393x Filetype PPT File size 1.25 MB Source: pdst.ie
Consider the scene ...
If I were to ask you what
is water made of what
would you say?
Molecules of hydrogen
and oxygen.
What are the hydrogen
and oxygen made of?
Protons neutrons and
electrons.
What are the protons
neutrons and electrons
made of?
….This is what particle
physics aims to find out.
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Particle Physics
What is Particle Physics To do this, you need to
all about? Let’s be more think……. BIG
specific!
It is a study of the most
basic building blocks of
matter and the forces
that act upon them.
We want to understand
how these basic building
blocks interact to make
the universe look and
behave the way it does.
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Requirements?
What do we need to study particle
physics?
We need the fastest computers
The coldest temperatures
and the strongest magnets on the planet!
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How do we do particle physics?
We take a particle we can
easily reproduce, such as a
proton, and we accelerate it
around and around in a
circle faster and faster until
it almost reaches the speed
of light...
and then we smash them
together and see what
happens!
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What do we know so far?
We have a body of knowledge called the
standard model it says that all matter is
made up of 12 fundamental particles
(6 quarks and 6 leptons) acted on by
three of the four forces of nature
–the strong force,
–the weak force and
–the electromagnetic force.
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