INTRODUCTION TO FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES

Physics is a broad branch of pure science which 'bothers' itself with the existence of matter and how they interact with each other and space. And now that antimatters have been discovered, that definition would probably be needing a review, hahaha.

But the point I really want to make from this definition is that physics isn't really complete until we answer the question:
WHAT IS MATTER REALLY MADE OF?
Or better put; WHAT ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MATTER?

It's funny enough to know that some people used to believe that matter was composed of four elements: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth; like you see in the Nickelodeon cartoon series, The Avatar. Some other beliefs added Wood and Metal to the list.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra Characters with the presumed four elements.

Not until science stumbled into the 'indestructible' and 'indivisible' ATOMS. Anyway, we all know that the atom didn't hold those titles for so long; at least, not after we found out that it is made up of some other particles - the SUBATOMIC PARTICLES. These particles includes,
a) The Positively charged Proton;
b) The Negatively charged Electron;
c) and the neutral Neutron.

But, Are we there yet? NO!

All the above mentioned subatomic particles are not fundamental (apart from the electrons - at least for now). It was discovered that the proton and neutron had building elements. These elements has been organized into groups and called FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES.

And for the rest of this week, I'll spend time to explain these particles one after the other.
Are you ready?

Click to CONTINUE.

HOW ORDERED IS TIME?

Time...
(Source: www.ocvote.com, 2013)

Everyone, on default, just start thinking that time is always rigid and will keep moving forward at a constant rate like a uniformly speeding bullet in space. But how true is this?

It's no news again, since special relativity arrived, that time can actually do the following;
1. Slow down (with increase in speed as seen in rockets),
2. Speed up (with increase in altitude as seen in satellites),
3. And come to a halt (when gravity gets as high as infinity as theorized in black holes).

• But how 'ordered' is time?
• Can time go back?

ANSWER 1:
Let's take a look at something that happens in the DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT as an example.

First, i have to describe this experiment for everyone to understand.

Title: DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT
Aim: To study the behavior of photons as they travel from one end of a tube to the other.
Description:
1.The Tube used in this experiment has a light source at one end, and a camera at the other end.
2.Between the Light source and the camera, a flat boundary is inserted that has two straight and parallel openings (or slits) through which the photon should pass through.
3.Single photons of light will be shot from the light source to pass through the slits and arrive at the camera.

During the experiment,
-A boundary with just one slit was first used.
RESULT: the photons were observed to pass through the single slit and arrive at the camera randomly - this is normal.

-The experiment was now done again. This time, the boundary with just one slit was now removed and replaced with the one that has a double slit.

EXPECTATION: was that each photon should pass through one of the slits and arrive randomly like normal.

Expected Result
(Source: www.mysearch.org.uk, 2013)

But this was not the result. Read on;

RESULT: an interference pattern was seen on the screen.

Fringes occurs on screen.

This result implies that,
1.each photon interfered with themselves, and
2.passed through both slits at the same time.


THIS MEANS THAT DURING THIS EXPERIMENT, EACH PHOTON ACTUALLY EXISTED AT TWO DIFFERENT PLACES AND AT TWO DIFFERENT TIMES.


That is, time fragmented or separated.
So I ask, How ordered do you think that time is here? was it actually moving uniformly forward? Answer!


ANSWER 2:
Also, it has been proved one paper that time can move backwards with the help of WORMHOLES.

A Wormhole

Wormholes are tiny passage between universe. Manipulating them to get a time tunnel in which both ends exists at two different places with different time is very theoretically possible. In other words, time travelling backwards here, is theoretically possible.

Don't fail to drop your questions and comments.
A very big thanks to Dr. Michio Kaku for his Video on TIME.
Enjoy!

THE ANOMALOUS EXPANSIVITY OF WATER

Let's talk about this today pals.

Generally, its accepted in physics that on HEATING an object, the inter-molecular forces will start weakening due to increased vibration of the molecules; as a result, the object will start expanding - INCREASE IN VOLUME or REDUCTION IN DENSITY.
On the other way, COOLING an object makes the degree of vibration of the molecules reduce, hence, they start coming to rest; thereby, they Contract - REDUCTION IN VOLUME and INCREASE IN DENSITY.

This principle is applied in mechanical constructions to fit parts together. A part can be cooled to become smaller, so as to fit into another or they be heated to expand and get loosened - thanks to physics.

But something amazes us when it comes to WATER, it actually obeys this law when been cooled till it gets to 4 Degrees Celsius; then it gets anomalous - instead of contracting, its starts expanding, oh my gosh!

Also, on heating an Ice (from say -10 degrees Celsius), it will start contracting till 4 degrees Celsius, then it 'regains its senses' and begins to expand like every other object.

WHY THIS BEHAVIOR?
Water behaves like this due to the presence of dominating Hydrogen bonds in it that tends to become stronger from 4 degrees Celsius downward.
(Read more on this through this link)

NOW WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS?
This implies that, unlike other substances, the density of water in its SOLID STATE is lower than its LIQUID STATE density. In other words, the solid of water floats in its liquid, brilliant!

