building block of both protons and neutrons and is one of the lightest and most common quarks in the universe.

The charm quark is a heavier type of quark that only appears in high-energy collisions, such as those in particle accelerators. It helps form exotic particles called 'charmed mesons'.

The strange quark has a charge of -1/3 and contributes to short-lived particles like kaons. Its 'strangeness' quantum number led to important discoveries about how quarks behave in different reactions.

The muon is a heavier version of the electron with the same negative charge but a much shorter lifetime. It is unstable and decays into an electron and two neutrinos. Muons are often created when cosmic rays hit Earth's atmosphere.

The tau is an even heavier cousin of the muon and electron. It shares the same charge and properties but decays almost instantly after being produced. It plays an important role in testing particle symmetry.

The electron neutrino is a tiny, nearly massless particle that rarely interacts with matter. It's produced in nuclear reactions, such as those in the Sun or during radioactive decay, and can pass through solid objects almost undisturbed.

The tau neutrino is associated with the tau lepton and is one of the hardest particles to detect because it interacts so weakly. It was the last of the six types of neutrinos to be observed directly.

These are not subatomic particles: molecules, ions, colloids, nanoparticles, bacteria, droplets and aerosols