the smallest particle

[TheShiz]

anyone who studies physics knows that one of the holy grails right now would be to discover what the smallest particle is. The smallest I have heard of is the quark. There are 3 quarks in each proton that have different charges. Now my question is, how could there possibly be a smallest particle, it seems to defy everything we know. I mean, what would the smallest particle be made out of? It is kind of like the question of whether the universe is infinite or finite. Either way is unfathomable. Hawkings solution is that the universe wraps around itself, but you can't really apply this to particles. Any physics people with some interesting insights?

Tim

 

[TheShiz]

wrong forum for this I guess, heh.

 

[N8Magic]

Originally posted by: TheShiz
wrong forum for this I guess, heh.

Highly Technical probably would have been a better bet.

It's been far too long since I took a Physics class for me to chime in on this one...

 

[Evadman]

my penis.

 

[N8Magic]

Originally posted by: Evadman
my penis.

:Q

 

[TheShiz]

I give up.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: TheShiz
I give up.

This is OT. what did you expect? On Topic?

 

[Jugernot]

Originally posted by: TheShiz
I give up.

People here are quite selective to what they reply to... I personally think it is interesting and i something that will only be seen with time.

Jugs

 

[Evadman]

There are 6 different quarks in hadrons. (protons, neutrons, etc are hadrons) IIRC, these are up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange. The quarks are held together by glueons. There are 3 quarks in every hadron. The quarks have charges that are measued in 3rds of an e. I do not remember which quark has what charge, but IIRC a positron has 2 up's and one down which equal one positive e.

What are they made out of? Well, if quarks are the smallest particle, they can not be made out of anything else. they are just quarks. Perhaps they are actually "redifined energy" or energy that just likes sticking together in one place, and are forced there by the strong force. Hell, maybe the strong force actually confines the energy into a "ball" of sorts, and you get a quark

How many people in OT do you think took anything beyond HS PHY? They dont come to OT to converse in PHY

<edit>
and IMHO the universe is fininte, but expanding. Expanding into nothingness. In all directions is the edge of the unioverse, which if you were to reach it, you would be instantly torn apart by the energy wave from the big bang. I do not agree with Hawking that you can go from one side to the other by crossing a boundry.

 

[ElFenix]

electrons are smaller than quarks

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Evadman
my penis.

:Q

I wanted to say look at you crotch TheShiz, but now that you posted that Evadman, if I actually asked TheShiz to look in his/her crotch, I'm afraid of the answer

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Evadman
There are 6 different quarks in hadrons. (protons, neutrons, etc are hadrons) IIRC, these are up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange. The quarks are held together by glueons. There are 3 quarks in every hadron. The quarks have charges that are measued in 3rds of an e. I do not remember which quark has what charge, but IIRC a positron has 2 up's and one down which equal one positive e.

What are they made out of? Well, if quarks are the smallest particle, they can not be made out of anything else. they are just quarks. Perhaps they are actually "redifined energy" or energy that just likes sticking together in one place, and are forced there by the strong force. Hell, maybe the strong force actually confines the energy into a "ball" of sorts, and you get a quark

How many people in OT do you think took anything beyond HS PHY? They dont come to OT to converse in PHY

<edit>
and IMHO the universe is fininte, but expanding. Expanding into nothingness. In all directions is the edge of the unioverse, which if you were to reach it, you would be instantly torn apart by the energy wave from the big bang. I do not agree with Hawking that you can go from one side to the other by crossing a boundry.

charm and strange are also aka truth and beauty... depending on if you went to Harvard or not

Oh, and it's gluons

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
electrons are smaller than quarks

They're less massive yes.

I believe certain neutrinos take the cake right now though. Seems as though some are completely massless, yet some have a very tiny mass. I can't remember which types of neutrinos have mass and which don't, but it's even odder when they transform from one type into another (something with no mass turns into something which does?).

 

[silverpig]

Heh, lots of posts for me in this thread I guess

According to (super)string theory, all particles are just vibrations of an 11(7?) dimensional string. These strings are on the order of the Planck length IIRC, so they'd have to be your smallest "thing" I guess (I reserve the word particle for certain vibrations of these strings which produce what we know as particles).

 

[B00ne]

are we talking about real things or the constructs to make the math behind this imaginable? nobody could really think the electron is a small sphere with a neg charge and that spins only halfway around itself either up or down

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Interesting read

 

[Iron Woode]

Be careful when understanding the sub-atomic particles. They are discovered through particle acceleration and collission. This is akin to taking a car engine and smashing it into millions of pieces and then trying to understand how the engine works. This is really mostly guess work and therefore mostly theoritical.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
Be careful when understanding the sub-atomic particles. They are discovered through particle acceleration and collission. This is akin to taking a car engine and smashing it into millions of pieces and then trying to understand how the engine works. This is really mostly guess work and therefore mostly theoritical.

I need to learn more about car engines, can someone borrow me their car?

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
Be careful when understanding the sub-atomic particles. They are discovered through particle acceleration and collission. This is akin to taking a car engine and smashing it into millions of pieces and then trying to understand how the engine works. This is really mostly guess work and therefore mostly theoritical.

I need to learn more about car engines, can someone borrow me their car?

In a word:

NO!

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Heh, lots of posts for me in this thread I guess

According to (super)string theory, all particles are just vibrations of an 11(7?) dimensional string. These strings are on the order of the Planck length IIRC, so they'd have to be your smallest "thing" I guess (I reserve the word particle for certain vibrations of these strings which produce what we know as particles).

IIRC, strings are 2 dimensional. With the multiple spacial dimensions, we can thank the calabi-yau object for this one. The geometry (of certain types) of calabi-yau objects put everything together nicely...



Someone else also mentioned quarks and gluons...so less typing for me

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: Evadman
How many people in OT do you think took anything beyond HS PHY? They dont come to OT to converse in PHY

There are a few engineering people around here, so they get introduced to a few more advanced topics than HS physics. They'll NEVER realize the insanity beyond that though...

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: Evadman
There are 6 different quarks in hadrons. (protons, neutrons, etc are hadrons) IIRC, these are up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange. The quarks are held together by glueons. There are 3 quarks in every hadron. The quarks have charges that are measued in 3rds of an e. I do not remember which quark has what charge, but IIRC a positron has 2 up's and one down which equal one positive e.

What are they made out of? Well, if quarks are the smallest particle, they can not be made out of anything else. they are just quarks. Perhaps they are actually "redifined energy" or energy that just likes sticking together in one place, and are forced there by the strong force. Hell, maybe the strong force actually confines the energy into a "ball" of sorts, and you get a quark

How many people in OT do you think took anything beyond HS PHY? They dont come to OT to converse in PHY

<edit>
and IMHO the universe is fininte, but expanding. Expanding into nothingness. In all directions is the edge of the unioverse, which if you were to reach it, you would be instantly torn apart by the energy wave from the big bang. I do not agree with Hawking that you can go from one side to the other by crossing a boundry.

You are thinking in 2D about the universe. Look at the earth. Can you ever get to the edge in a 2D sense? If you look at the universe in the same manner then you would never reach the edge. Just think of the earth as expanding it's radius continuously. The only problem is that in space you can move in a 3D sense so for my idea to be possible there would have to be a 4th dimemsion that we can't move in.

 

[Tom]

An infinite number of universes might exist inside each quark.

 

[guyver01]

It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It's big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It's a big universe and we're not.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Originally posted by: TheShiz
discover what the smallest particle is.
Tim

Look in your pants.