Quarks

__**What is a Quark?**__ A quark is a tiny theoretical particle thats maked up of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. As well as gluons, quarks make up more unique hadrons such as mesons, which are not stable. The quark is called theoretical because it has never been observed directly. __**Different Quarks?**__ There are six different types of quarks. Each quark type is called a flavor.

(GeV/c2) ||~ Electric Charge (e) ||
 * ~ Flavor ||~ Mass
 * u || up || 0.004 || +2/3 ||
 * d || down || 0.008 || -1/3 ||
 * **c** || charm || 1.5 || +2/3 ||
 * **s** || strange || 0.15 || -1/3 ||
 * **t** || top || 176 || +2/3 ||
 * **b** || bottom || 4.7 || -1/3 ||

Quarks come in six different 'flavours' and possess a 'colour charge' __**How Do We Know Quarks Are Real?**__ in 1980, Maurice Jacob and Peter Lanshoff detected small, hard, objects inside the proton by firing high-energy electrons and protons at it. most of the high-energy particles seemed to pass right through the protons. Some of the high-energy particles were reflected back, like they had hit something. Other experiments show that the proton contains three small, hard, solid objects called quarks.

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By: Chelsey Lusby 9C