|
CHAPTER FIVE
QUANTUM QUESTIONS:
PROBING THE MIGHTY UNSEEN
Enter another world where nothing is as we think it should be--where Nature's most basic ingredients are
so small and so fleeting that no human has actually ever seen them. Ever heard of leptons, mesons,
baryons, and quarks? There's a whole particle zoo out there to discover in the subatomic realm.
Sound scary and complicated? Quantum physics may seem alien, but this tiny world of particles and
forces is a part of us and of the entire Universe. Studying what goes on at this micro-level might hold
some of the ultimate clues to how the Universe is put together at all scales.
It turns out that Nature has specific sized "measuring spoons" for creating the contents of
the Universe. Energy and matter are doled out in very precise packets called "quanta"--not
too much, not too little. More than that, no "ingredient" seems to exist on its own! Everything
that appears to stand alone is actually a part of a giant pattern in which the relationships among elements
just may "matter" more than the elements themselves.
If that sounds confusing, think of it this way--everything's connected. Here you'll find out how, and what the
relationships mean to you as an Observer of the Universe.
Last Updated:
|