An Iceberg  is a frozen water but floats
(Source: www.123rf.com, 2013)

This is why we have,
1. Floating Icebergs.
2. Broken coke bottles due to over freezing, lol.
3. More sea animals alive; yeah because,
a) If Icebergs sink, they will kill a lot of sea creatures you like.
b) also, some unfrozen water get to be trapped beneath the frozen ice layer and will usually remain unfrozen since ice is a poor conductor of heat.
4. Frozen oceans we can actually Ski on, for those that lives towards to the North Pole.

Water is Special... Its not just a source of life, but a wonder!

Is Physics not Fun?
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WEIRD PHYSICS FACTS

DID YOU KNOW?

1. If the Earth just applies a little brake, Everything on Earth would be flung into space.

Speeding Earth

I believe you've felt a thrust from a braking car several times and in some cases, you almost got flung out of your seat. This happened to you for a car moving at a speed of maybe around 33.33m/s (120km/hr) ; Compare it to the velocity of our planet that revolves round the sun at an incredible speed of about 30,000 meters per second. Slowing down would be a disaster.

Anyway, don't worry to put on your earth belts now, there is no traffic in space.

2. Its easier to pull than to push.

All of us must have experienced this somehow. You notice that you find it easier to pull a heavy object than to push it. This is simply because, while pulling, your body weight is added to the work force.

When you are bent like the dummy in the pic, you tend to fall away from the object you are pulling. This will result in the object moving along with you (i.e. if the resultant force is enough)

Pulling an Object
(Source: www.sharecg.com, 2013)

3. Water, when excited by sound waves produces light flashes and nobody knows exactly why.

Sonoluminescence
(Source: www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au, 2013)

Yeah that's right - You can actually turn sound into light by exciting water waves. This is known as Sono (Sound) Luminescence(Light). Some animals like the sea Mantis can do this in water by snapping. The problem now is that, this is beyond the limits of fluid mechanics.

Watch the video here if you are using a PC.

4. A year in Mercury is 88 days on earth.

The Solar System
(Source: www.eso.org)

This shouldn't be a surprise if you have an idea of the distance of Planet Mercury from the sun. It's closeness to the sun, makes it very hot to live over there but also rewards it with an orbit which has a smaller circumference. Hence, it gets to complete more than 4 revolutions round the sun before earth clocks one.

5. The biggest research facility on earth is the Large Hadron Collider and it was built just to discover a very very very tinny particle called Higgs Boson and it has been discovered.

The Large Hadron Collider Landscape

6. Our whole galaxy (i.e. Our sun and 9 planets) is like a spot in the milky way and also revolves.

How big do you think the earth is? or maybe the whole solar system? The truth is that we are relatively like a spot when compared to the size of the milky way. In fact, if you compress our sun to the size of a cell, and also compress the milky way in the same ratio; the milky way would be the size of North America.

The Milky Way and Our Solar System
(Source: thedarkcosmos.com, 2013)

7. Einstein had a bad recommendation letter by his lecturer for not attending his classes; that's why he couldn't get a good job.

Mr. Einstein at Work

He had to work as a Clerk at the Swiss Patents, Authority. That's how he gets to analysis different ideas coming to his table everyday. A disappointment, later became a blessing for him.

8. A Diamond glows by reflecting a single light ray thousands of time inside it before the light can find its way out. (See Total internal reflection)

Different Cuts and Glow
(Source: www.enterprisemission.com, 2013) 

The angle of the surface of a diamond plays a great role in keeping the light ray in. Each surface keeps reflecting the light due to total internal refection until the light finally escapes through a 'bad' surface. This implies that how powerful a diamond glows is dependent on the diamond cutter.

9. A teaspoon of water from Atlantic ocean contains many more atoms than Atlantic ocean contains teaspoons of water.

Doubting? lets do the maths together and compare.

Number of Teaspoons in the Atlantic Ocean,

Volume of the Atlantic ocean, V_a   =  3.104109 × 10¹⁷ m³
1 teaspoon of water, V_t                         =  5 x 10^-6  m³
vol. of teaspoons of water in Atlantic ocean  =   Va/Vt
No. of teaspoon of water in Atlantic ocean    =   6.208 x 10²²
 
Now  For the numbers of atoms in a teaspoon of water,
Molecular mass of water, M    =      18.02 g/mol
Density of sea water, ρ             =      1.02 g/cm

Converting Molecular mass to Molar Volume,
Molar Volume, M_v           =         M/ ρ
                                            =         17.67 cm³/mol
*Convert molar volume to SI Unit,
17.67cm³/mol              =         17.67 (10^-2)³ m³/mol
                                       =         17.67 x 10^-6 m^3/mol
Note: centi- = 10^-2 
Number of moles in a teaspoon      =         V_t/M_v
                                                            =         0.283 Moles
1 mole               =         6.022 x 10²³ atoms
Number of atoms in a teaspoon     =      0.283 x 6.022 x 10²³
                                                            =         1.7040 x 10²³
OR                                                      =         17.040 x 10²² atoms
Now compare the figures in RED.

