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Particle

Contents

Key Stage 3

Meaning

A particle is a small piece of matter.

About Particles

Particles are often made of other, smaller, particles.
Particles are usually shown as round in shape but may be made of smaller particles making their shape a combination of the shapes of other particles stuck together.

Examples

A water molecule is a particle made of 1 Oxygen atom and two Hydrogen atoms. An atom is a particle. The atom is made of smaller particles called Protons, Neutrons and Electrons.

Key Stage 4

Key Stage 5

Meaning

Particle is a general term used to describe a 'small' unit of matter.

About Particles

The term particle may be used to describe objects as large as several billion atoms (as in a soot particle) or as small as a smallest possible unit of matter known as a fundamental particle.
In physics the term particle is used:
  • On larger scales to simplify calculations of the motions of objects by approximating them to be round with an even distribution of mass
  • On large groups of objects at smaller scales for calculations of bulk properties by approximating them to be points with negligible volume.
  • On atomic and subatomic scales to name units of matter which are often repeated in nature (eg. the proton is a repeating unit of matter found in all atoms).