Modern Physics Introduction Introduction

We've learned all about the interactions and reactions that we see in the world around us, so what's left to learn physics-wise a la Shmoop? Simple: things that are too small for us to ever see with our peepers. Even microscopes have a difficult time with the atomic level a century after modern physics began.

Atoms, electrons, protons, nuclear fission, binding energy…it's all mysterious. Up until now. We might not be able to observe directly these mysterious parts of the universe, but we can observe them through modern experimentation. That means that today is the day we dig into atomic, nuclear, and particle physics, with a little quantum mechanics on the side, of course.

Our understanding of these things have helped us built cellphones, the internet, and power plants to make it all run, so it's kind of a big deal.

We'll start from the "big" stuff (atoms) and work our way to subatomic particles, We need to put quotations mark around the word "big" because an atom is about a million times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The "small" stuff in particle physics is unimaginably small, but we can still study them, which is pretty cool.

Ever heard of atomic bombs? Now we get to find out how they work. No, not by experimentation. We're keeping it legal. Oh—and we even get to find out what this mysterious "anti-matter" is all about.