The race to find the a-tom. The mechanics took a different route in search of the "ultimate building block". Lederman talks about how "heroes" such as, Galileo, Newton, Lavoisier, Mendeleev, Faraday, Maxwell, and Hertz, among others used "measurements" in search of answers.
Galileo with his balls and inclinations, feathers and pennies, and his most famous experiment with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Galileo believed that light consisted of pointlike corpuscles and that matter was similarly constructed. We know that Lederman's quarks and leptons are geometric points, which is very similar to the beliefs of Galileo. It is very interesting how the idea can be apparent centuries or even millenia before even the slightest amount of evidence is discovered.
Newton brought "F" to the table. This changed the game. He was able to determine that, due to his 2nd law, the gravitational mass (M) is precisely equal to the inertial mass (m). To this day, it is quite intriguing, that physicists are still confirming that M = m. It has been confirmed to more than twelve zeroes past the decimal point. Because both number will either both be really big, or really small, they will always cancel out, making two objects to hit the ground at the same time.
The funny, and sad fact, talked about at the very tail end of this chapter has to do with how widely accepted Galileo and Newton, etc., were, and that Boscovich wasn't, even though he hit the nail on the head with his proposition that the particles that made up a-toms were geometric points. Dimensionless. This has been recently discovered to be a quark.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Still Looking For The Atom: Chemists and Electricians
The first void. Thanks Torricelli. With scientific proof that a vacuum exists, the a-tom surely couldn't have been far away. Not only would the vacuum lead to advancements in physics, it also led to the discovery of Boyle's Law.
In this chapter we see the evolution of the elemental theories. The advancement from the original 4 elements (earth, fire, wind, water) to the periodic table of elements that we now have in our high school science classes.
Dalton had the right idea, but he jumped the gun. He claimed his discovery to be atoms. After reading this book, i now know that they were wrongly given the name "atom", however, for a discovery made in 1808, it is extremely spectacular.
It is also amazing how close a person can come to being right. William Prout came extremely close to discovering protons and neutrons. He thought that hydrogen was the base element.
Faraday made major discoveries in electricity and magnetism. It took him much longer, however, to discover the unity of electricity and magnetism. The most important cancept that he introduced was that of the field (the ability of space to be disturbed because of a source somwhere). Much like a magnet pulling iron nails. He introduced the idea that there was "strain" on the space around the magnet.
Key transitions: -Oersted to Ampère to Faraday.
-Faraday to Maxwell to Hertz.
All of this led to the discovery of the electron (after much blood, sweat, and tears).
In this chapter we see the evolution of the elemental theories. The advancement from the original 4 elements (earth, fire, wind, water) to the periodic table of elements that we now have in our high school science classes.
Dalton had the right idea, but he jumped the gun. He claimed his discovery to be atoms. After reading this book, i now know that they were wrongly given the name "atom", however, for a discovery made in 1808, it is extremely spectacular.
It is also amazing how close a person can come to being right. William Prout came extremely close to discovering protons and neutrons. He thought that hydrogen was the base element.
Faraday made major discoveries in electricity and magnetism. It took him much longer, however, to discover the unity of electricity and magnetism. The most important cancept that he introduced was that of the field (the ability of space to be disturbed because of a source somwhere). Much like a magnet pulling iron nails. He introduced the idea that there was "strain" on the space around the magnet.
Key transitions: -Oersted to Ampère to Faraday.
-Faraday to Maxwell to Hertz.
All of this led to the discovery of the electron (after much blood, sweat, and tears).
The Naked Atom
There were many questions in this section that Lederman made apparent that i was very eager to find the answer to:
1. If the radius is zero, what spins?
2. How can it have mass?
3. Where is the charge?
4. How do we know the radius is zero in the first place?
Lederman uses another analogy to make this theory more understandable. Imagine a cheshire cat that slowly disappears until there is only its smile left. Now picture the radius of "a spinning glob" sloly shrinking until all thats left is the charge, spin, and mass. This was tough to grasp at first, but it ultimately makes a lot of sense. A number has been calculated for zero (the best that physics can supply so far) 10^-18.
