What is the smallest part of any material?

Answer 1

The smallest part of any material that can exist independently is the molecule of that material. That is if the material is defended by a molecular structure, such as "water": then the smallest part would be the "water molecule. However; if it is called an element, the smallest part of it would be its atom; as in "iron", then the smallest part would be, the "iron atom". It is good to note that every molecule is made of elements; as in water, which is made of two different elements, hydrogen and oxygen.

So it depends on whether the substance is molecular or atomic. If you break down a molecule, it will divide into its atoms. If you break down an atom, it will divide into electrons and protons.

I coped some stuff out of wiki, but I think the smallest would be ether Fermions or Bosons.

Elementary particlesMain article: Elementary particle

Elementary particles are particles with no measurable internal structure; that is, they are not composed of other particles. They are the fundamental objects of quantum field theory. Many families and sub-families of elementary particles exist. Elementary particles are classified according to their spin. Fermions have half-integer spin while bosons have integer spin. All the particles of the Standard Model have been experimentally observed, recently including the Higgs boson.[1][2]

FermionsMain article: Fermion

Fermions are one of the two fundamental classes of particles, the other being bosons. Fermion particles are described by Fermi-Dirac statistics and have quantum numbers described by the Pauli exclusion principle. They include the quarks and leptons, as well as any composite particles consisting of an odd number of these, such as all baryons and many atoms and nuclei.

Fermions have half-integer spin; for all known elementary fermions this is 1⁄2. All known fermions are also Dirac fermions; that is, each known fermion has its own distinct antiparticle. It is not known whether the neutrino is a Dirac fermion or a Majorana fermion.[3] Fermions are the basic building blocks of all matter. They are classified according to whether they interact via the color forceor not. In the Standard Model, there are 12 types of elementary fermions: six quarks and six leptons.

QuarksMain article: Quark

Quarks are the fundamental constituents of hadrons and interact via the strong interaction. Quarks are the only known carriers of fractional charge, but because they combine in groups of three (baryons) or in groups of two with antiquarks (mesons), only integer charge is observed in nature. Their respective antiparticles are the antiquarks which are identical except for the fact that they carry the opposite electric charge (for example the up quark carries charge +2⁄3, while the up antiquark carries charge −2⁄3), color charge, and baryon number. There are six flavors of quarks; the three positively charged quarks are called up-type quarks and the three negatively charged quarks are called down-type quarks.

Quarks Name Symbol Antiparticle Charge

(e) Mass (MeV/c2) up u u +2⁄3 1.5-3.3 down d d −1⁄3 3.5-6.0 charm c c +2⁄3 1,160-1,340 strange s s −1⁄3 70-130 top t t +2⁄3 169,100-173,300 bottom b b −1⁄3 4,130-4,370

LeptonsMain article: Lepton

Leptons do not interact via the strong interaction. Their respective antiparticles are the antileptons which are identical except for the fact that they carry the opposite electric charge and lepton number. The antiparticle of the electron is the antielectron, which is nearly always called positron for historical reasons. There are six leptons in total; the three charged leptons are called electron-like leptons, while the neutral leptons are called neutrinos. Neutrinos are known to oscillate, so that neutrinos of definite flavour do not have definite mass, rather they exist in a superposition of mass eigenstates. The hypothetical heavy right-handed neutrino, called a sterile neutrino, has been left off the list.

Leptons Name Symbol Antiparticle Charge

(e) Mass (MeV/c2) Electron e− e+ −1 0.511 Electron neutrino ν

e ν

e 0 < 0.000 0022 Muon μ− μ+ −1 105.7 Muon neutrino ν

μ ν

μ 0 < 0.170 Tau τ− τ+ −1 1,777 Tau neutrino ν

τ ν

τ 0 < 15.5

BosonsMain article: Boson

Bosons are one of the two fundamental classes of particles, the other being fermions. Bosons are characterized by Bose-Einstein statistics and all have integer spins. Bosons may be either elementary, like photons and gluons, or composite, like mesons.

The fundamental forces of nature are mediated by gauge bosons, and mass is believed to be created by the Higgs Field. According to the Standard Model (and to both linearized general relativity and string theory, in the case of the graviton) the elementary bosons are:

Name Symbol Antiparticle Charge (e) Spin Mass (GeV/c2) Interaction mediated Existence Photon γ Self 0 1 0 Electromagnetism Confirmed W boson W− W+ −1 1 80.4 Weak interaction Confirmed Z boson Z Self 0 1 91.2 Weak interaction Confirmed Gluon g Self 0 1 0 Strong interaction Confirmed Higgs boson H0 Self 0 0 125.3 Mass Confirmed Graviton G Self 0 2 0 Gravitation Unconfirmed

The graviton is added to the list[citation needed] although it is not predicted by the Standard Model, but by other theories in the framework of quantum field theory. Furthermore, gravity is non-renormalizable. There are a total of 8 independent gluons. The Higgs boson is postulated by the electroweak theory primarily to explain the origin of particle masses. In a process known as the Higgs mechanism, the Higgs boson and the other gauge bosons in the Standard Model acquire mass via spontaneous symmetry breakingof the SU(2) gauge symmetry. The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) predicts several Higgs bosons. A new particle expected to be the Higgs boson was observed at the CERN/LHC on March 14th of 2013 around the energy of 126.5GeV with the accuracy of close to five sigma (99.9999% that is accepted as definitive). The Higgs mechanism giving mass to other particles has not been observed yet.

The atom can be broken down into electrons, protons and neutrons.

Also, in the Hadron Collider, atoms are forced together and on impact a new, much smaller material is released but this only exists for a very small fraction of a second.