Another Understanding question (not homework)

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion centers around the relationship between the discovery of elementary particles and advancements in particle accelerator technology, exploring the underlying reasons for this dependency.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the necessity of breaking apart particles to understand their composition and the increasing energy requirements for collisions to produce fundamental particles.

Discussion Status

Some participants have offered insights into the need for high energies to produce elementary particles and suggested resources for further reading. There appears to be a mix of understanding and exploration of the topic without a clear consensus.

Contextual Notes

One participant mentions a resource that may provide additional context, while another reflects on their own comprehension challenges, indicating varying levels of familiarity with the subject matter.

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Another comprehension question is for me to understand why the discovery of elementary (fundamental) particles depended on advances in particle accelerator technology?

Can someone explain this to me?
 
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you might want to read a brief history of time by hawking. it goes into detail about particle acceleration and other things. i just read it myself but barely understood anything.

-Amy
 
I think that the simple answer is that you generally have to break things apart to find what they are made of. And the binding energies of smaller, more fundamental particles are large enough, that it takes bigger and bigger accelerators to reach those collision energies.
 
lol.. i figured it out.. thanks..
 
Huge energies (accelerations) are required to produce these particles. You might want to look at the rest mass of some of the fundamental particles
 

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