There is a lot to do with quantum theory in this section of the book. There is discussion of how spectral lines gave way to the discovery of many new elements, such as helium. The discovery of the different levels of electrons released from light the more violet (the shorter the wavelength) the light is.
It is interesting the way that Rutherford is portrayed in this book. A tall New Zealander who is always swearing and even has his own "isms":
-Don't let me catch anyone talking about the universe in my department.
-Oh that stuff [relativity]. We never bother with that in our work.
You can imagine that such a professor would not get along with a young theoretical physicist by the name of Niels Bohr who spent his free time finding mistakes in J.J. Thomson's book. They didn't get along (which is ironic since we use Bohr-Rutherford diagrams in chemistry when drawing atoms).
Another section that is quite interesting is the "resolution" of Einstein and Bohr's argument about quantum theory. Although the debate still rages on John Bell's experiments showed that Bohr was correct with his "complete-as-can-be" interpretation, rather than Einstein's notion that there were hidden variables.
1. If the radius is zero, what spins?
2. How can it have mass?
3. Where is the charge?
4. How do we know the radius is zero in the first place?
Lederman uses another analogy to make this theory more understandable. Imagine a cheshire cat that slowly disappears until there is only its smile left. Now picture the radius of "a spinning glob" sloly shrinking until all thats left is the charge, spin, and mass. This was tough to grasp at first, but it ultimately makes a lot of sense. A number has been calculated for zero (the best that physics can supply so far) 10^-18.
There is a lot to do with quantum theory in this section of the book. There is discussion of how spectral lines gave way to the discovery of many new elements, such as helium. The discovery of the different levels of electrons released from light the more violet (the shorter the wavelength) the light is.
It is interesting the way that Rutherford is portrayed in this book. A tall New Zealander who is always swearing and even has his own "isms":
-Don't let me catch anyone talking about the universe in my department.
-Oh that stuff [relativity]. We never bother with that in our work.
You can imagine that such a professor would not get along with a young theoretical physicist by the name of Niels Bohr who spent his free time finding mistakes in J.J. Thomson's book. They didn't get along (which is ironic since we use Bohr-Rutherford diagrams in chemistry when drawing atoms).
Another section that is quite interesting is the "resolution" of Einstein and Bohr's argument about quantum theory. Although the debate still rages on John Bell's experiments showed that Bohr was correct with his "complete-as-can-be" interpretation, rather than Einstein's notion that there were hidden variables.
Accelerators: They Smash Atoms, Don't They?
Antiprotons complete the circuit around Fermilab in about 22 millionths of a second. Lederman completes the circuit in approximately 38 minutes. This means that he gets lapped about 100 million times before he finishes.
Fermilab's Tevatron produces collisions at about 2 TeV (trillion electron volts). This is 400,000 times the energy created by Rutherford's alpha particle collisions. The Super Collider is being designed to operate at about 40 TeV. This would release similar energy as in lighting a match, however, the energy would be much more concentrated (only a few particles rather than the multi billions in a match).
It theoretically requires 10 TeV to crack open a "God Particle" (size: 10^-20m).
Due to E = m c^2, as the particle accelerates, the particle becomes heavier (making it harder to accelerate).
The best pictures of the proton were taken in the 1950's by Robert Hofstadter. A beam of electrons was used rather than protons. His team aimed a well-organized beam of approximately 800 MeV electrons at liquid hydrogen.
When two protons collide a pion is made. A pion was first discovered by Cesare Lattes in emulsions exposed to cosmic rays in 1947. Pions are unstable, however, they decay within one hundredth oh a microsecond into a muon and a neutrino. Strangely enough, the neutrino doesn't leave a track in the emulsion.
Fringe field focusing was discovered in 1950 by Lederman and John. They noticed that particles didn't just fly everywhere when they were emerging from a target in the accelerator with plausible direction and energies. They curved around the machine in a tight beam due to the properties of the magnetic field near and beyond the rim of the cyclotron magnet.
An interesting fact in this section is that when certain metals are cooled to extremely low temperatures (around absolute zero on the Kelvin scale) they lose all their resistance to electricity.
