# How many types of quarks are there and what are their names?

Mar 17, 2018

There are $12$ different quarks in total. The number rises to $36$ if you take the color charge into account.

#### Explanation:

Like leptons, quarks are divided into three generations.

Each generation contains four quarks- two quarks and two antiquarks.

Each quark is assigned a flavor:
$\text{up}$, $\text{down}$, $\text{charm}$, $\text{strange}$, $\text{top}$, and $\text{bottom}$.

Antiquarks are named respectively- for example, the antiparticle of an $\text{up}$ quark is named $\text{anti-up}$.

So there are
$3 \text{ generations"* 4" quarks"*"generation"^-1=12" quarks}$

Taking the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) into account will triple the number. By the QCD model, quarks have three different "colors" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_charge)
$\text{Red}$, $\text{Green}$ and $\text{Blue}$ for quarks, and
$\text{Anti-Red}$ (Cyan), $\text{Anti-Green}$ (Magenta), and $\text{Anti-blue}$ (Yellow) for the respective antiquarks.

So that gives $12 \text{ quarks"* 3" color"=36" quark"*"color}$