• Question: Do you think that there is anything smaller than quarks?

    Asked by kezzy to Helen, Ian, rhysphillips on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Current knowledge/theories suggest that quarks are the smallest known particles although they are never found on their own, but always inside Hadrons.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Some scientists in the 1980s suggested that there are sub-parts to quarks called ‘preons’, but they don’t fit into the most successful explanation for physics, known as the standard model, and there is no experimental evidence for their existence. Another idea, which also has no physical evidence, is called ‘string theory’, where every particle is made up of much smaller vibrating strings of energy. Basically, we don’t know!

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Everytime we think we have found the smallest, most fundamental unit of matter, somebody comes up with an even smaller one. It wouldn’t suprise me if in the coming years, quarks were found to be made of smaller units. Given that we are unable to explain the apparent peculiarity of matter at this scale, we definitely don’t have a complete picture, so the door is still open to discover more. For instance, is there a particle that mediates gravity? Nobody knows!

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