| 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
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Physics.