03 May, 2024

The Planck Mass

Remember that m=E/c2=eV/c2 because an electronvolt is also a measure of Energy.

A photon of light has no mass which is why it can travel at the speed of light.

The least massive & illusive particle is a Neutrino denoted by a V which has a mass of 0.8 eV/c2 and therefore can only travel at less than the speed of light.

Visible matter is made up of atoms. An electron denoted by e- has a negative charge of -1 and a mass of 511'000 eV/c2 = 0.511 MeV/c2 (half a million times heavier than V).

The Up Quark u is a fundamental particle with a mass of 1.9 MeV/c2 and a charge of +2/3.

The Down Quark d is also a fundamental particle with a mass of 4.4 MeV/c2 and a charge of -1/3.

A Proton p+ with a positive charge of +1 consists of 2u+1d (held together by an unknown number of massless gluon particles) and has a mass of 938.27 MeV/c2.

A Neutron particle n0 with a neutral charge of 0 consists of 1u+2d (held together by an unknown number of massless gluon particles) and has a mass of 939.57 MeV/c2.

By arithmetically adding up the masses of u & d, you will obtain only 1% of the actual masses of p+ & n0.

The 99% missing mass of these elementary particles is a result of the Quantum Chromodynamics Binding Energy from the gluons. Although they have no mass, gluons possess energy which is the strong force holding the 3 quarks together.


The Planck mass = 1.22x1019 GeV/c2.

The Planck mass is the mass of a hypothetical particle called the Planck particle which is a tiny black hole with a radius of 1 Planck length.

Source = youtube