What is special about neutrinos?

They pass through matter almost unnoticed

Particle Physics Trivia Quiz – Names, Facts and Surprises

This particle physics trivia quiz covers protons, neutrons and electrons, quarks, neutrinos, antimatter, the Standard Model, the Higgs boson and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Ten questions bring names, facts and surprises from the smallest building blocks of matter.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Electron
Who discovered the electron in 1897?
Nucleus
Who discovered the atomic nucleus in 1911?
Neutron
Who discovered the neutron in 1932?
Quarks
How many quarks make up a proton?
Names
Which of these is a type of quark?
Higgs
When was the Higgs boson discovered at CERN?
LHC
About how long is the Large Hadron Collider's ring?
Antimatter
What is the antimatter partner of the electron?
Neutrinos
What is special about neutrinos?
Web
Which invention came from CERN in 1989?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Who discovered the electron in 1897?
Answer: J.J. Thomson
He used cathode ray tubes.
Q2: Who discovered the atomic nucleus in 1911?
Answer: Ernest Rutherford
His gold foil experiment surprised everyone.
Q3: Who discovered the neutron in 1932?
Answer: James Chadwick
Neutrons have no electric charge.
Q4: How many quarks make up a proton?
Answer: Three
A proton has two up quarks and one down quark.
Q5: Which of these is a type of quark?
Answer: Charm
The six flavors are up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom.
Q6: When was the Higgs boson discovered at CERN?
Answer: 2012
It helps explain why particles have mass.
Q7: About how long is the Large Hadron Collider's ring?
Answer: About 27 kilometers
It lies underground near Geneva.
Q8: What is the antimatter partner of the electron?
Answer: Positron
When they meet, they annihilate into energy.
Q9: What is special about neutrinos?
Answer: They pass through matter almost unnoticed
Trillions pass through your body every second.
Q10: Which invention came from CERN in 1989?
Answer: The World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee created it to share data.

Particle Physics Trivia Quiz – The Building Blocks of Everything

Particle physics studies the smallest pieces of matter and the forces between them. Atoms contain a nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons, and protons and neutrons are themselves made of quarks held together by gluons.

The Standard Model describes 17 known fundamental particles, including six quarks, six leptons such as electrons and neutrinos and force-carrying particles like photons and gluons. The Higgs boson, found at CERN in 2012, completed this picture by explaining how particles gain mass.

Physicists use giant accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider to smash particles together at nearly light speed. Big questions remain, such as what dark matter is and why the universe contains more matter than antimatter.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is for science fans exploring particle physics.

Who discovered electrons and nuclei
What quarks are
What the Higgs boson does
How big the LHC is
What antimatter is

Did You Know?

Murray Gell-Mann named quarks after a line in Finnegans Wake.
Gluons hold quarks together.
The top quark is the heaviest.
CERN was founded in 1954.
PET scans use positrons.