The world we live in is quite complex in its simplest definition. While trying to make sense of what we see as humanity, we discovered that there are actually much bigger and much smaller things than we see; such as the universe, for example the atom. We have known the atom as the smallest building block of matter for years, but we realized that there are many more substances called subatomic particles that make up the atom.
We know and are familiar with some of the subatomic particles that make up the atom. However, some are not fully discovered, even by expert scientists. As a result, the substances we are talking about are not visible to the naked eye and are hard to detect even with special microscopes. Let’s take a closer look at what subatomic particles are, what their types are, and see who discovered these tiny substances.
What are subatomic particles?
The substances that make up the atom, which are much smaller than the atom, are called subatomic particles. Subatomic particles are substances that are self-sufficient and can have energy. Subatomic particles, which are the basic components of matter, are also called fundamental components.
Subatomic particle properties and types:
- Subatomic particles are divided into two as leptons and quarks.
- They are not composed of other substances. In other words, subatomic substances have no sub-materials.
- The electron is a lepton.
- Lepton means light particle in Greek.
- The quark is named after the Irish writer James Joyce.
- There are six known types of quarks.
- The nucleus was formed from the nucleon consisting of protons and neutrons.
- The electron and the nucleon in the nucleus are stable.
- There are baryons and mesons in the nucleus.
- Baryons are heavy and mesons are medium heavy.
- Baryons and mesons are called hadrons.
- Hadrons means strong particle in Greek.
- Baryons are made up of three quarks.
- Mesons consist of a quark and an antiquark.
- Both the neutron and the proton are composed of UDD quarks.
- Hadrons are made up of quarks.
- The meson exchange hadron is stable.
- Thanks to the force, the core does not break apart.
- Hadrons were discovered by Hideki Yukova.
- Neutrinos are leptons.
- Neutrinos are either uncharged or very light.
- A neutrino is produced as a result of decay and interaction.
- There are many neutrinos in the universe, but they interact very little with other matter.
- There are many subatomic particles such as photons, bosons, mesons, fermions, baryons and gravitons, the structure of which has not yet been fully explored.
Who discovered subatomic particles?
Although we can only fully discover subatomic particles through experiments today, the first people to talk about these tiny substances were the Greek philosophers Leucippus and his student Democritus, who lived thousands of years ago. They claimed that matter consisted of small and indivisible parts.
The most important studies on atom and subatomic particles were made by the English chemist John Dalton at the beginning of the 19th century and he put forward the atomic theory. The discovery of radioactivity by the French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896 accelerated these studies. Just a year later, British physicist JJ Thomson discovered the electron.
The atomic model, put forward by the British physicist Ernest Rutherford, took the studies about the atom one step further. Danish theorist Niels Bohr, on the other hand, showed everyone that a new era has begun for both atomic and subatomic studies with his atomic model.
Importance of subatomic particles:
Subatomic particles are much more than tiny matter circulating like that. It has two main tasks; being the basic building block of the universe and connecting everything together. Although there are two different types of subatomic particles that perform these two basic functions, it would certainly not be correct to distinguish them from each other precisely. It has some similarities.
The two types of subatomic particles are nearly identical in size. Although it is not certain, if we consider that an atom is 10 to the minus 10 meters, it would be quite difficult to even imagine the average size of subatomic particles. In other words, these tiny substances circulate everywhere and not only create the universe, but also keep everything together.
Quantum mechanics and subatomic particles:
In the 1920s, scientists developed quantum mechanics to better understand the atom and its motions. In the same years, three different quantum numbers related to the angular momentum of the atom appear in the quantum mechanics study of the atomic structure. This is because there are three independent and variable parameters that determine electron movements.
Two Dutch physicists, Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck, realized a few years later that there must be a substance like sodium with an outer valence electron beyond the nucleus. So there had to be a fourth quantum number. As a result of the calculations, it was predicted that these substances would act like rotating electric charges.
To act like an electric charge means a magnetic field. At this point, it was seen that the spin-related quantum number would have two possible values. Today we know that the concept of spin is a unique property for all subatomic particles. Spin is divided into two main groups and they have features that affect each other.
We answered the questions that are smaller than the atom and make up the atom, that is, what are the subatomic particles, what are their types, who discovered it, and we talked about the details you need to know about the subject. Even if we know something, subatomic particles remain largely a mystery.
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