What Makes What We See, Touch, and Brethe?
Written By: Arman Momeni
Our visible world is a highly abstract visualization of the components of actual matter. Any object we look at it–let’s choose a table for example–while it may be seemingly simple on the surface, in reality is composed of trillions and trillions of smaller particles. At the base layer, we have the compounds that comprise the table. Compounds, in it of themselves, are comprised of atoms, which are the building blocks of all matter. Atoms are the basic particles of all chemical elements; and, in simpler terms, atoms essentially build up everything we know, see, love, touch, and breathe. There is nothing tangible in our universe, other than energy, that isn’t comprised of atoms.
Atoms are unfathomably small; hence, the reason they are not visible to the naked eye, or, as a matter of fact, almost any microscope. Atoms have an average radius of about 0.1nm. For reference, about five million hydrogen atoms can fit into a pin head.
But the universe isn’t that simple. Atoms are nowhere near the smallest components of matter. Each atom has protons, positively charged particles; neutrons, particles with no charge; and electrons, negatively charged particles. While neutrons and protons are the same mass (approximately one atomic mass unit), the electron is far lighter. The electron’s mass is so small that it is denoted as negligible (essentially 0). But atomic theory doesn’t stop there. Past the proton, neutron, and electron, are quarks. Quarks are what we call elementary particles, and just how the proton, neutron, and electron are the building blocks of the atom, quarks are the building blocks of composite particles, such as protons and neutrons. When quarks combine together they create what we call hadrons, with protons and neutrons being the most stable and abundant types of hadrons. There are six different types of quarks: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. The proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark, and the neutron is composed of one up quark and two down quarks. The electron is actually not composed of any quarks and is considered a fundamental particles itself.
Now, the composition of matter gets quite confusing, and the rules that govern the entire subatomic world begin to pose exceptions and contradictions. So, in an attempt to create a singular, accepted model that defines the governing principles of the composition of matter, physicists built the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which is scientists’ current best theory to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe. The Standard Model explains just how quarks, as described above, and leptons (what an electron is classified as) make up all of the matter that we experience.
The Standard Model explains three out of the four forces that help to keep the universe in order, electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force. Electromagnetism (or MAGNETISM) is carried by particles of light (photons) and involves the inevitable interaction between electric fields and magnetic fields. The strong force holds together atomic nuclei and makes them stable. As the famous saying says, opposites attract, and in that same fashion, identical things repel. Thus, like charges, such as protons, repel each other, and the strong force ensures that the repulsion from the protons doesn’t cause the nuclei of atoms to tear themselves apart. The weak force, on the other hand, holds a much different purpose and creates nuclear reactions that have powered our Sun, and others stars since the dawn of the universe. The fourth fundamental force, which is not properly explained by the Standard Model is gravity. Einstein’s theory of general relativity, established in 1915, does an excellent job at explaining what gravity is and how it works on a macroscopic and large scale; however, the theory falls apart when applied to the quantum, sub-atomic scale, which is why it is omitted from the Standard Model.
With physicists becoming rather confused about the behaviour of atoms, scientists developed quantum theory. After observing the behaviour of atoms in a series of experiments in the late 1800s/early 1900s, physicists concluded that atoms did not make intuitive sense when compared to what they knew about physics. Quantum theory, in simple terms, is just another theory of matter. Scientists want to know how the small components of matter–atoms and sub-atomic particles–behave, and how that impacts familiar matter, the world of objects that we see.
The problem with current physics, is that the theory regarding gravity doesn’t apply for small things and the theory regarding the subatomic world, quantum theory, doesn’t apply for big things. Quantum mechanics contradicts general relativity, and vice versa. That’s the beauty of science, however; there’s always something to be discovered, and maybe, you, reading this article, can be the next bright mind to find the missing pieces and create a unified theory that explains our boundless, beautiful, infinite universe.
Works Cited
Doe explains...The standard model of particle physics | department of energy. (n.d.). https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsthe-standard-model-particle-physics
