All matter is made up of small particles called atoms. These atoms are very tiny particles and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Atoms are made up of still smaller particles called electrons, protons and neutrons, which are known as subatomic or elementary particles. Physicists have discovered hundreds of other elementary particles such as mesons, muons, neutrino end positrons. Can you imagine a particle even smaller than these elementary particles?
A few years ago, scientists discovered that elementary particles are made up of extremely small particles called quarks. So far quarks are only hypothetical particles and have not been observed in experiments. With the exception of protons, electrons, muons and neutrino, all elementary particles are made up of different quarks. This idea was suggested in 1964, by two American physicists, Murray Gell Mann and George Zweig.
There are probably four different kinds of quarks, carrying a fractional charge. Each has an anti-particle called anti-quark. Until 1974, only three types of quarks were known; two of very nearly equal mass, of which the proton, neutron and pi-mesons are composed, and a third, bigger quark which is a constituent of K-mesons and hyperons. These quarks are called the up quark (u), the down quark (d) and the strange quark (s). In 1974, one more quark, named charm quark (c) was also predicted. The existence of two other types, top quark and bottom quark, is also predicted.
The charges of the four quarks u, d, s and c are +2/3, -1/3, -1/3, and +2/3 that of the electron charge.
Anti-quarks have opposite charges. All quarks and anti-quarks have equal spin which is 1/2.
These quarks combine to form different elementary particles. For example, protons are composed of three quarks (uud) and neutrons also of three quarks (udd). Each meson can be conceived as the union of a quark and an anti-quark.