What is meant by an "elementary particle"?
Describe the progression of ideas about what
particles are truly "elementary".
What particles are currently considered to be
the building blocks of all matter?
Describe the difference in protons and neutrons
in terms of the quarks which make them up.
No one has seen an isolated quark. Why not?
Why are huge, high energy accelerators required to
observe the tiniest of particles?
What has led to the close cooperation between those
who study the very smallest things (quarks, leptons)
and those who study the very largest things (galaxies,
quasars)?
Which two of the four fundamental forces have now
been shown to be "unified"?
What is meant by "grand unification theories (GUT)"?
What evidence do we have that all parts of the
universe are expanding? How is this expansion
related to the measurement of distance to
remote parts of the universe?
What is the 3K background radiation? What is its
significance to the modeling of the formation of
the universe?
Why is the relative abundance of hydrogen and
helium considered to be such an important part of
the modeling of the universe?
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