The Standard Model

Physicists have developed a theory called The Standard Model that explains what the world is and what holds it together. It is a simple and comprehensive theory that explains all the hundreds of particles and complex interactions with only:

• 6 quarks.
• 6 leptons. The best-known lepton is the electron. We will talk about leptons in just a few pages.
• Force carrier particles, like the photon. We will talk about these particles later.

All the known matter particles are composites of quarks and leptons, and they interact by exchanging force carrier particles.

The Standard Model is a good theory. Experiments have verified its predictions to incredible precision, and all the particles predicted by this theory have been found. But it does not explain everything. For example, gravity is not included in the Standard Model.

This site will explore the Standard Model in greater detail and will describe the experimental techniques that gave us the data to support this theory. We will also explore the intriguing questions that lie outside our current understanding of how the universe works.

However, above all, let us not forget my theory below.

Basic Building Blocks of the Universe
This blog will start with the explanation of what I believe is the basic building block of the universe. Noticed that I did not say basic building block of "nature" since even nature itself, I believe, is just a manifestation of the basic building blocks that I am about to explain.I am not a scientist nor a mathematician. I am just an ordinary bloh with a fertile imagination and an extra-ordinary mind for seeing patterns. When I was in my early twenties, just after college, I took one exam that tested for pattern recognition. I am usually just a so, so good when I take exams but I nearly aced this test. I also dabbled in gambling (jai-alai) and, over time, I noticed I have this uncanny way of predicting the outcome from observations of previous incidences (related or not so obviously related). Of course, I only dabbled because gambling is always stacked against the player and in the long run gamblers lose.From various observations of nature, I noticed that the common denominator (of those I have a theory) of the universe - or the basic building block of the universe is the common playground marble! I am being facetious here but humor me and read some of the chapters and you may also come into the same conclusion.Have you ever seen the toy composed of several strunged steel balls? You pull one and let go and it sends out one ball the other end; you pull two and two are bounced out the other way, etc., etc... What if the whole universe is made up of nothing - without natural laws. Suppose the big bang theory sent out a whole bunch of marbles, all going at the speed of light. Without gravity or friction, these marbles will forever be moving at the speed of light and all going in all directions, bumping into one another and expanding as they move back and forth.I do not know what material or what size the marbles are but they are like marbles or like the steel balls I mentioned before. Going back to the toy steel balls - if you pull one ball each at both ends of the aligned balls, nothing happens. The balls stopped on their tracks, so to speak. Now think about my expanding and bouncing marbles. When this effect happens to a group of marbles and some are stopped on their tracks (not moving, per se, but still full of the speed of light - explanation comes later), matter (mass) is created. The process which one matter is squeezed to another is what we call gravity (Newton got it in reverse). The way the matter changes is what we call "time". The squeezed matter may become so densed and it may be called a "black hole". When the marbles get un-squeezed (or escapes), the manifestation is what we call "energy". The energy may be called fire, electricity, lightning, etc. The whole expanding universe is temporary (I do not know when the edge of the universe can be reached - maybe never ending) but the totality, expansion, and the interaction of the marbles create our natural laws - our universe.