Physics Nuclear Physics MDCAT 2021
PMDC Verified Question 47 of 98
Number of Quarks in hydrogen atom
A
1
B
2
C
3
D
4
Tap any option to test your recall and reveal the step-by-step Propolis autopsy.

Propolis Cognitive Error Autopsy

Official Correct Choice:
Option C: 3


Concept:

Understand the subatomic structure of a standard Hydrogen-1 atom according to the Standard Model of particle physics.

Solution:

  • A neutral hydrogen atom (Protium) consists of exactly 1 proton in the nucleus and 1 orbiting electron.


  • An electron is a fundamental particle (a lepton), so it is not made of quarks.


  • A proton is a baryon, which is composed of exactly 3 quarks (two "up" quarks and one "down" quark: \(uud\)).


  • Therefore, the total number of quarks in a whole hydrogen atom is 3.


Why other options are incorrect:

Option A confuses the number of protons with quarks. Mesons (not protons) contain 2 quarks. No stable nucleon contains 4 quarks.

Quality & Fidelity Assurance: Every question on BeambePrep is rigorously curated against the official PMDC syllabus with zero filler, zero out-of-syllabus content, and zero typos. When an authentic past paper originally contained a historical mistake or ambiguity from the examining board (such as UHS or NUMS), BeambePrep faithfully reflects the original paper while detailing the nuance and scientific consensus in the autopsy above.

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