Question

What is the difference between hadrons and leptons ?

Answer 1

The difference between hadrons and leptons can be understood with the type of nuclear force between them and the particles’ weight compared to each other.

Complete answer:
-According to the classification of particles, which is done by their masses and interactions, the hadrons are the heaviest particles of all. Whereas, according to the same classification of particles, the leptons are the lightest particles of all.The examples of hadrons are neutron, proton, kaon, anti-neutron and antiproton. The examples of lepton are muon, neutron and electron.

-The second difference between hadrons and leptons can be seen in terms of the nuclear force. All particles are subjected to a strong nuclear force in between them irrespective of their mass and other factors. In the case of hadrons, these nuclear forces are very strong but in leptons, the nuclear force is very low.

-Both hadrons and leptons can be classified into different types. Hadrons can be classified into mesons and baryons, but leptons can be classified into three types: tau, muon, and electron. This is because hadrons are made of quarks and leptons are fundamental particles that are not made of quarks.

Note: In many places, Hadrons and leptons are differentiated with the help of their definition. As hadrons are subatomic particles whereas leptons are half-integer spin particle with very less interactions between the particles and the most popular lepton is charged electrons with more mass.