Book 7 of S104: Exploring Science is entitled, rather niftily, "From Quarks to Quasars". Quarks are the smallest things of all, the fundamental constituents of the Universe, measuring 10-19 m across; quasars are the most distant objects we can observe, and are around 1026 m away. There's really no way to get your head around these extremes of sizes; suffice it to say that quasars are a billion billion billion billion billion times larger than quarks. Even analogies are impossible. Imagine a marble and a... no. There's nothing big enough. Or far away enough. Imagine a marble and something MUCH further than a quasar?
"Common sense is the deposit of prejudice laid down in the mind before the age of eighteen." Albert Einstein
Well, leaving aside ludicrous quantities of billion, cosmology is the study of the very, very large and particle physics is the study of the very, very small. This aspect of the module combines both of these studies into one neat package, and that package helps to answer the fundamental questions:
- How does the Universe behave?
- What rules does it follow? Or is it an anarchist, breaking glasses, listening to the Sex Pistols, and throwing sofas out of hotel windows?
- How does the Universe change with time?
I'll get back to you on those when I've worked out the answers. Quantum physics will help. In the meantime, here's a philosophical take on the very, very small by those reknowned poets, They Might Be Giants:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNT8SMlqLJA]
Looking at the nature of the Universe takes you outside of the everyday into the realm of the fascinating, the baffling, and the just-plain-weird. Particles that are in two places at once; antimatter; eleven-dimensional space-time.
"If quantum physics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet." Niels Bohr
Hang on to your hats, because Kansas is about to disappear...