Proton Mass

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

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.

Specifications & Metrics

• SYMBOL: mₚ
• STATUS: Measured (CODATA 2022)
• VALUE: 1.67262192595 × 10⁻²⁷ ± 5.2 × 10⁻³⁷ kg

Open in the Simulator — run this concept live