Curious if there is any relationship between size of particles and charge. If the proton was the same size as an electron, would their charges no longer cancel eachother out?
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Why does a proton have the same magnitude but opposite charge as an electron? A proton is made up of (at least) 3 quarks. There are always (at least) 2 up quarks and 1 down quark. The exact.same can be said of a neutron but with 2 down and 1 up.
An up quark has +2/3 q(e) (where q(e) is called the fundamental charge. An electron has exactly -1q(e)). And a down quark has -1/3q(e). So 2↑+1↓ = (2/3)+(2/3)-(1/3) = (2+2-1)/3 = +1q(e). Meanwhile for the neutron, 1↑+2↓ = (2/3)-(1/3)-(1/3) = (2-1-1)/3 = 0 charge.
Obviously, none of this answers your question. The problem is, every fact about physics is either explainable or fundamental. If something seems fundamental now, but is explained later, then whatever piece of knowledge we gained to explain it is also either fundamental or explainable. So no matter how many “why?” questions we answer in physics, we can never answer all of them. Right now, the fact that the electron has exactly 1.60217663*10^(-19) coulombs seems to be a fundamental fact of our universe. It is not explainable because we have no idea whether something out there causes it, or because it just is and that’s the way it is. For all we know, either could be true. The same can be said of the charge on quarks. For all we know, it just is.
Perhaps a 5-dimensional race of beings that can hop at will throughout the multiverse could probe their creation to understand exactly what caused these facts to be the way they are, but humans never will. Or perhaps no matter how advanced the race is, it is fundamentally unknowable. Or perhaps a new breakthrough in physics will explain it next year. Nobody knows.
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