Remember Avogadro's number from high school chemistry?

N_A = 6.022 x 10²³ molecules/mole

Let's make some simple assumptions:  the ant is made of Carbon (its really much more complicated than that), so one mole is 12 grams. 

So the TEV ANT has 0.1/12 x 6.022 x 10²³ = 5 x 10²¹ molecules of carbon in it.  Each carbon nucleus has 6 protons and 6 neutrons so that means the TEV ANT has 6 x 10²² nucleons in it to share the TeV of energy.

A single proton in the Tevatron has one TeV of energy.

But is the proton a single, indivisible particle?

NO.  It is made of even smaller particles called partons:  quarks and gluons ( the force messengers that bind the quarks together).   An approximate number of partons in the proton is 10.   So each parton carries on the average about 1/10 of the TeV of energy.

Return to "How Big is an Electron Volt?"

rev.  E.M.  August 8, 2000