What is the name of the smallest particles of matter?

Answer 1

If you are talking about "elements" when saying "things" here, it's the atom. The atom is the smallest unit an element can be divided into that retains the chemical properties and physical characteristics of that element. Atoms can be broken down into protons, electrons and neutrons, and these in turn can be broken down further, but this can only be done under special conditions, like by using the big accelerators in a nuclear physics lab.

Answer 2

Matter is anything that has both mass and volume (takes up space). A more rigorous definition is used in science: matter is what atoms and molecules are made of. Matter is commonly said to exist in four states (or phases): solid, liquid, gas and plasma; other phases, such as Bose-Einstein condensates, also exist. In everyday human environments, matter is closely related to (and in many contexts equivalent to) mass.

So the answer would be either: a single atom of hydrogen (the simplest, lightest and therefore smallest atom).

Or a sub-atomic particle which carries mass (and therefore qualifies as matter) and is obviously much smaller, lighter etc than an atom.

ordinary matter is everything that is composed of elementary fermions, namely: quarks and leptons. (Leptons: electrons, muons, tau and their neutrino counterparts: Neutrino-electron, Neutrino-muon, Neutrino-tau)

All the particles that make up matter, such as electrons, protons and neutrinos, are fermions.

Of The Quarks: Up, Down, Strange, Charm, Top and Bottom. The Up quark would be the lightest; equivalent to one 1/5th an electron. A Neutrino(lepton) by way of comparison; could be equivalent to less than 1000th of an electron.

All the force carriers are bosons. The W and Z bosons that mediate the weak force are not made of quarks and leptons, and so in isolation are not ordinary matter, but do have mass. In other words, mass is not something that is exclusive to ordinary matter.

So it would probably be one of these force carrying particles. The W boson?

The name of the smallest particles of matter would be Bosons.

But bosons if isolated would not qualify as matter. The answer would appear to be Leptons(specifically the Neutrino-electron) but the answer to this question is probably: Quarks.

Since quarks are elementary particles, which mean that they are not made up of anything (which means that quarks are just a solid mass), quarks are considered the smallest particles, but there are other elementary particles out there.

Most of which I have mentioned and as noted above quarks have mass and therefore qualify as matter. Two up quarks and one down quark make a proton: three objects in conjunction with 'other' particles such as bosons noted above.

To say quarks are not made of anything is nonsense (they are energy in a fixed state; all things considered) and to further describe them as 'solid' is ridiculous. That there are other particles 'out there' which may change the answer to this question is obvious. Without getting too complex in my answer the question asked was:

What is the name of the smallest particles of matter?

The answer to this question is still probably: Quarks.

The smallest sub-atomic particles of matter...