{"id":24,"date":"2008-11-21T16:03:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T03:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/physicsstop\/2008\/11\/21\/magic_pixies\/"},"modified":"2008-11-21T16:03:35","modified_gmt":"2008-11-21T03:03:35","slug":"magic-pixies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/physicsstop\/2008\/11\/21\/magic-pixies\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic pixies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The physics textbooks tell me that protons and neutrons are both made up of three quarks<\/a>. These little things amuse me,  because no-one has actually ‘seen’ one. (By ‘seen’, I don’t literally mean seen visibly, but rather I mean some method by which a quark can be isolated and leave a tell-tale quark-signature in some way). But the real issue is that the quark theories tell us that we can’t <\/b>see individual quarks – they can only come in groups of three (such as the proton and neutron) or groups of two (the mesons). Trying to isolate one just doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So we have a theory that seems inherently untestable. That’s not much of a scientific theory. Think about the following:<\/p>\n

Fred: Why does a helium balloon go upwards?<\/p>\n

Bill: It’s the magic pixies that are carrying it<\/p>\n

Fred: But I haven’t seen a magic pixie<\/p>\n

Bill: Of course not, you can’t see them, they are invisible.<\/p>\n

Fred: But I can’t hear them either<\/p>\n

Bill: They’re silent. Plus, before you ask, tasteless, smell-less…<\/p>\n

Now, I’m not impying for a moment that the quark model is wrong, but rather, conveniently untestable (at least, directly). But that might change. The ALICE experiment<\/a> at the LHC is designed to create a temperature so high that even the protons and neutrons can melt, leaving behind a soupy thing containing free quarks. If that works, quarks will be ‘seen’ for the first time.<\/p>\n

Of course, the natural question to ask then is ‘What are quarks made of?’.  Magic pixies, most probably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The physics textbooks tell me that protons and neutrons are both made up of three quarks. These little things amuse me,  because no-one has actually ‘seen’ one. (By ‘seen’, I don’t literally mean seen visibly, but rather I mean some method by which a quark can be isolated and leave a tell-tale quark-signature in some way). 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