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im confused about baryons. they say that it is a particle (presumably like an electron or photon or other particle) but then they go on to say that its a gas, n

im confused about baryons. they say that it is a particle (presumably like an electron or photon or other particle) but then they go on to say that its a gas, not a particle. very confusing.

nitrogen 9y ago
Isn't a gas just a swarm of particles?
- brianpan 9y ago
  We like to say flock of particles. Source: I am a smientist.
Meegul 9y ago
A baryon is a subatomic particle that is composed of three quarks, such as a proton or a neutron. An electron would be categorized as a lepton, rather than a baryon as it is not made of multiple quarks and is rather an elementary particle, for reference. Here's a good reference for subatomic elementary particles, where you can see some familiar names like electron and photon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryon#/media/File:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryon#/media/File:Standard_Mo...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
colechristensen 9y ago
gasses are made of particles neutrons and protons are baryons (each made of 3 quarks) electrons are leptons photons are bosons There are more things in those categories that are much less a part of the human experience.
nikdaheratik 9y ago
Baryons are types of subatomic particles. They include protons and neutrons as well as other kinds that only exist briefly in an atom smasher. In this case, they are using a generic term because they have no way of knowing whether it's primarily protons/neutrons or what else it could be made of. A gas in this sense is really a very loose collection of light particles, mainly hydrogen/helium or just empty separate protons and neutrons. As opposed to heavier atoms that are the product of stellar fusion and form more solid matter. If you think about this in terms of cosmology, the universe was originally a solid uniform blob of high energy particles. As it cooled, some of those particles grouped together to form stars and galaxies. However, there are parts in between galaxies that clumped together a bit but didn't really have enough mass to form anything. So it's really just made of tendrils of basic atomic building blocks.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
When physicists say "baryonic matter" that's more or less just shorthand for "atomic matter". Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Between the 3 types of particles the mass of the protons and neutrons outweighs that of the electrons by about 3 orders of magnitude, almost all of the mass is in the nuclear particles. And those particles are baryons, they are, in fact, the lightest baryons, each made up of 3 quarks. Only the proton and anti-proton baryons are stable in isolation, but in nuclei protons plus neutrons can be stable together and anti-protons plus anti-neutrons can also be stable together.

im confused about baryons. they say that it is a particle (presumably like an electron or photon or other particle) but then they go on to say that its a gas, not a particle. very confusing.

nitrogen 9y ago

Isn't a gas just a swarm of particles?

brianpan 9y ago
We like to say flock of particles. Source: I am a smientist.

Meegul 9y ago

A baryon is a subatomic particle that is composed of three quarks, such as a proton or a neutron. An electron would be categorized as a lepton, rather than a baryon as it is not made of multiple quarks and is rather an elementary particle, for reference. Here's a good reference for subatomic elementary particles, where you can see some familiar names like electron and photon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryon#/media/File:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryon#/media/File:Standard_Mo...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

colechristensen 9y ago

gasses are made of particles neutrons and protons are baryons (each made of 3 quarks) electrons are leptons photons are bosons There are more things in those categories that are much less a part of the human experience.

nikdaheratik 9y ago

Baryons are types of subatomic particles. They include protons and neutrons as well as other kinds that only exist briefly in an atom smasher. In this case, they are using a generic term because they have no way of knowing whether it's primarily protons/neutrons or what else it could be made of. A gas in this sense is really a very loose collection of light particles, mainly hydrogen/helium or just empty separate protons and neutrons. As opposed to heavier atoms that are the product of stellar fusion and form more solid matter. If you think about this in terms of cosmology, the universe was originally a solid uniform blob of high energy particles. As it cooled, some of those particles grouped together to form stars and galaxies. However, there are parts in between galaxies that clumped together a bit but didn't really have enough mass to form anything. So it's really just made of tendrils of basic atomic building blocks.

InclinedPlane 9y ago

When physicists say "baryonic matter" that's more or less just shorthand for "atomic matter". Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Between the 3 types of particles the mass of the protons and neutrons outweighs that of the electrons by about 3 orders of magnitude, almost all of the mass is in the nuclear particles. And those particles are baryons, they are, in fact, the lightest baryons, each made up of 3 quarks. Only the proton and anti-proton baryons are stable in isolation, but in nuclei protons plus neutrons can be stable together and anti-protons plus anti-neutrons can also be stable together.