QUARKS TO QUASARS

QtoQ - Story - Exhibit List:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19
20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35
CAN YOU MAKE PARTICLES WITH NATURE'S BUILDING BLOCKS?


     This exhibit, one of two about the Standard Model, has four activities that introduce the concept of basic particles. In each activity students turn a dial to select particles. A variety of counters and LEDs tell them what they have identified or made. Students identify force carriers and quarks. They combine a quark and an antiquark to form a meson and select three quarks to form a baryon. The text discusses the particle zoo, the myriad of different particles physicists had discovered. With the Standard Model, physicists explain how the zoo can be made from a small number of basic particles.