Introduction
Fundamental or Elementary particles are the indivisible (as far as we know today) building blocks of matter.
Let’s start with a human body to begin our journey downward to the smallest particles.
Adult males and females have about 36 Trillion and 28 Trillion cells respectively.
- Remember 1 trillion = 1,000,000,000,000 = 1E12 = 1 x 1012
Each cell has roughly 100 Trillion atoms.
- That’s 100,000,000,000,000 = 100E12 = 100 x 1012
Consider the schematic below.
I show that about 18% of the atoms in a human are made of carbon.
A lot of these carbons make up amino acid molecules which in turn make up proteins.
Picture: From Human to Quark
If we look at one carbon atom from one amino acid molecule, we might see a simple representation as shown above.
In reality the nucleus (the center) is a tiny spec compared to the total size of the atom.
Some characteristics of this carbon atom are:
- The nucleus of the atom is made up of 6 neutrons and 6 protons.
- The nucleus radius is around 2.7 femtometers
- The total atom’s radius is around 70 picometers
- So, the radius of the atom is about (70E-12)/(2.7E-15) = 25,926 meters x the radius of the nucleus at its center.
- That means if the carbon atom was the size of a basketball (.12 m),
- the radius of the atom would be 3.111 km (1.9 miles)
- So on an atomic level, there is a vast space between the outer edges of the carbon atom and its nucleus
- There are 6 electrons buzzing around in that vast space around the carbon nucleus
- you can describe this space as a probability cloud
- That tiny nucleus in the center of the atom consists of
- 6 protons (positively charged)
- 6 neutrons (with no charge)
- Each proton (and neutron) will weigh about 1.67E-27 kg = 1.67 x 10-27 kg
- That’s .00000000000000000000000000167 kg (i.e. fucking small).
- Each electron will be even lighter at 9.109 x 10-31 kg
- meaning protons or neutrons are about 1,833 x heavier than the electrons
- These electrons and protons and neutrons are subatomic particles but
- only the electrons would be considered fundamental particles.
- The drawing shows that neutrons and protons are made of even smaller particles called Quarks.
We’ll see that there are several other fundamental particles including Quarks.
The Standard Model
start here
Nature’s Building Blocks and Fundamental Forces
- The Standard Model – CERN
- Fundamental Particles – Bozeman Science
- Four Fundamental Forces – Khanacademy.org
- The Four Fundamental Forces of Nature-Arvin Ash
- BBC Bitesize: The Standard Model
- Klonusk: All Fundamental Forces and Particles Explained Simply
Standard Model
The Standard Model describes
- the fundamental particles (quarks, leptons, and their antimatter counterparts) and
- three of the four fundamental forces (strong, weak, and electromagnetic) that govern how they interact,
- all mediated by force-carrying particles (bosons) and with the Higgs boson providing mass.
- It notably excludes gravity.
Building Blocks of Matter
- All matter is made of elementary particles that are one of two types: quarks or leptons.
- Quarks and leptons each consist of six types of particles.
- The six types are related in pairs, or “generations”.
Forces
There are four fundamental forces at work in the universe:
- the strong force,
- the weak force,
- the electromagnetic force, and
- the gravitational force.
They work over different ranges and have different strengths.
- Gravity and electromagnetic force have infinite range.
- The weak and strong forces are effective at subatomic levels .
- The forces from weakest to strongest are: gravity, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and The strong force.
Force Carriers
- Three of the fundamental forces result from the exchange of force-carrier particles, which belong to a broader group called “bosons”.
- Particles of matter transfer discrete amounts of energy by exchanging bosons with each other.
- Each fundamental force has its own corresponding boson –
- The Standard Model includes the electromagnetic, strong and weak forces and all their carrier particles, and explains well how these forces act on all of the matter particles.
- However, the most familiar force, gravity, is not part of the Standard Model.
Physicists believe that all these forces come from one underlying force.
The picture below is sourced from wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg
Gravitational Force
- Gravity is not included in the Standard Model.
- It’s theorized that its force carrier is the graviton but this has not been proven.
- It’s the weakest of the forces.
- Gravity keeps you “glued” to earth and keeps the planets in orbit.
- It is an attractive force.
- Gravitational Force extends infinitely far away.
- Fg = G(m1)(m2)/r2
- Fg = gravitational force
- G= Universal Gravitational Constant
- m1, m2 = mass of objects 1 and 2
- r = distance between objects
The Weak Force (The Weak Interaction)
- The Weak Force carriers are the W and Z bosons.
- The Weak Force is 1025 times the strength of gravity.
- Only effective at really small scales (1/1000 the diameter of a proton).
- Responsible for radioactive decay. (beta minus or plus decay)
- Example: Cesium decay
- Cs → Ba + electron + anti-electron neutrino
- Cesium 137 has 137 nucleons (protons + neutrons)
- It’s Cesium because it has exactly 55 protons.
- One of the Neutrons (a quark flips) turns into a proton
- The element now has one extra proton (56 total) and is now Barium.
- An electron and an anti-electron neutrino are produced.
Electromagnetic (EM) Force
- The EM force carrier is the photon.
- Electromagnetic Forces are 1036 times the Gravitational Force.
- They are 10 to 12 times stronger than the Weak Force.
- But, these forces attract and repel and so will tend to cancel each other.
- On a macroscopic scale (like a planet, star, or even a human body), the vast majority of matter has a net electric charge of zero.
- i.e. in the universe you don’t see large collections of charged forces like you do mass concentrations (and therefore gravitational forces)
- EM forces comprise the Electrostatic (Coulomb Force) and the Magnetic Force.
- Electricity and Magnetism are fundamentally interconnected phenomena, where a changing electric field creates a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field creates an electric field.
- EM waves are generated by accelerating charges.
- EM waves are perpetually produced as each change in one produces the other (and they can travel in a vacuum).
- Electromagnetic (Electrostatic and Magnetic) Forces extend infinitely far away (like gravity).
- Electrostatic Force
- Fe = kq1q2/r2
- Fe = electrostatic force
- q1, q2 =The quantity of charge of objects 1 and 2
- r = distance between the charges.
- Magnetic Forces also generally follow an inverse square law.
- EM forces are responsible for the nature of light.
- EM Forces are the basis of all chemistry.
The Strong Force
- The strongest force carrier is the gluon.
- The strong force is 100 times stronger than the Electromagnetic Force.
- It keeps the protons (and neutrons) together in the nucleus (like Velcro).
- The Strong Force is only effective at small scales (the width of a proton).
- It’s this kind of energy that is released from nuclear bombs
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