A LevelPhysicsCIETopic Questions11. Particle Physics11.2 Fundamental Particles

Syllabus Edition

First teaching 2023

First exams 2025

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Fundamental Particles (CIE A Level Physics)

Topic Questions

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1
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What is a particle that is not made of any smaller particles?

  • elementary particle

  • minimum particle

  • original particle

  • atomic particle

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2
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Light is made up of which type of elementary particle?

  • quarks

  • leptons

  • photons

  •  bosons

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3
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What type of elementary particles are electrons ?

  • quarks

  • leptons

  • photons

  •  bosons

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4
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What elementary particles are the building blocks for protons and neutrons ?

  • quarks

  • leptons

  • photons

  • bosons

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5
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How many quarks make up a proton ?

  • 0

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

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6
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Which particle is made up of two 'down' quarks and one 'up' quark?

  • atom

  • electron

  • neutron

  • proton

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7
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How many types of quark are there ?

  • 2

  • 4

  • 6

  • 8

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8
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Which elementary particle is a lepton ?

  • neutron

  • electron

  • quark

  • proton

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9
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What are the fundamental particles of an atom ? 

  • quarks, gluons and electrons

  • protons, neutrons and electrons

  • quarks, photons and electrons

  • quarks, gluons and neutrino

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10
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What are mesons ? 

  • a type of composite particle produced by high energy

  • a type of gluon

  • an antimatter version of the electron

  • a type of neutrino

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11 mark

Quarks are thought to make up protons and neutrons.

 The 'up' quark has a charge of  2 over 3 e ; a 'down' quark has a charge of begin mathsize 16px style negative 1 third e end style , where e is the elementary charge (+ 1.6 × 10–19 C)

 How many up quarks and down quarks must a proton contain ?

 

Up quarks

Down quarks

A

0

3

B

2

1

C

1

2

D

1

1

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2
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A CERN detector shows a signal only in the hadronic calorimeter. No signal is observed in the tracker, electromagnetic calorimeter or muon chambers.

Which particle must be responsible for this signal?

  • pion

  • neutrino

  • photon

  • neutron

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3
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Some particles are made up of a combination of three quarks.

Which particle would not give a particle a charge of either +1.6 × 10−19 C or zero?

  • up, up, up

  • up, up, down

  • up, strange, strange

  • up, down, down

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4
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The composition of four different hadrons are shown in the diagram below. One of the hadrons is a Σ +  particle. It has a charge of +e, where is e is the elementary charge.

 Which hadron could be the Σ +  particle ?

cie-ial-images627png

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5
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When high-speed hadrons collide in particle accelerators, a positive pion (π+) is an unstable particle produced. The π+ particle has a charge of +e.
What is the quark combination of the π+ particle?

  • u space top enclose u

  • u space top enclose d

  • d space top enclose u

  • d space top enclose d

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6
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A graph of nucleon number A against proton number Z is shown in the diagram below.

cie-ial-images628png

The graph shows a cross that represents a nucleus P.

 Nucleus P decays by emitting an α-particle to form a nucleus Q.

Nucleus Q then decays by emitting a β– particle to form a nucleus R.

 The quark composition of one nucleon in Q is changed during the emission of the β– particle.

 What is the corresponding change in quark composition from nucleus Q to nucleus R ?

  • no change

  • u-quark to d-quark

  • d-quark to u-quark

  • d-quark to s-quark

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7
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The equation for β– decay is

               n rightwards arrow p plus e to the power of minus plus top enclose v subscript e

  Using your knowledge of antiparticles and the weak interaction, what is the equation for β+ decay?

  • top enclose n space rightwards arrow space top enclose p space plus space e to the power of plus space end exponent plus space v subscript e

  • p space rightwards arrow space n space plus space e to the power of plus plus space v subscript e

  • n space plus space e to the power of plus space rightwards arrow space p space plus space top enclose v subscript e

  • p space rightwards arrow space n space plus space e to the power of plus space plus space top enclose v subscript e

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1
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Which of the following sentences about antimatter is incorrect ? 

  • antimatter is normal matter with an opposite charge

  • antimatter is only produced in particle accelerators

  • antimatter destroys matter

  • equal amounts of antimatter and matter were created during the Big Bang

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2
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Fundamental or elementary particles are particles that aren't made up of smaller particles.

 What is the most common type of fundamental particle in the universe ?

  • atom

  • meson

  • neutrino

  • quark

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3
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In a nucleus of Tritium, H presubscript 1 presuperscript 3 , how many ‘down’ quarks are there?

  • 5

  • 4

  • 3

  • 2

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4
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Which row in the table gives the correct quark combination for the particle?

 

 

Particle

Category

Quark combination

A

neutron

baryon

 top enclose u d

B

neutron

meson

 u d d

C

proton

baryon

 begin mathsize 20px style u u d end style

D

positive pion

meson

 top enclose u d

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5
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What are the numbers of hadrons, baryons and mesons in an atom of  L presubscript 3 presuperscript 7 i? 

 

Hadrons

Baryons

Mesons

A

7

3

3

B

7

4

4

C

7

7

0

D

10

7

0

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