The average human sometimes wonders about their existence. Some questions arise such as, "why are we here" ?", "what was here before we were?", "What is the big bang?" These questions and many others have been attempted to be answered by physicists and quantum mechanics. For most of us, including myself, the theories presented by these great minds goes over our heads. I will try to sum up what the greatest minds think about our universe to this date in my own simplistic words.
So first lets answer the most obvious question; what is quantum mechanics? Simply it is the mathematical calculations that predict the governing laws of subatomic particles. Sub atomic particles are any particle that is found within an atom. Here is a simple hierarchy of the known subatomic and non-subatomic particles known to this date.
Universe- made of everything we know to exist. Said to be a collection of all matter known including us.
Galaxy - a collection of different stars, gas and dust that is held together by a force, ie. gravity
Solar system- a single star's planet system where planets circle around a star which exerts gravitational pull over the planets causing them to circle around the star
* side note* some solar systems revolve around two stars and are called binary systems
Moon systems- not really a system but I call it one for the sake of this article. the moon is in gravitational pull from the planet and revolves around it in a small orbit.
Planetary system- all life forms that exist on certain planets. currently scientists have found 100's of planets that lie in the "Habitable Zone", or the " Goldilock Zone". These planets are the exact distance away from a star which enables the planet to potentially have liquid water.
Matter- a generic term used to group all substances together that form the objects of our physical reality. ( or at least what we perceive to be this reality)
Molecules: a group of atoms held together by electromagnetic force
Atoms: have a core of a neutron and proton and a orbiting electron. You can picture it as a small version of a planetary system described above.
It gets a little complicated now:
Quarks: a group of particles: up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm.
Hadrons: a group of quarks held together by a electromagnetic force.
Baryons: a group of three quarks that make a particle ex. neutron and proton
Mesons: a interaction of one quark and it's anti quark
**** anti quark is a type of anti matter. all matter in the universe is said to have an anti particle which balances out the universe. talk about it later.
Leptons: a group of sub atomic particles. These include:
- electron, Tau and Muon
The Tau and Muon decay into electrons and that is why electrons are more stable then the other two and why its more common
Gauge Bosons ( force carriers): these particles are responsible for all the force in the universe. The most common one we all know is the photon which is the particle that makes up light. Light in some way powers many things in our world.
Gluons: are Bosons as well that hold quarks together. The farther you pull a quark apart the harder it resists, like an invisible elastic band is pulling them together.
W and Z bosons are also part of this family and are responsible for creating what is known as " weak Force"
Roughly that is the main points of sub atomic hierarchy. A few complicated particles are left out due to it's ambiguity and may be referenced later depending on how I feel when i get to the topic. ( I write as I think).
Why are there so many theories?
Well, science is always wrong. When ever a currently or previous theory fails to explain everything and or makes a huge contradiction then it is thrown out and a new one is put in place. Scientists are always remodelling their theories to try and answer all questions at once. Many believe that solving our universe is like making a map of the world. You can't make a map that depicts everything. You have to have many different maps that show different things that then when put together map the entire world. The only problem with this is that it shows potentially that not all laws are governed by the same force. A unified theory is the aim for scientists now and so far we have not found one.
Here are a few questions that I believe are interesting:
Why do we think the universe is expanding?
The hubble telescope took pictures of the same point in the universe and found that the stars were moving away from where we are. By extrapolating the results and going some careful calculations the scientist could determine that 13.7 billion years ago the edge of the universe was right in front of us. This is when it is theorized that the Big Bang happened.
What was before the big bang?
What does it matter? we have no way of knowing because the laws of our universe only happened when the big bang occurred so no matter how many Einsteins or Stephen Hawkings we had we can never determine the laws of the universe before the big bang. We can only deal with what we know exists now. Before the big bang anything could have happened so why waste time saying only one thing happened when we will never know.
Is reality real?
Yes and no. What we perceive to be the laws governing our existence is our reality. Of course we could be wrong about what we see but if we live our lives based on what we experience then we are not wrong to do so. If hypothetically we could go to a higher place in the universe where we can see the truth to everything then we go back to the world as most of us see it then we could say we are wrong. That's why no one is ever really wrong about anything. Everyone sees things differently so to fight over differences seems illogical. It's like punching an Egyptian in the face for believing in many gods if you only believe in one. Well you ahve no proof that you are right so relax. Let everyone experience life how they want to.
How was air Discovered?
Air was discovered by a old scientist who had a clepsydra ( kind of like a laydel) It had a sphere at the bottom with holes and a neck with an opening at the top. The scientist discovered that if he did not cover the hole at the top the laydel would fill up with water when submerged. If he covered the top then water would not enter. He reasoned that something invisible must be stopping the water from coming in the laydel. He called this invisible thing "air".
What is carbon and why is it so important?
Carbon is an element that has been noted to be the most important element for this universe. One explination is because it is the only element that has four Valance Electrons. Thus, it can form 4 chemical bonds where as other elements cannot.
So how is carbon created?
Carbon is created from imploding stars that have such high gravitational pull that it pulls the necessary particles together and stabilizes them before shooting them across the universe in an explosion.
Helium is formed by combining two hydrogen atoms
2 hydrogen atoms come together to create beryllium
beryllium plus another helium theoretically creates carbon
So why can't we simple create carbon molecules?
As soon as beryllium is created it decays almost instantly back into helium nucleus. This is not the case in a star because there is so much heat ( energy) that compresses the three helium molecules that it stabilizes before the explosion. The earth does not have the resources to make this kind of energy. $*^& out of Luck.
Are there multiverses?
Scientists believe so. They believe that there is something like 10^500 ( exponent of 500) ( 10 multiplied by itself 500 times) universes out there. The idea is that every single thing that happens in this universe is simply an odd of the grand total possibilities. Each universe is governed by different laws and have completly different realities. We are simply just one out of a bunch.
What is the use of a photon?
a photon is a particle of light. It has been shown to act as a wave and a particle at the same time. I am currently still trying to wrap my brain around that one. An experiment that shot photons at a screen through a hole showed that the photons lined up on the screen across from the hole. DUHHH well when introducing a second hole the experiment changed drastically. A wave like pattern emerged and showed that photons interfere with eachother either magnifying their energy ( the dark spot) or cancelling it out ( the light spot) .
What does a photon have to do with colour spectrum?
This as well is a complicated topic and without getting into things such as Plancks constant I will refer to the main points that apply to normal people that are not geniuses. Photons are emitted by stars and have a electromagnetic force attributed to them. Photons are said to oscillate at high speeds which creates heat. Depending on the wave length of a particular type of light ( made of photons) we can see different colours. Ex. Red is longer wavelength and indigo is a smaller wavelength. The difference between colours is simply the distance between wavelengths. X rays are so small we cant even see them. The fact that photons vibrate is a complex matter and involves numerous equations that I am too tired to get into. All you need to know for now is that this vibration is what creates heat and based on the amount of photons used the heat either is hotter or cooler. That is why there are different colours of hot.
OK I have to go compete so that will ahve to be the end. If there is any specific questions you would be interested in let me know. Other then that I will think about specifying to a particular question and go into as much detail as I think I know.
thanks
No comments:
Post a Comment