What is 'stuff' made up of?
Mobiles, laptops, and teddies are just a few things we are surrounded by, which are all
made up of 'stuff'. My question to you is what is this stuff? And how is everything we see,
smell, and touch fundamentally linked by small particles? I shall take you on a journey to
answer the question – What is 'stuff' made up of?
Firstly consider this paper which you are reading this article on, ever wondered what
makes up the smooth surface of this paper? If we took a piece of this paper, and zoomed
in using a normal microscope, we would see …
...particles. In the picture above
all particles are arranged in a nice
formation. Particles 'were' considered to be the smallest things known to man.
However Greek and Indian philosophers in the 17th and 18th centuries proposed a model a
small particle called an 'atom'. The name atom comes from the Greek átomos meaning
indivisible. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many Scientists proved through theories and
experiments that this atom particle is divisible. In 1897 J.J.Thomson discovered a
negatively charged particle, and he was awarded the nobel prize for his research. He
proposed a plum pudding model of an atom. He said the atom consists of negative
particles spread out evenly in a sea of positive charge, as you can see in the diagram
below.
A few years later, in 1911 Physicist
Ernest Rutherford discovered the atom was that an atom is actually made up of a very
dense positive matter in the middle. In 1913 Niels Bohr said the negative particles would
orbit around it in fixed rings. The dense matter in the middle was called the 'nucleus', and
negative particle the 'electron'. In 1919 Rutherford discovered the proton, which is a
particle with positive charge and makes up the nucleus. In 1932, James Chadwick
discovered another particle that makes up the nucleus and it was called the 'neutron'. The
particle had no charge and similar mass to the proton. The picture below shows the model
of the atom.
This atom as two protons and two
neutrons, and two electrons, the periodic table of elements keeps track of all the different
types of atoms known to man. Now that you know about the atom model, you feel the
quest to discover what everything is made up of is over. Well scientists never give up, and
always find the question further.
Physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig, questioned what makes protons and
neutrons? The Quark Model was independently proposed by them in 1964. They believed
that protons and neutrons are made up of even tiny particles called quarks, and there are
six different types of quarks with different flavours. Six quarks are the Up, Down, Top,
Bottom, Strange and Charm quark. Each quark has its own charge, and its own mass.
So you have just gone a bizarre journey through 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
However thou shall never give up the quest, and a true scientist always asks further
questions. Do you believe the quarks are made up of other things? How are the particles
related to light? What is mass, and how is it observed? Those questions are still
unanswered and its up to you as a curious reader to find out more.
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Sources:
554 words
Jeel Shah
Prof Tom Duke
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_intro.html