Learn more physics!
Q:
From my understanding, protons and neutrons are composed of quarks, which are fermions. My question is why are alpha particles bosons?
- Dylan (age 18)
Belleville, IL, US
A:
Alpha particles (2 protons+2 neutrons) have an even number of fermions. Therefore they're bosons.
A boson is a particle whose wave function remains the same under rotation by 360°. A fermion is a particle whose wave function changes by a factor of -1 under 360° rotation. The combination of an even number of them changes by -1 to an even power, i.e. 1, so that's a boson.
Mike W.
(published on 05/17/2011)
Follow-up on this answer.
