Why is the quantum world so quirky?

This is a question that scientists are trying to answer. Most quantum physicists admit that quantum particles behave in ways that no one in their right mind would predict. Nothing about quantum physics is intuitive, but it does explain how everything works.

Quantum physics came about because of the seemingly impossible fact that particles, in this case the photon, can act both as a particle and a wave. This didn't make sense at first until physicists realized that this is a fundamental property of nature.

The second concept that led to quantum physics is the Uncertainty Principle, an idea introduced by Werner Heisenberg. The reason he came up with it is because of the problem of describing the momentum (velocity) and position of a quantum particle at the same time. This wasn't a problem with larger objects, but at the quantum level science needed a new method to explain things, and that involved probability because Heisenberg said that you can't know or measure both the position and the momentum of a quantum particle at the same time. You have to employ probability. Basically, the more accurate you know the position of a particle, the less accurate you know its momentum.

The third concept involves superposition in which particles can exist in more than one location at the same time, in some cases widely separated. This is definitely not an intuitive concept. This idea has already been proven and could lead to instant communications over vast distances in space. The principle here is quantum entanglement. This idea says two widely separated particles can match spin. It's what Einstein called 'Spooky action at a distance', but even he didn't like it. It's just not consistent with classical Newtonian physics.

This probability concept is the bread and butter of quantum physics and it's the main reason for the duality of matter concept. In other words, particles can function as waves and as particles. It also led to the Standard Model, or the list of quantum particles by type. Each particle has a type classification, spin, mass and charge. The main types are Quarks, Leptons and Gauge Bosons. Quarks are the sub particles that are in the atom's sub atomic protons and neutrons, whereas the electrons are leptons. Things like photons are bosons. The Higgs God particle is a boson, which is named because they adhere to Bose-Einstein statistics. Fermions obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. What's the difference? Glad you asked. Bosons of the same energy can occupy the same place in space, whereas fermions cannot. Bosons are particles that transmit interactions, which mean they are force carriers. The Higgs boson is a good example. It transmits the mass field. Fermions, like quarks, give rigidity to matter, hence the reason they go into making protons and neutrons. Complicate, isn't it?

These particles were discovered in colliders like the Hadron collider. The discovery of the Higgs boson is a great milestone in science because it explains how matter has mass. In other word, the Higgs boson is the carrier of mass.

You have to keep in mind that quantum particles are extremely tiny, down in the range of an electron, which is usually described as to its mass rather than its size, even though it's mass is very small. The mass of an electron is 9.109 . . . times ten to the minus 31 kilograms. This is unbelievably tiny. Quarks are measured in tiny fractions of electron volts. They're way to small to measure. There is no way to see them. The smallest object that can actually be seen is an atom, which is humongous compared to these incredibly tiny quantum particles.

Their small size may be the reason that they act weirdly. They're like trying to work with tiny feathers. They blow away at the slightest air current and they're almost impossible to keep in one place. A quantum particle is in a size class that's impossible to imagine, but that's what makes them so fascinating. It's as if they are in a world of their own, which in some ways is true.

So, let's consider quarks, which are the sub particles of hadrons, such as the proton and neutron. Notice that Hadron is the name of the collider because they smash protons together. Quarks come in flavors, such as Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Charm and Strange. These flavors have intrinsic properties of mass, charge and spin; however, all of them have a - 1/2 spin, making them fermions. Up and down quarks have the lowest masses and all of the other quarks decay down to them.

The proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark, whereas the neutron is composed of one up quark and two down quarks. Wild, isn't it?

The reason that I discuss these intriguing particles of nature is to show how complicated nature is. This is the main reason that I don't believe that the universe is an accident. It had to be conceived by an unbelievably brilliant intellect. I will discuss more of this in an essay on the Big Bang.

Thanks for reading.