• Question: If atoms make up everything, do atoms make up atoms?

    Asked by AmiePanda to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Good question! Actually, atoms are made up of even tinier particles called sub-atomic particles. Atoms contain a small core of positively charged particles (protons) and neutrally charged particles (neutrons) which are orbited by even tinier negatively charged particles called electrons. Electricity is just the movement of these electrons as they jump from one atom to another one.

      You might then ask, what are protons and neutrons made of? It turns out they’re made of even smaller particles called quarks. And what are quarks made of? Well, we think they’re not made of anything and they’re some of the smallest particles out there…but we can’t say for sure!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Atoms do make everything, but they’re made of protons, neutrons (in a nucleus) and electrons (in a cloud around the nucleus). The protons, neutrons, and electrons are each made of different combinations of quarks, which come in ‘up’, ‘down’ flavors. They also come in “top”, “bottom” and “strange” and “charm”, but those go into less common particles than the neutron and proton.

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