Neutral particle facts for kids
A neutral particle is a tiny piece of matter that has no electric charge. Think of it like a tiny building block that doesn't have a positive or negative "spark." These particles are studied in physics, which is the science that explores how the universe works.
Particles That Last a Long Time
Some neutral particles are very stable. This means they do not change or "decay" into other particles for a very, very long time. It's like they can keep their form almost forever!
Examples of these long-lasting neutral particles include:
- A photon is a tiny packet of light energy. It's what carries light from the sun to your eyes!
- A neutron is a part of the center of an atom, called the nucleus. Atoms are the basic building blocks of everything around us.
- A neutrino is a super tiny particle that hardly interacts with anything. Billions of them pass through your body every second!
Particles That Don't Last Long
Other neutral particles are very short-lived. They exist for only a tiny fraction of a second before they change into other particles. Because they disappear so quickly, scientists cannot directly see them with a particle detector.
Instead, scientists observe these particles indirectly. They use huge machines called particle accelerators. These machines speed up tiny particles and crash them together. When the short-lived neutral particles decay, they leave behind tracks of "ionized particles." These are particles that have gained or lost an electric charge, and their tracks can be seen and studied.
Some examples of these short-lived neutral particles are:
