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tybeedave
- 6
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i can't seem to get a handle on this...help :)
Quarks have fractional charges because they are the building blocks of protons and neutrons, which make up the nucleus of an atom. These particles have a positive charge (protons) or no charge (neutrons), which are both made up of three quarks. The fractional charges of quarks allow for the overall charge of a proton or neutron to be a whole number.
There are six types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. The up, charm, and top quarks have a charge of +2/3, while the down, strange, and bottom quarks have a charge of -1/3. These charges are measured in units of electric charge, with the proton having a charge of +1 and the electron having a charge of -1.
Quarks were first theorized in the 1960s by physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig to explain the behavior of subatomic particles. They were later discovered in experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in the 1970s, where scientists observed evidence of quarks in high-energy collisions.
No, quarks cannot exist independently. They are always found in groups of two or three, forming larger particles such as protons, neutrons, and mesons. This is due to the strong force, which binds quarks together and prevents them from existing as isolated particles.
Quarks are the fundamental particles that make up all matter in the universe. Different combinations of quarks give rise to the various properties of matter, such as mass, charge, and spin. The interactions between quarks also play a crucial role in determining the behavior and stability of atoms and molecules.