User:Student7/Sandbox 14

Definitions

 * carbon atoms, water molecules - Somewhat larger than hydrogen atoms, these are the smallest objects that can be seen with an electron microscope.
 * hydrogen atoms - They can't be seen.
 * Electrons - These are 1/10,000 the size of hydrogen atoms. Same size as protons. They can't been seen either. When children are taught simple physics, they are told that these "rotate" around the nucleus of an atom in shells. This seems to work for chemistry, if not for physics.
 * Higgs boson - These can't been seen. Their size is apparently less important than their lifetime which is ten trillion times shorter than a nanosecond. Hardly makes it worthwhile to fill out a birth certificate. This is what the guys at CERN were supposed to have been looking for when they weren't bombarding flights of nearby geese with protons.
 * Protons - made of quarks and constitute atomic nucleii. Their radius is 0.84087 femtometers. A femtometer is a billionth of a billionth of a meter. These can't be seen.
 * quark - The smallest is 1/10 millionth the size of a proton. There are six types (3 "pairs') of quarks, four of which (2 "pairs") are unstable. The other two are the components of atomic nucleii. Quarks are composed of (balls of?) string. Scientists are not real sure about the lengths of these or smaller particles.
 * Neutrino - These are 1/100 the size of the smallest quark. This is the second smallest particle. It can't been seen either. There are three kinds of these in the standard model.
 * String - These are 1/100 billionth the size of neutrinos. The smallest stuff "known" (dreamt up?) by man. You know how some people keep string? Well, you could roll up a length of this from here to the sun and lose it in your sock drawer. Not that you can do that. Not that the Supreme Court has found something in the Constitution that protects this kind of string. Physicists just claim it's too small, and you can't even tie it together. Can't be seen.


 * Physicists are talking about smashing string to find out what it is made of. For this they would need a much larger collider.
 * ("Big fleas have little fleas, Upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum.") - Based on a poem by Jonathan Swift