10. An atom is more than 99.99% empty.

Electron Cloud Model of the atom
(Source: sdsu-physics.org, 2013. Not to be scaled)

Yes! that's correct. This is actually because the electron cloud spreads out so wide and covers a large radius but only the electron occupies it. And as we know, the mass and size of the electron is like 1/1836 of the proton's.

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Physics is Fun.

More References For Fact No.9
1. Before developing it, I first saw this fact at Unbelievable Facts Page on Facebook.
2. The Volume of The Atlantic ocean was gotten from the National Geophysical Data Center's Webpage.
3. Volume of a teaspoon of water, from GORILLAplus.
4. Other pages that helped me includes ASK.com, This PDF handout and of course Google.

Thank you all so much.

MACH - WHAT IS IT?

The Concord is an airliner that can get to a Supersonic speed of about Mach 2+

Have you heard or read of a unit called Mach?
It is a derived unit of speed, named after the physicist, Ernst Mach.
The mach value for any magnitude of velocity can be gotten by dividing the velocity with the speed of sound in air (~ 330m/s). Then the value you get, is now a mach.
Note: unlike other units in physics, the magnitude is read or written after mach.
E.g. Mach 2 or M 2.

MACH VALUES
Different Ranges or values of Mach has a name. They are;
1. Subsonic: M < 1
2. Tran-sonic: M = 1
3. Supersonic: 1 < M < 3
4. High Supersonic: 3 < M < 5
5. Hyper-sonic: 5 < M < 10
6. High Hyper-sonic: 10 < M < 25
7. Re-entry Speed: M < 25

The value of M, is used in fluid Mechanics (a branch of physics) to model the properties of an object as it moves through a fluid like air.
This helps to know the actual drag and lift forces acting on the surface of the moving body and in turn, it helps Aerodynamics engineers to produce efficient and safe designs like the ones your see in Rockets and Jets.

It all starts with PHYSICS.

Hope you enjoyed it? Because PHYSICS IS FUN.

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WAVE PARTICLE DUALITY OF LIGHT: SUMMARISED - PART ONE

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Light is undoubtedly a type of wave and at the same time, it still exhibits properties that only a particle would exhibit. Now the issue is why?

First lets discuss on what properties makes light a wave.

LIGHT AS A WAVE

Light is a wave, it exhibits all the known properties of waves. From the first to the fifth. Now let us take a quick view through all of these wave-like properties and see the cases where light exhibits them...

1. Refection
probably the most common and explains how we see our images in a mirror.

2. Refraction
the bending of light rays. It explains why a light bends when it changes medium; why a straw appears broken in a clear glass of water and even extends to apparent depth.

3. Interference:
When two identical waves meet in the same medium, they interact with each other in order to strengthen themselves(Constructive) or to destroy(destructive) themselves. This exhibits this too like other waves.

4. Diffraction

Single slit Diffraction of Light
(Source: cronodon.com, 2013. Image was also edited)

Diffraction is the bending of waves when they pass through an opening lower than their wavelength. This is applicable in reading a CD or DVD disc.
Read more on interference and Diffraction here.


5.Polarization
Polarization is the change in the plan of oscillation of light waves. Its occurrence in nature makes the sky appear blue and is used in many other fields.

Light isn't just a wave, it has a family called ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES it has all their properties. From their common velocity (c= 2.997 x 10^8m/s) to a perfect place in their frequency(400-790THz) and wavelength(380-750nm) spectrum.

Light in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
Source: www.itseducation.asia

LIGHT AS A PARTICLE

Wow, now light is a particle too. It has properties that only particles would exhibit.

1. Light supports the view that its is a stream of particles called PHOTONS.
This was postulated by Albert Einstein. Photons are the smallest unit of radiant energy. They are like small particles that makes up light waves.
-The greater the number of photons, the greater the intensity of light.
-The higher the frequency of oscillation of the photons, the more energy they carry.
This energy is given as E=hf;
where, E = Energy of oscillation of photon
h = Planck's constant (6.63 × 10^-34 m2kg/s)
f = frequency of oscillation.

2.It obeys the law of conservation of momentum, in fact, it can knock off other 'particles' and transfer energy to them.
This is seen in an phenomenon known as the Compton effect.

The Compton Effect

Source: whs.wsd.wednet.edu

This is seen in cases where light rays are used to liberate electrons from the surface of metals (Read Photo Electric Effect). It is noticed that the energy the electrons, leaving the surface of the metal possesses, approximately equal to the energy of the colliding photon. This means that, the laws of conservation of momentum and energy has been obeyed.

Continue to WAVE PARTICLE DUALITY OF LIGHT: SUMMARIZED - PART TWO