Particle physics is the branch of physics that studies subatomic particles and their interactions. By 1932, the four known elementary particles were the electron, proton, photon, and neutron. Elementary particles are the fundamental building blocks of the universe and have well-documented properties including mass, charge, spin, and lifetime. Some particles decay into others of smaller mass through weak interactions. Quarks are elementary particles that combine to form composite hadrons like protons and neutrons, and have properties like charge, mass, and six flavors including up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. Strangeness is a quantum number denoting the presence of a strange quark and is conserved in strong and electromagnetic interactions.