Fermilab's Tevatron produces collisions at about 2 TeV (trillion electron volts). This is 400,000 times the energy created by Rutherford's alpha particle collisions. The Super Collider is being designed to operate at about 40 TeV. This would release similar energy as in lighting a match, however, the energy would be much more concentrated (only a few particles rather than the multi billions in a match).
It theoretically requires 10 TeV to crack open a "God Particle" (size: 10^-20m).
Due to E = m c^2, as the particle accelerates, the particle becomes heavier (making it harder to accelerate).
The best pictures of the proton were taken in the 1950's by Robert Hofstadter. A beam of electrons was used rather than protons. His team aimed a well-organized beam of approximately 800 MeV electrons at liquid hydrogen.
When two protons collide a pion is made. A pion was first discovered by Cesare Lattes in emulsions exposed to cosmic rays in 1947. Pions are unstable, however, they decay within one hundredth oh a microsecond into a muon and a neutrino. Strangely enough, the neutrino doesn't leave a track in the emulsion.
Fringe field focusing was discovered in 1950 by Lederman and John. They noticed that particles didn't just fly everywhere when they were emerging from a target in the accelerator with plausible direction and energies. They curved around the machine in a tight beam due to the properties of the magnetic field near and beyond the rim of the cyclotron magnet.
An interesting fact in this section is that when certain metals are cooled to extremely low temperatures (around absolute zero on the Kelvin scale) they lose all their resistance to electricity.
A-tom!
I think that its quite confusing that there are theoretically infinite values for some properties of an electron. This doesn't really make sense to me since electrons are supposed to be one of the mall building blocks of all matter.
This section is all about Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). In QED, the field is broken down into more particles. These particles are not matter, however. The are particles "of the field" (messenger particles/photons).
Lederman's sense of humour is still apparent this far into the book. He writes that he begged that a new particle be proposed and that it be call the Lee-on. This didn't fly.
The neutron decays into a proton, electron and a neutrino (little neutral one). The force responsible for this reaction in the nucleus is called the weak force. The neutrino has no charge and almost no mass.
In the bound nucleus, the proton can "give rise" to a neutron, a positron, and a neutrino.
All the hadrons (protons, neutrons, and their hundreds of cousins) decay with weak force. The free proton is the only exception.
It has been determined that there are at least two neutrinos in nature: -electron neutrino (Ve)
-muon neutrino (Vµ)
The electron (e), and the muon (µ).
There are three families of pion: -kaons (K+,K-,K0) neutral has an antiparticle
-sigma (∑+,∑-,∑0) neutral has an antiparticle
-isospin (π+,π-,π0) neutral has an antiparticle
Three quarks were discovered in 1964: -up (u) with a charge of +2/3 has an antiquark
-down (d) with a charge of -1/3 has an antiquark
-strange (s) with a charge of -1/3 has an antiquark
The quarks produce Baryons (group of 3 quarks eg/ uud is a proton), and Mesons (pair of one quark and one antiquark)
A new quark, the charm (c), was found in 1976 followed by the beauty (b) in 1977, and the theoretical "truth" (t)
Two new leptons are also believed to be in existence since the discovery of the truth, the tau neutrino(Vt) and the tau (t).
The data insist that there must be three massive messenger particles: a W+, W-, and a Z0.
The other forces are: -electromagnetism
-weak force
-strong force
-photon (y)
-eight gluons
The only problem with the a-tom is that the truth quark hasn't been seen yet and that gravity hasnt been is missing from the forces.
This section is all about Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). In QED, the field is broken down into more particles. These particles are not matter, however. The are particles "of the field" (messenger particles/photons).
Lederman's sense of humour is still apparent this far into the book. He writes that he begged that a new particle be proposed and that it be call the Lee-on. This didn't fly.
The neutron decays into a proton, electron and a neutrino (little neutral one). The force responsible for this reaction in the nucleus is called the weak force. The neutrino has no charge and almost no mass.
In the bound nucleus, the proton can "give rise" to a neutron, a positron, and a neutrino.
All the hadrons (protons, neutrons, and their hundreds of cousins) decay with weak force. The free proton is the only exception.
It has been determined that there are at least two neutrinos in nature: -electron neutrino (Ve)
-muon neutrino (Vµ)
The electron (e), and the muon (µ).
