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RE: Journey through the understanding of particle physics - Four
This does help to explain observations in quantum physics where particles seem to disappear and then reappear somewhere else. I find with really difficult concepts I need to be exposed to it a few times before it starts to make sense to me.
You talked about how 'how two particles can annihilate each other and combine into a new type of particle!' is an example of this when one neutrino oscillates into a different type of neutrino?
These are not easy concepts to accept because we are so used to comprehend the world around us based on our everyday observations.
But I suppose that, when you think about it, an energy wave is no more mysterious than an indivisible corpuscle of matter.
The one nice thing about accepting that particles are actually energy waves is that it becomes easier to understand how they can combine, annihilate, decay, etc.
One of the hardest things for us, laymen, to understand I think are the particle properties. For example, what is mass? We find it difficult to separate mass from the concept of weight in our head but actually mass, like electric charge, is just another property that has a specific value and affects how particles behave.
Rest mass on its own is not something you can weigh. You need a curvature of the gravity field for that.
I wouldn't be the right person to ask for specific examples but I'm aware of a few. For example the annihilation of a quark and antiquark would produce a couple of photons.
Thanks for your feedback!
I remember in science class in school we always learned that things were made of smaller and smaller particles. That, plus the world around us as you said, gave me a firm idea that it's all little solid things. Fields do seem to do a better job of explaining some observations though. Great series for readers like me without much physics knowledge:)