Particle States of Matter

In which state of matter does the proton,electron,neutron and other subatomic particles exist ?
- Analhaq (age 14)
Amaravati,maharashtra,India

Single particles are not in any "state of matter". States of matter are descriptions of the collective behavior of large collections of particles. Solids, for example, have particles arranged in some regular repeating pattern. Gases have fairly large spaces between the particles, with no particular arrangement pattern. Liquids have fairly strongly interacting particles but also no long-range regular pattern. None of these properties make sense as descriptions without a fairly large collection of particles.

Mike W.

(published on 05/13/2018)