Convert Proton Mass (mₕ (p)) to Dalton (Da) instantly.
About these units
Proton Mass (mₕ (p))
The proton mass, approximately 1.67262192369 × 10⁻²⁷ kilograms, is central to chemistry, nuclear physics, and cosmology. Protons, along with neutrons, form the nuclei of atoms and therefore compose most of the mass of ordinary matter. The proton mass arises from the strong nuclear force and the dynamics of quarks and gluons within quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Interestingly, most of the proton's mass is not from its constituent quarks but from the energy stored in the strong force. Understanding the proton mass helps scientists explore nuclear stability, binding energies, and stellar nucleosynthesis—the processes that form elements inside stars.
Dalton (Da)
The Dalton is numerically identical to 1 atomic mass unit and is commonly used in biochemistry and molecular biology, especially for expressing the masses of proteins, peptides, and macromolecules. While "u" is often preferred in physics and chemistry, the Dalton became the standard in biological sciences because it fits neatly into descriptions of amino acids, nucleotides, and biomolecular complexes. For example, a typical protein may have a mass of 50 kilodaltons (kDa). The adoption of the Dalton helped unify communication across genomics, proteomics, and structural biology. As molecular biology expands into nanotechnology and synthetic biology, the Dalton remains a central unit for describing the building blocks of life.