Subatomic particle
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A subatomic particle is a particle smaller than an atom. This means it is very very small. It is so small, it cannot be seen. It is also very interesting to scientists who try to understand atoms better. Some examples of subatomic particles are: protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks and leptons. Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks which are smaller particles. Electrons are examples of leptons.
These particles are often held together within an atom by one of the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetic force, strong force, or weak force), and outside of the atom the particles often move extremely quickly as far as we are concerned, often near the speed of light. Subatomic particles are divided into two major groups, Baryons and Leptons.
Baryons are the large particles, consisting of protons and things such as that. They have a given Baryon number, which means that in reactions the Baryon number must be conserved, so that the products must consist of the same sum of Baryons. These are made up of a combination of the six quarks, which are the most basic particle to our knowledge.
Leptons on the other hand are small, such as electrons and Muons. These can be combined or split apart.
In addition to these, there are also Anti-particles, which have the same mass and energy as their normal counterparts, except they have the opposite charges, such as electronic strangeness (caused by the strange quarks, which are only a few particles) and Baryon number. Whenever a particle and its antiparticle collide, they destroy each other with a huge release of energy equivalent to E=MC2, where M is the mass lost, C is the speed of light, and E is the energy produced. These mutual destructions often create other smaller particles, such as Tau particles.
Most of the particles discovered are created by accelerating particles and colliding them against others, creating huge showers of new subatomic particles which decay extremely quickly. However, because they are moving close to the speed of light, they obey the law of time dilation and can live longer then they can to us, so it will live for perhaps thirty times as long as we think they live, and travel longer distances as well.
