The Quantum world! People don't talk about it enough, it is a very niche domain in physics that humans have still not been able to understand fully. It comprehends all the laws of physics that we know, none of the rules that we know about the universe work here. And maybe that's why no one really talks about it enough, I mean Einstein himself declined the quantum world, although his general and special theory of relativity do support it, I mean not directly but they do. Everyone knows that humans are made up of atoms, yes. But little do they know what lies deep beneath inside those atoms. The particles that make up matter are known as atoms which are made up of electrons, neutrons and protons which are made up of gluons or gauge bosons which have a strong binding force that binds protons and neutrons together and holds the nucleus which are made up of quarks. Gluons carry their own force meaning they can form complex structures like glue balls. Quantum physics is the study associated with the study of nature at a subatomic level, quantum physics is a step forward, its the upcoming future. Well, we all know that electrons spin around the nucleus of an atom, its like they are in an orbit around the atom like the Earth is in orbit around the sun but there's a lot more going on here as we speak of it. As we know, an atom has 4 shells where the electrons orbit them, known as shells K, L, M and N. An atom can have an infinite number of shells, its just that there aren't any electrons orbiting them. Sometimes, when the electrons get excited, they shift an orbit back or forward and release discrete amounts of energy known as quanta. This exciting process is known as Quantum Leap (sounds like a cinematic name someone would use in a movie). Now, there are 6 types of quarks-1.Up 2.Down 3.Strange 4.Charm 5.Top 6.Bottom. Quarks are the building blocks of the Quantum realm (its a name we give to the tiny universe of atoms and other particles). There might be something more, something deeper than quarks, but as of now we know that quarks are the smallest, well the Higgs Boson was just discovered, it is proven to be slightly smaller than 2 types of quarks but still bigger than the other 4 types of quarks. The superstring theory tries to explain us that every particle is made up of a string, it theorizes that quarks are single-stringed instruments like those the strings of a guitar. A standard model has split every particle into its own category, I think we should dive deep into that one. One is quarks, which I believe I already explained. The next one is Gauge Bosons, which includes 1.W Boson 2.Z Boson 3.Photons 4.Gluons 5.Higgs Boson. A gauge boson is a particle which carries force. It is also known as a force carrier for other particles. Light is made up of photons and they carry electromagnetic force. Gluons as I told you before carry a strong binding force which binds the nucleus together. The next one is leptons, which include 1.Electron 2.Muon 3.Tau 4.Electron Neutrino 5.Muon Neutrino 6.Tau Neutrino. Its basically electron, muon and tau along with their neutrino versions. Ok, this one is a bit complicated, I am going to give the most basic and simple information about this one. So charge leptons such as electrons can combine with other particles to form particles like atoms. Neutral leptons, also known as neutrinos, like neutrons rarely combine with some other particle. This was the standard model, it basically helps us categorize particles and help us understand them better. This was the Quantum world in a nutshell. It's just fascinating how small things like atoms and large things like Stars exist at the same time (not sure I should call them things). There are a whole lot of mysteries we need to cover about the quantum world and the universe on a larger scale and I don't think humans in their existence are going to found out every single one of them, atleast not in yours or my lifetime.
By,
Deeparsh Bhanot
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