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How do we make sense of it all?
Physicists have developed a theory
known as the Standard Model that explains our current understanding
of the nature of matter -- what it's made of and how its
components interact. According to the theory, all the particles
in the universe -- and we know of more than a hundred different
kinds -- can be grouped into just three "families" of particles:
quarks, leptons, and force carrier particles.
Quarks
and Leptons
|
Quarks
|
Up
|
Charm
|
Top
|
|
Down
|
Strange
|
Bottom
|
|
Leptons
|
Electron
|
Muon
|
Tau
|
|
Electron
Neutrino
|
Muon
Neutrino
|
Tau
Neutrino
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The most fundamental building blocks of all matter are quarks
and leptons. There are six different kinds of each of these
particles. For instance, the electron is one type of lepton,
and the "up" quark is one kind of quark.
Force
Carrier Particles
|
Force
|
Gravitational
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Weak
|
Electromagnetic
|
Strong
|
|
Force
Carrier Particle
|
Graviton
(not yet observed)
|
W
+
,
W
-
, W
0
|
Photon
|
Gluon
|
The
only other "family" of particles in the universe is the
force carrier particles. Quarks and leptons interact with
one another by exchanging force carrier particles.
EXTERNAL
LINKS
For more information on the Standard Model:
The
Particle Adventure
Chart
of Fundamental Particles and Interactions
Scientific
American article: A Unified Field of Physics by 2050?
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