what is matter made of?

i heard if zoom in more in more and look into and atom you will find quarks and if you zoom more and more you will find that there is nothing there, so matter is just an illusion?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
i heard if zoom in more in more and look into and atom you will find quarks and if you zoom more and more you will find that there is nothing there, so matter is just an illusion?

No one is currently certain. The Standard Model predicts that mass comes from the Higg's boson and the LHC was built to look for it.

String Theory predicts that if you zoom in enough you will find little strings of energy that make up all particles. Like the Higg's boson no one has ever observed these strings.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
No one is currently certain. The Standard Model predicts that mass comes from the Higg's boson and the LHC was built to look for it.

String Theory predicts that if you zoom in enough you will find little strings of energy that make up all particles. Like the Higg's boson no one has ever observed these strings.

Souls.

Originally posted by Mindship
"Strings of energy." What energy? "Spatial" energy? Is matter ultimately space twisted into Planck-size "strands"?
Do physicists understand (even if theoretcially) how space, matter and strings all piece together?

I have no idea. Once you get beyond "woo strings!" it's much to complicated for me.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
i heard if zoom in more in more and look into and atom you will find quarks and if you zoom more and more you will find that there is nothing there, so matter is just an illusion?

I think your referring to atoms with the "empty space" bit.
These snippets are taken from the link below.

An atom isn't just tiny, it's over 99.9% empty space. All the weight of an atom is concentrated in a mind-numbingly tiny object at its centre. It's a trillionth of a centimetre across and is called the nucleus.

If you removed all the empty space from the atoms that make up all the humans on the planet, then you could fit all 6 billion of us inside a single apple.

LINK

As for string theory and the standard model, these are unproven ideas dreamed up by some theoretical scientists.

Originally posted by Bicnarok
As for string theory and the standard model, these are unproven ideas dreamed up by some theoretical scientists.

The standard model is extremely well tested. All of the parts in it have been shown experimentally except for the Higgs Boson. It's popular precisely because it matches up with reality so well.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

maybe take a couple hits first, this is triiiiiiiiiiippy

God's blood.

If you zoom in enough you'll just start seeing the Universe again. Kinda like that Futurama episode where Universe A is inside a box from Universe B that's inside the box from Universe A that's... etc.

Originally posted by Mindship
"Strings of energy." What energy? "Spatial" energy? Is matter ultimately space twisted into Planck-size "strands"?
Do physicists understand (even if theoretcially) how space, matter and strings all piece together?

It is the eigenstates of space-time. 😛

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
The standard model is extremely well tested. All of the parts in it have been shown experimentally except for the Higgs Boson. It's popular precisely because it matches up with reality so well.

"except for the Higgs Boson" the Higgs boson IS the key part to this whole idea, that a mysterious particle causes energy to clump into matter. I hope they find it, but I think something even more weird and confusing might turn up.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
It is the eigenstates of space-time. 😛

Until then, my use of the word is in (probable) hiatus. book

Originally posted by Mindship
I am planning to construct a thinking map, such that, I will be able to take in, at a glance, all the key terms involved in the concept of an eigenstate, this hopefully enabling me to integrate all component concepts into a comprehensible definition.

Until then, my use of the word is in (probable) hiatus. book

Send me a copy.

It's math, and sometimes math doesn't translate.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Send me a copy.

It's math, and sometimes math doesn't translate.

Originally posted by Mindship
Expect a Reader's Digest version.

Reader's Digest! 😱 Now, that brings back memories.

I remember reading that Yale or Harvard shot a long range laser and separated it into two different directions and when they manipulated one of the forked beams the opposite one did the exact same thing.

Originally posted by the ninjak
I remember reading that Yale or Harvard shot a long range laser and separated it into two different directions and when they manipulated one of the forked beams the opposite one did the exact same thing.

That is called Quantum entanglement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement

Originally posted by the ninjak
I remember reading that Yale or Harvard shot a long range laser and separated it into two different directions and when they manipulated one of the forked beams the opposite one did the exact same thing.

Wow never heard of that, very interesting.

Originally posted by Bicnarok
I think your referring to atoms with the "empty space" bit.
These snippets are taken from the link below.

An atom isn't just tiny, it's over 99.9% empty space. All the weight of an atom is concentrated in a mind-numbingly tiny object at its centre. It's a trillionth of a centimetre across and is called the nucleus.

If you removed all the empty space from the atoms that make up all the humans on the planet, then you could fit all 6 billion of us inside a single apple.

LINK

As for string theory and the standard model, these are unproven ideas dreamed up by some theoretical scientists.

Wow, that's cool.