Questions, musings, etc...
So, how do we know that when we smash protons together at high speeds that we recreate the conditions of the early universe? I mean, is it because at these energies we are dealing with fundamental particles here? (That is, what settles into a proton when the universe cools has to be what comes out when the universe locally heats back up. Why are protons "reversible" into the same constituent components and not into some other weird admixture of fundamental particles?)
There. My probably naive physics question of the week.
Also, what architects/styles do you like? I dig the deco and Gaudi.
For an original and striking example of the deco style of decoration, see the bank lobby at #1 Wall Street, designed by Hildreth Meiere and executed by the Ravenna Mosaic Company (I'm a secretly recovering mosaics junkie, and Hildreth Meiere is one of this country's highly recoverable treasures of interior design and mural art).
Antoni Gaudi was a Catalan architect. Early 20th century Barcelona was his canvass, and he made it his own
HJ
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5 comments:
Bing, the energies that we are dealing with at the LHC, for example, correspond to temperatures shortly after the big bang. At these energies, we can get protons not only to their constituent quarks, but the quarks and the gluons that bind them also dissociate forming what is called a quark-gluon plasma. We really haven't been able to look at this state of matter before in the lab. All protons are made of two up quarks and one down quark (types of quarks have stupid names) so that is what the protons break into when enough energy is provided. As far as we know, quarks and gluons are fundamental particles and therefore cannot be broken down anymore.
Hope that helps!
I think that we should come up with new ways to describe the properties of these particles. Fuck charm. Positive and negative chutzpah. Woody and tinny. Erect and flaccid instead of up and down.
HJ
I think they chose charm, strange, etc. just because they have absolutely no possible physical meaning. Probably a result of coming up with "electron spin" to describe the 2 types of electrons that can be present in an energy level. Of course, electrons do not physically spin, leading to a huge amount of confused students.
I do like the idea of using terms from Monty Python sketches to describe them, though. I still await the Biggles and Crunchy Frog particles.
Those are some fascinating buildings. La Sagrada Familia almost looks as if it's melting, which might be an intended effect.
I'm fond of the Spanish Colonial and Victorian styles, which are both popular here in CA. Some types of modern/postmodern can be interesting as well.
I'd love to say more but I just discovered one of my cats did a nasty on the floor...
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