Understanding Particle Physics for Kids! Quiz

Answer: High energy physics

A great example of a place that scientists collided particles was at CERN. CERN is a French abbreviation for a nuclear research centre that was founded on the border of France and Switzerland. In their research, they supply large amounts of energy (high energy) to particles so that they move really fast and bump into each other! They do this to find out what smaller parts are in the atom.

Answer: Empty space

Now this really is hard to get to grips with. If an atom is made up of mostly empty space and we are made of atoms, does that mean we are mostly empty space? Indeed it does and isn't that just mind-boggling?! Everything you can see that you think is a solid material, such as a wooden desk, is mostly made of empty space.

Answer: Quarks

OK so maybe quack and quark don't sound that similar but it is the best I can do! Quarks are elementary particles and lots of them together make up protons and neutrons. There are many varieties of quark and they are rather weirdly called 'flavours'. So if you ever go to a quark milkshake bar you could order one of six flavours, which are: up, down, top, bottom, charm and strange. I recommend a mix of charm and top, yum!

Answer: Photon

The photon is a fantastic elementary particle and the road to discovering what a photon actually is led to many arguments and heated debates amongst physicists! Here we go into the wacky world of small-scale physics because a photon isn't just a particle and it isn't just a wave but it is both. Nonsense you cry! Unbelievably this is true and there are experiments to prove that light sometimes behaves as a particle and that it sometimes behaves as a wave.

Answer: Strong force

Nearly everybody when they first learn about protons fails to ask the teacher that if all protons in a nucleus are positively charged then how does the nucleus keep it shape. The answer is because there is a strong force present! This is sometimes also known as the strong interaction or the nuclear force.

Neutrons are also found in the nucleus and along with protons are known as nucleons. These nucleons are kept together in the nucleus by the magnificent nuclear force.

Answer: Gluons

Gluons (just think about glue) are what help to keep quarks, the parts that make up protons and neutrons, together. They do this by what is known as the color force: again some physicists were having a bit of fun and decided to call it that despite there being no colors involved at all!

Answer: Greek

The letters of the Greek language can be found all over the science world. Alpha, beta and gamma are the first three letters of the Greek alphabet and they each lend themselves to name a specific type of radiation. Radioactivity is both very useful, for example in medicine, and very dangerous. An example of this is the fact that radiation can cause cancer but it can also help cure it!

Answer: Periodic table

The transition metals are a great way to learn about the nature of electrons. When you first study the transition metals you learn about orbitals and that electrons can be found anywhere within these orbitals. This is in contrast to what you first get taught, that electrons "orbit" around the nucleus.

The periodic table contains all the elements that have been discovered and places them in groups (vertical) and periods (horizontal).

Answer: String theory

The aim is to one day have a 'Theory of Everything'. The basic idea behind string theory is that all types of matter and all forms of energy may be made up of "strings". "Strings" are a useful way of thinking about these building blocks but it is suggested that the "strings" are just one-dimensional, meaning the "strings" just have a length. Part of string theory also suggests that there are many more dimensions than the three (length, width, height) we are used to.

It must be stressed however that for the most part, string theory is just an idea that still needs to be proven.

Answer: Particle zoo

The physicists actually ended up with parts of the atom on their lists that weren't elementary. The problem of huge quantities of "elementary particles" was solved upon the discovery of the quark. They realised that most of these "elementary particles" were various combinations of the six types of quark.