- 3131 - PHYSICS - only six fundamental particles? Really! Only six fundamental particles make up our whole world? In our everyday world, when you get down to the fundamentals, everything we see or touch is made of only 6 fundamental particles. That is amazing.
----------------------- 3131 - PHYSICS - only six fundamental particles?
- There is more “fundamental particles” beyond this Universe at energies than ground level. At higher energies more particles exist. But, where we are at our low level energy of matter and electromagnetic energy there are only six particles:
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- We have only 2 Quarks in the nucleus of atoms that make up protons and neutrons. An Up-Quark and a Down Quark are in every element nucleus in the Periodic Table.
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- Then the electron that orbit’s the atom’s nucleus and is in every neutral element in the Periodic Table and that is the link pin for molecules in chemistry is one more. The electron is also responsible for the electric charge and a moving electric charge is responsible for magnetism.
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- Protons have a positive charge and would not stay together in the nucleus of atoms without our forth particle, the Gluon. Gluons are the force carries for the Strong Nuclear Force that holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of atoms.
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- The 5th particle is the photon that is the force carrier for all electromagnetic energy. This is the energy that carries light, electric force, magnetic force and holds electrons and protons together in the atoms of all the elements.
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- The 6th particle we have just recently seen. It was there in theory but has just recently materialized in experiments. It is the Higgs Boson another force carrier that gives mass to all matter. Matter in turn is responsible for all gravity, in our everyday world. Energy creates gravity too but we do not see this effect in our everyday world.
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- That is it! Everything we see and touch is comprised of just these six particles. The 3 that are matter are called Fermions. The 3 that are force carriers are called Bosons.
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---------- 3 Fermions = Up-Quark, Down-Quark , Electron
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---------- 3 Bosons = Photon, Gluon, Higgs Boson
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- Like was mentioned. There are more particles at higher energy levels. But, only 11 more exotic, high energy particles have been discovered so far. This does not include gravity because we have not decided if it has force carriers or is a geometric property in curved space-time.
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- These high energy particles have been discovered in high energy particle accelerators and in nuclear reactions. But, they are short lived and decay quickly in our everyday world.
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- However, all of these particles interact consistently and follow physical laws and known mathematical formulas. They are perfectly predictable in the “ Standard Model of Particle Physics.”
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- It should be pointed out that each of these particles of matter have an equal and oppositely charged anti-matter particle. Here again, we do not usually run across anti-matter in our everyday world.
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- When a particle and an anti-particle come in contact with each other they annihilate each other into a flash of energy, usually Gamma Rays. Anti-matter does exist in our world, but, it is obviously not prevalent or there would be a whole lot of explosions going on.
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- Mass and energy are two forms of the same thing according to E = m*c^2. The speed of light is a constant, so is c^2 is a constant. Therefore Energy = mass * 90,000,000,000,000,000.
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- Since they are the same thing, physicists use the same units for mass and energy, called electron-volts. The energy an electron needs to travel through one volt of potential energy is one eV. It is a very small amount of energy, less than one flashlight battery.
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- Mass expressed in electron volts always assumes that we mean electron-volts / c^2, mass = E / c^2. Below is a table of all 17 particles with their mass expressed as a billion electron-volts ( GeV):
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------------ FERMIONS , the particles of matter:
-----------------------------------------------------
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------------ GeV -------Everyday -------- Higher Energy ---------- Highest Energy
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-------------1,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- 100 ----------------------------------------------------------Top-Quark
--------------- 10 ----------------------------------------------------------Bottom- Quark
---------------- 10 ---------------------------------------------------------- Tau Electron
-------------- 1 ---------------------------Charm Quark
---------------0.1 ---------------------------Strange Quark
---------------0.1 --------------------------Muon Electron
---------------0.01 ----- Down Quark
------------- 0.001 ------Up Quark
-------------- 10^-4 ---- Electron
------------- 10^-5
------------- 10^-6
------------- 10^-7
------------- 10^-8
------------- 10^-9
------------- 10^-10----------------------------------------------------------Tau Neutrino
------------- 10^-11 --------------------------Muon Neutrino
------------- 10^-12 ----Electron Neutrino
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- ***************************************************
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------------ BOSONS , the force carriers of energy:
------------------------------------------------------
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------------ GeV -------Everyday -------- Higher Energy ---------- Highest Energy
-------------1,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- 100 ----------------------------------------------------------Higgs Boson
--------------- 10 ------------------------------------------------------W and Z Bosons
-------------- zero --- Photons are massless
------------ zero --- Gluons are massless.
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- This Standard Model in particle physics is the most successful theory of nature man has ever produced. Every experiment, every math formula works with every experiment. However how good it is as a theory, it is not complete. There are still unanswered questions:
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- (1) If the theory is right the Universe should be full of energy. Full of virtual particles in the vacuum of space. The energy calculated is so great the Universe should have already curled up or expanded into oblivion by now. Somehow the effect of vacuum energy in space is very, very small and we can not explain why that is.
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- (2) The Universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It is called Dark Energy, but, its force carrier is not in the Standard Model.
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- (3) Cosmic Inflation is a theory that explains the uniformity of the Universe after the Big Bang. However, Inflation can not be explained in the Standard Model.
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- (4) The model says the Big Bang created from a burst of energy should have created equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. The Model can not explain why matter dominates our world.
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- (5) 25% of the Universe is Dark Matter that we can not see or explain with the Standard Model.
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- (6) The Higgs Boson is in the Model to describe the effects of mass and inertia, but, much about particle remains a mystery.
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- (7) The Model predicts the Higgs Boson’s huge mass, >100 billion electron volts. The model would make all particles have huge mass. The result seems inconceivable.
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- (8) Gravity and its force carrier, the Graviton, are not in the Model.
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- (9) The values of particle masses come from experiments and not from any derivation of fundamental math. We have no idea why the masses are what they are. We just use what they are and the math works.
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- (10) The three generations of particles and the three different energy levels are totally consistent with the Model, but, we have no idea why three generations for particles exist.
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- The answers to these questions remain mysteries. How can such a consistent, successful theory be so incomplete? Obviously, there remains much more to be discovered.
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- It is amazing that our everyday world can be explained with only 6 of these particles. So, why do we run in to these out-of-this-world particles anyway? For some reason we need to understand the out-of-this-world particle mess before we can explain why our world is the way it is. Some day we will figure this all out. Stay tuned. Other Reviews:
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- 3051 - PHYSICS - mysteries to be solved? - We are all students if we are still learning, Right? Well mysteries in science today are solutions for students in the future. The science I refer to in this review is the broad look at astronomy and physics.
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- 938 Universal Constants. What are the natural constants and how do they shape our Universe.
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- 2882 - Physics the Way I Learned It.
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- 2386 - The Science of Physics. How all of physics can be narrowed down to two simple topics.
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- 2004 - The Trouble with Physics. How string theory and academics have lead physics astray.
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- 531 Joseph Henry, an American teacher.
- 532 Robert Millican, a Physics teacher.
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- 524 Physics keeps getting simpler. If you ask a stupid question you feel stupid. If you don’t ask a stupid question you remain stupid.
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- 2220 - The laws of motion.
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- April 21, 2021 PHYSICS - six fundamental particles? 1136 3131
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--------------------- --- Thursday, April 22, 2021 ---------------------------
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