It was said that the smallest unit of matter is atom but now it's said that there is something which is smaller than atom an they are quarks and leptons. Is it true or something else is smaller than atom? And what is a quark?

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Solution

Dear Student

Smallest unit of matter is atom. The smallest unit of matter that has characteristics properties of element is matter. However, these in turn are made up of smaller particles. But those particles are form elements only in combinations.
A quark is one of the fundamental particles in physics. ... The study of quarks and the interactions between them through the strong force is called particle physics.
Physicists have recently divided atoms into even smaller subatomic particles such as fermions (quarks, leptons, neutrinos, electrons) and bosons (gluons, photons, gravitrons). It is difficult (if not impossible) to determine the physical properties of something based on the number or quarks and leptons it contains.
Quarks are fundamental building blocks of matter. They are most commonly found inside protons and neutrons, the particles that make up the core of each atom in the universe. Based on current experimental evidence, quarks seem to be truly fundamental particles; they cannot be further subdivided.

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Q29) CERN announced discovery of the exotic subatomic particles pentaquarks which so far had existed in theory only. Which of the following statements is/are true about the below mentioned particles?

1) Pentaquark is a sub-atomic particle composed of five-quarks (four antiquarks and a quark).

2) A baryon is a composite subatomic particle made up of three quarks

3) Mesons are composed of one quark and one antiquark

4) Leptons are not quark-based

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What are quarks and hadrons inside an atom

Q. S1: Until the first atomic energy bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atom and its behaviour had been remote from everyday affairs.
S6: So the idea grew up that the product of long years at atomic research had led only to a fresh weapon of destruction more powerful than any known before.
P: There was something queer and incomprehensible about them.
Q: And secondly, that something new and devastating had been added to the list of man's victories over nature.
R: But it, in the first place, made us realize that the atom and its ways were no longer something apart from everyday life.
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The proper sequence should be:

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