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Even among particle physicists, the exact definition of a particle has diverse descriptions. These professional attempts at the definition of a particle include: [7] A particle is a collapsed wave function; A particle is a quantum excitation of a field; A particle is an irreducible representation of the Poincaré group; A particle is an ...
Atoms are the smallest neutral particles into which matter can be divided by chemical reactions. An atom consists of a small, heavy nucleus surrounded by a relatively ...
Though the word atom originally denoted a particle that cannot be cut into smaller particles, in modern scientific usage the atom is composed of various subatomic particles. The constituent particles of an atom are the electron , the proton and the neutron .
Many more types of subatomic particles have been found. Most such particles (but not electrons) were eventually found to be composed of even smaller particles such as quarks. Particle physics studies these smallest particles; nuclear physics studies atomic nuclei and their (immediate) constituents: protons and neutrons.
The word atom, after the Greek word atomos meaning "indivisible", has since then denoted the smallest particle of a chemical element, but physicists later discovered that atoms are not, in fact, the fundamental particles of nature, but are conglomerates of even smaller particles, such as the electron.
The smallest particles are the subatomic particles, which refer to particles smaller than atoms. [9] These would include particles such as the constituents of atoms – protons, neutrons, and electrons – as well as other types of particles which can only be produced in particle accelerators or cosmic rays.
Subatomic particles such as protons or neutrons, which contain two or more elementary particles, are known as composite particles. Ordinary matter is composed of atoms, themselves once thought to be indivisible elementary particles. The name atom comes from the Ancient Greek word ἄτομος which means indivisible or uncuttable.
A Molecule is the smallest particle of matter into which a body can be divided without losing its identity. An Atom is a still smaller particle produced by division of a molecule. Rather than simply having the attributes of mass and occupying space, matter was held to have chemical and electrical properties.