MadSci Network: Physics |
Greetings: The answers to your questions are quite complex and beyond answering here in this forum. Your questions relate to what physicists call the Standard Model. Fortunately, this model is discussed in great detail at a wonderfully illustrated web site called "The Particle Adventure". http:// ParticleAdventure.org/english/index.html This web site is one of the best educational sites on the internet and it starts at a very simple level of discussion and gradually leads the reader into the strange, complex world of fundamental particles and how they interact with the four fundamental forces in nature. Although the web pages may at first seem to be to simple, by the time you have progressed into the structure of matter you will be able to have intelligent conversations with scientists in the field, for even we occasionally have to refer to web sites like this to recall portions of the complex interactions between waves and particles, both of which are manifestations of the same basic phenomena. Your questions relate to the interaction of particles with electromagnet waves and this is discussed in detail on the web site. But do not jump ahead in your reading until you cover the basic concepts in the first few of many dozens of illustrated pages. I have abstracted the following text from the web site to give you an idea about what your questions entail. ABSTRACTED from The Particle Adventure Physicists have developed a theory called The Standard Model that explains what the world is and what holds it together. It is a simple and comprehensive theory that explains all the hundreds of particles and complex interactions with only: 6 quarks; 6 leptons (The best-known lepton is the electron); and the Force carrier particles ( like the photon and graviton). All the known matter particles are composites of quarks and leptons, and they interact by exchanging force carrier particles. The Standard Model is a good theory. Experiments have verified its predictions to incredible precision, and all the particles predicted by this theory have been found. But it does not explain everything. For example, gravity is not included in the Standard Model. This site will explore the Standard Model in greater detail and will describe the experimental techniques that gave us the data to support this theory. We will also explore the intriguing questions that lie outside our current understanding of how the universe works. -------------- One tricky question that plagued physicists for many years was... How do matter particles interact? The problem is that things interact without touching! How do two magnets "feel" each other's presence and attract or repel accordingly? How does the sun attract the earth? We know the answers to these questions are "magnetism" and "gravity," but what are these forces? At a fundamental level, a force isn't just something that happens to particles. It is a thing which is passed between two particles. --------------------- ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE (one of the four fundamental forces in nature) The electromagnetic force causes like-charged things to repel and oppositely-charged things to attract. Many everyday forces, such as friction, and even magnetism, are caused by the electromagnetic, or E-M force. For instance, the force that keeps you from falling through the floor is the electromagnetic force which causes the atoms making up the matter in your feet and the floor to resist being displaced. The carrier particle of the electromagnetic force is the photon. Photons of different energies span the electromagnetic spectrum of x rays, visible light, radio waves, and so forth. Photons have zero mass, as far as we know, and always travel at the "speed of light", c, which is about 300,000,000 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second, in a vacuum. END ABSTRACT In particular the section of the web site that addresses electromagnetic particle accelerators will address portions of your questions in detail. Best regards, Your Mad Scientist Adrian Popa
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