The atom is most definitely not the smallest particle and most definitely can be broken down into smaller pieces; even the protons and the neutrons that we considered to be fundamental particles in and of themselves can be broken down into smaller particles. In an attempt to open your minds beyond the delusion that the atom cannot be broken down, this chapter is to convey and communicate the building blocks of the building blocks of atoms, which we have alluded to oftentimes in previous chapters but have not covered in-depth. Welcome to the wondrous world of quarks.

References

Fifty Years of Quarks - CERN

https://home.cern/news/news/physics/fifty-years-quarks

Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark

Particle Zoo (1960s) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_zoo

Flavour (Particle Physics) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavour_(particle_physics)

Quark Model - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_model

Pauli Exclusion Principle

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pauli.html#c2

Spin Classification of Elementary Particles

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Particles/spinc.html

Up Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_quark

Down Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_quark

Strange Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_quark

Charm Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charm_quark

Bottom Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_quark

CP Violation - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_violation

Top Quark - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_quark