Baryon

Key Stage 5

Meaning

A baryon is a type of hadron made of three quarks.

About Baryons

Baryons include:

• Proton - A type of baryon with a mass of 1.67x10^-27 and a charge of 1.60x10^-19, made of 2 Up-quarks and 1 Down-quark.
• Neutron - A type of baryon with a mass of 1.67x10^-27 and zero charge, made of 2 Down-quarks and 1 Up-quark.

There are many other baryons made from different groups of quarks. However, these are unstable and exist only for very short periods of time before decaying via the weak nuclear interaction into other, most stable, subatomic particles.

Baryons are affected by the:

• Strong Nuclear Interaction
• Weak Nuclear Interaction
• Electromagnetic Interaction
• Gravitational Interaction