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Quarks
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By Kevin Wechsler
Quarks
Welcome to the movie theater. Today we are watching Quarks!
Have you ever wanted to know about quarks? You may not know this, but they are the smallest things on Earth. They are so small they haven’t even been seen with microscopes. People have drawn them as circles or spheres , but no one actually knows about their true forms. This is a scientific adventure, you can’t miss out on. Come and join us.
Table of Contents ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Page 1: Title Page 2: Front excerpt Page 3-4: Table of contents Page 5-6: What are quarks? Page 7-8: Other quarks Page 9-10: How do you split a quark? Page 11-12: What's an isotope? Page 13-14: What are holding quarks together? Page 15-16: What’s a quark star? Page 17: Conclusion
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Page 18:Glossary Page 19: Works cited page Page 20-21: About the author Page 22: The end
What are quarks? In 1964, Murray Gell Mann and George Zweig made a discovery. According to them, particles could have 3 different parts inside that can’t be split. They also found that for their idea to work, each part would have to have a fractional charge. Later, at the Stanford linear accelerator, there were electrons that were being shot at protons. For some reason, they were just bouncing back off of the proton. The electrons were actually being bounced off of small particles, inside of the proton. The small particles were three small quarks. There are Up quarks and Down quarks. According to the Fuse School, “Quarks are never seen on their own and their evidence for existing comes only from the particle accelerators.” quarks If this is all true, quarks could be really important on Earth. Cracked open Proton or neutron
This is a picture of how scientists imagine quarks in a proton. The U stands for an up quark.
The D stands for a down quark.
This is how scientists imagine quarks in a neutron.
Other quarks There are actually 6 types of quarks. It’s just that the up and down quarks are like the main quarks. The other four quark names are pretty weird. They are called Strange, Charm, Top, and Bottom. Each of these was given these names because of some of their characteristics. Strange is called Strange because it had a smaller amount of extra life compared to the other quarks. Charm was called Charm because it impressed scientists. Last but not least, the Bottom and the Top quark were named that because they were counterparts of the Up and Down quark. They were named by a physicist that was called Harari. The Up and Down quark name isn’t as weird, though. They were actually named because of the way that they spin.
This is a cool way to imagine quarks!
How do you split a quark?
Quarks can be split. To split quarks, you need to pull two of them. If you pull them, you get two quarks more of the same pair of quarks. For example, let’s say that you have a pair of Up quarks that you're pulling on in a proton. If you keep on pulling it, you’ll get to a point where it splits into two more pairs of Up quarks in a proton.
This picture shows quarks being pulled.
This picture shows the quarks splitting apart.
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What's an isotope?
An isotope is a type of atom. See an isotope actually is an atom, with the wrong amount of neutrons it should have. The only difference from a regular atom, (correct amount of neutrons, in this case,) is that an isotope is missing or it has more neutrons than it should have. Even though an Isotope has more or fewer neutrons, it doesn’t change the fact that It is still the same element as a regular atom of its element. For example, if you have a carbon atom, you would usually have 12 protons and neutrons in total. (6 protons and 6 neutrons.) Therefore, giving it the name C-12. ( The C stand for carbon.) Some carbon atoms will be called C-14, because they have 8 neutrons, instead of 6. Those atoms are Isotopes, but they still are the same element.
Regular carbon atom
Isotope
Did you know that this symbol stands for an electron?
This is comparing a regular atom to an Isotope.
C-12
C-14 Electrons aren't counted when trying to find what type of atom an atom is.
What are holding quarks together?
If you have three quarks in protons and neutrons, they have to be stuck together. See, the quarks are actually being stuck together by these small particles called gluons. If that’s wasn’t enough, that’s not all they do. Gluons also give the quarks they’re colors! The colors are also called flavors. Gluons are also really important because, without them, our world would just be full of Down and Up quarks. The reason for that is that, if you didn’t have gluons, nothing would hold the quarks inside of the proton or neutron. So they would just fall right out of the proton and neutrons.
Insert picture with title here
Did you know that quarks can be red, blue or green?
Quark stars A quark star is a type of star that is very complex, unusual, and a weird star. Some of its characteristics are that it’s a very hot star, and it’s made of quark matter ( a lot of quarks). According to Wikipedia, “A quark star is a hypothetical type of compact exotic star, where extremely high temperature and pressure has forced nuclear particles to form a continuous state of matter that consists primarily of free quarks.” Quark stars can form inside of Neutrons stars. Neutron stars are also really hot stars. Quarks stars that are made from the Strange quark matter are called Strange stars.Quark stars are made out of a lot of quarks, so regular quarks aren’t stars. Since they are so unusual and very hot, scientists don’t have any proof if they exist or not. That’s because Scientists can’t make the correct conditions that are needed to study the quark matter, at least not easily.
Quarks are very important. They make up protons and neutrons that make up atoms, and atoms make up all matter. (physical objects). Without quarks, we wouldn't be alive! Also, don’t forget about gluons and isotopes. They’re important too. Gluons hold quarks together, and isotopes can be used for experiments that regular atoms can’t. If quark stars are true, they can also be important. They can be a new discovery that might impact Earth. It would be interesting for us to find a new type of star. Scientists are always discovering new things, so another scientific adventure might waiting for you.
Glossary 1. Atom=The first stage of a chemical element. 2. Compact= Cluster or pressed together. 3. Counterparts=Opposites.Electrons= Fundamental particle with a charge of -1. They are inside of atoms. 4. Exotic= Unknown, strange, weird. 5. Hypothetical= Something based on a hypothesis. 6. Matter= Any physical object 7. Neutrons= Subatomic particle with a charge of +0. They are inside of atoms. 8. Particles=Something that can be split. Fundamental particles are things that can’t be split. 9. Proton= Subatomic particle with a charge of +1. They are inside of atoms. 10. Subatomic Particle= A particle smaller than an atom
Works Cited The Electromagnetic Force, home.fnal.gov/~cheung/rtes/RTESWeb/LQCD_site/pages/strongforce.htm. Education, FuseSchool - Global. “What Are Quarks? | Physics | The Fuse School.” YouTube, YouTube, 25 Jan. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlv06lSAC7c. Linsell, Roger. “Nuclear Fission; Splitting the Atom for Beginners: from Fizzics.org.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgZDXxux9s4.
“Q & A: Quarks and Fractional Charges.” Q & A: How Do Telescopes Work? | Department of Physics | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=15151. “Quark.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Nov. 2018, simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark. “Quark Star.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_star. “r/Askscience - What Would Happen If We Split a Pair of Quarks?” Reddit, www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1ei0rq/what_would_happen_if_we_split_a_pair_of_quarks/.
About the Author My name is Kevin Wechsler. I am 11 years old. I also am the author of this book. I have two parents, one brother, two dogs, and two fish. I enjoy playing video games, violin, keyboard, and other things. I first got interested in quarks when my class was learning about atoms, protons, neutrons, and electrons. After we finished that unit, I wondered if there was anything smaller. So I went to my computer, to look it up.That's when I found about quarks, the smallest thing in the world. A few months later I hear that we are making a project about something we want to know more about. Than I had an idea. I thought “What if I study quarks”. That’s how it all started.
This is Kevin Wechsler