Proton Mass

Rest mass of the proton, about 1836 times the electron's and mostly generated by QCD binding energy.

Specifications & Metrics

symbol

mₚ

status

Measured (CODATA 2022)

value

1.67262192595 × 10⁻²⁷ ± 5.2 × 10⁻³⁷ kg

Relative Scale in Constants

Core Principles & Analysis

• Only about 1% comes from its three quarks' rest masses; the remainder is QCD binding energy carried by gluons.
• Equals 938.272 MeV/c², about 1836.15 electron masses.
• Searches for its decay bound the lifetime above 10³⁴ years, making the proton effectively eternal.

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