There are three families of pion: -kaons (K+,K-,K0) neutral has an antiparticle
-sigma (∑+,∑-,∑0) neutral has an antiparticle
-isospin (π+,π-,π0) neutral has an antiparticle
Three quarks were discovered in 1964: -up (u) with a charge of +2/3 has an antiquark
-down (d) with a charge of -1/3 has an antiquark
-strange (s) with a charge of -1/3 has an antiquark
The quarks produce Baryons (group of 3 quarks eg/ uud is a proton), and Mesons (pair of one quark and one antiquark)
A new quark, the charm (c), was found in 1976 followed by the beauty (b) in 1977, and the theoretical "truth" (t)
Two new leptons are also believed to be in existence since the discovery of the truth, the tau neutrino(Vt) and the tau (t).
The data insist that there must be three massive messenger particles: a W+, W-, and a Z0.
The other forces are: -electromagnetism
-weak force
-strong force
-photon (y)
-eight gluons
The only problem with the a-tom is that the truth quark hasn't been seen yet and that gravity hasnt been is missing from the forces.
The God Particle At Last
To find the God Particle all of the cracks and crevasses need to be filled. There can't be any holes. No missing puzzle pieces. This chapter fills the holes.
I'm amazed at the amount of effort put into finding the W. The French, Dutch, Italian, English, Norwegian, and American all working together to solve the mystery.
The W and the Z were finally found by Carlo Rubbia who, very deservingly, won the Nobel Prize since it was such a lengthy hunt for them.
It seems that lederman is completely right when he says that the only thing left to do is find the "Lee-on" or truth quark, or the Higgs-Boson, and get more collisions per second.
The theory of everything would be an interesting topic to read about if physicists do end up figuring out how to apply the rules of quantum physicsto this primal gravitational maelstrom.
The dimensions would be nuts. Ten Dimensions!?!? How does that work?
I'm amazed at the amount of effort put into finding the W. The French, Dutch, Italian, English, Norwegian, and American all working together to solve the mystery.
The W and the Z were finally found by Carlo Rubbia who, very deservingly, won the Nobel Prize since it was such a lengthy hunt for them.
It seems that lederman is completely right when he says that the only thing left to do is find the "Lee-on" or truth quark, or the Higgs-Boson, and get more collisions per second.
The theory of everything would be an interesting topic to read about if physicists do end up figuring out how to apply the rules of quantum physicsto this primal gravitational maelstrom.
The dimensions would be nuts. Ten Dimensions!?!? How does that work?
Inner Space, Outer Space, and the Time Before Time
Lederman begins by talking about how most people don't enjoy or learn anything from from science books because they aren't engaging enough for the reader. He says that none of the scientists have the writing ability of Percy Bysshe Shelley or Lord Byron that enables them to help the reader have a good time while they read. Its hard to make a science book fun. You have to be interested in the subject of the book if you want to stay awake while reading it, and Lederman realizes this (although, Shelley approved of Frankenstein, and that was a sleeper). He used a lot of jokes in his writing (no matter how nerdy they were, they were still funny) which made me enjoy the book even more. In the closing chapter, he writes about how a Nobel Prize isn't really seen as a significant accomplishment by the general public. Nobody seems to care. The topics brought up in this chapter are more to spark the mind to want to read more science books I think. They are a little off topic and a lot more far fetched. String Theory, Supersymmerty, Dark matter, GUTs. All still very interesting, but very likely a lot harder to comprehend. He ends with a goodbye. He thanks you for taking a journey through the ages with him. From Miletus, to Waxahachie. And leaves you with a final thought. A thought for the road. Could this be the end of Physics? If we find the God Particle, will we know everything?
The First particle Physicist
This chapter involves an explanation (history lesson) of how Democritus' theory has evolved into the scientific discovery of his a-tom.
Lederman goes about his explanation in an interesting way. He talks about a dream where he meets Democritus at Fermilab (a particle accelerator located in Batavia, Illinois). Democritus has been travelling through time in search of his a-tom's discovery. Democritus talks to him about how theory has evolved since his time (450B.C.).
