kevin cooper

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if you could describe the different states a particle can be in. I'm actually in way over my head here; this is what I know about atoms-the nuclei are made up of protons and neutrons(except for hydrogen)which are composed of quarks, which are bound together by the fundamental strong atomic force. Protons and neutrons are bound together by the residual strong nuclear force, and electrons are bound to atomic nuclei by electromagnetism. The force particles are gluons, pions and photons respectively. When an atom interacts with the weak atomic force(bosons) it gains a positive or negative charge, becoming an ion. Anyway, I hope you can help me understand some of the more advanced ideas that I'm trying to understand, you obviously know what you're talking about and are able to break it down into layman's terms. Thanks!

According to the Bible, when we chose to leave the Garden all aspects of life would thereafter become difficult. I suppose if we had stayed in paradise the Earth would have remained stable and there would be no natural disasters. I should clarify that my responses are purely academic; although I subscribe to no religion I find the concept fascinating and really enjoy discussing it. I actually wonder why people continue to ask why God allows suffering, because it's explained in the Bible. If you wish I can provide specific passages to elaborate.

Thank you so much for your response. According to my understanding of what you described, a subatomic particle like a photon can behave like a wave and a particle because it possesses properties of both, and simply observing the particle does not determine weather it has wave-like or particle-like characteristics because we can't detect all the properties at once. This has me thinking about the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics; why is it that if a particle can exist in a number of different states or positions at once does it have to BE in all of them at once? I'm still trying to understand Schrodinger's Cat. Just because we can't observe what state something is in(or weather it's dead or alive)doesn't mean it's not one or the other.

Bad things happen because we have free will. When God gave us the choice to stay in the Garden or accept sin(which we did, of course)we were cast into the world to fend for ourselves. We are all still on a Devine path that has been laid out by our creator, but the relatively small decisions are left to us.

Although I do not subscribe to the concept that we are a microscopic part of a living organism(I suppose our entire universe could be contained in a quark or electron) I do entertain the idea that the universe is part of a larger megaverse that is itself in a hyperverse, and so on. There is also the possibility that there have been several big bangs in the overall expanse of space, creating pocket universes that are like bubbles with their own laws of physics. Normally these bubbles don't interact, but when they do there is a massive release of energy that can result in another big bang. This is my understanding of this crazy effin thing we call reality.

Hello, everyone. I just signed on to this site because of my interest in astronomy and physics. My comprehension of both involves limited math; I simply want to gain a basic understanding of the universe I inhabit. My current interest involves the double slit experiment, specifically how the particle detectors work. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, and without ever actually seeing any of this equipment, I had envisioned the detector acting something like a police radar gun with a field or beam that the particle(atom) would interrupt as it passes, thus being DETECTED. It is my understanding that the atom behaves like a wave until it is observed, at which point it acts like a particle. Does the detector cause the atom to collapse, or shrink into a point of energy that is otherwise spread out?