Some of these theories had never even been brought to my attention before. I never knew that the train of thought worked in such a way back in the day. Theories ranging from that of the "first" Greek philosopher Thales (600B.C.), such that water is the primary element (all is made from water), to that of Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Max Born, who believed that chance determined nature's way.
I think that the most interesting theory he descibed was that of Leucippus. Democritus (Lederman's dream) talks about how Leucippus was all wrapped up and tangled in his theories. How he was trying to define the empty space in which we could put our atoms. He could not define it, however, because he thought that if space is empty, it is nothing, and he did not think that it was possible to define nothing.
Nowadays, we know this "nothing" as a vacuum. Another concept that is difficult to grasp at first, but is extremely important in the eveloution of scientific exploration.
Lederman goes about his explanation in an interesting way. He talks about a dream where he meets Democritus at Fermilab (a particle accelerator located in Batavia, Illinois). Democritus has been travelling through time in search of his a-tom's discovery. Democritus talks to him about how theory has evolved since his time (450B.C.).
Some of these theories had never even been brought to my attention before. I never knew that the train of thought worked in such a way back in the day. Theories ranging from that of the "first" Greek philosopher Thales (600B.C.), such that water is the primary element (all is made from water), to that of Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Max Born, who believed that chance determined nature's way.
I think that the most interesting theory he descibed was that of Leucippus. Democritus (Lederman's dream) talks about how Leucippus was all wrapped up and tangled in his theories. How he was trying to define the empty space in which we could put our atoms. He could not define it, however, because he thought that if space is empty, it is nothing, and he did not think that it was possible to define nothing.
Nowadays, we know this "nothing" as a vacuum. Another concept that is difficult to grasp at first, but is extremely important in the eveloution of scientific exploration.
The Invisible Soccer Ball
This chapter brings us back to the beginning of atomic theory and study in order to for us to better understand how scientists came up with the a-tom. The a-tom is indivisible, invisible and is the smallest unit of matter.
Leon Lederman uses an analogy that more or less got me hooked on the book in the first place. Soccer season has just started, a few practices have gone by, and I'm not looking forward to reading a physics book that could potentially bore me to death due to my procrastinating ways. I read a few pages of the first chapter (titled: The Invisible Soccer Ball) and decided that i could really get a good understanding of how these physicists thought.
The analogy relates to a game of soccer. The point was to imagine an alien race that is unable to see objects with sharp juxtapositions of black and white (soccer balls) trying to watch a soccer game. They would be trying to use a variety of techniques (some quite complicated) in order to understand the game and enjoy watching it like the mojority of humans do. All of the reults make sense to them, but we know that they are wrong. The idea of an invisible ball is raised among these aliens. Ivisible?? The fact of the matter is that its true. The only thing that truly makes sense in the most simplistic way, yet most unbelievable, is the existense of an invisible ball.
The a-tom is our "invisible ball". It is the only thing that truly makes sense. This analogy is the basis of this book. Without the understanding that, sometimes, guesses have to be made in order for things to make sense, we cannot unlock the mysteries of our universe.
Leon Lederman uses an analogy that more or less got me hooked on the book in the first place. Soccer season has just started, a few practices have gone by, and I'm not looking forward to reading a physics book that could potentially bore me to death due to my procrastinating ways. I read a few pages of the first chapter (titled: The Invisible Soccer Ball) and decided that i could really get a good understanding of how these physicists thought.
The analogy relates to a game of soccer. The point was to imagine an alien race that is unable to see objects with sharp juxtapositions of black and white (soccer balls) trying to watch a soccer game. They would be trying to use a variety of techniques (some quite complicated) in order to understand the game and enjoy watching it like the mojority of humans do. All of the reults make sense to them, but we know that they are wrong. The idea of an invisible ball is raised among these aliens. Ivisible?? The fact of the matter is that its true. The only thing that truly makes sense in the most simplistic way, yet most unbelievable, is the existense of an invisible ball.
The a-tom is our "invisible ball". It is the only thing that truly makes sense. This analogy is the basis of this book. Without the understanding that, sometimes, guesses have to be made in order for things to make sense, we cannot unlock the mysteries of our universe.
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