Deck 13: The Ultimate Structure of Matter: How Can Antimatter Be Used to Probe the Human Brain

Question 1

When do the four fundamental forces become unified?

A) at sequential freezings
B) at extremely high temperatures
C) during a solar eclipse
D) in specialized particle accelerators
E) in a cloud chamber

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is an end product of matter-antimatter annihilation?

A) destruction of the universe
B) energy
C) waste heat
D) nuclear fusion
E) nuclear fission

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which elementary particle participates in the strong force?

A) Photon
B) electron
C) hadron
D) neutrino
E) leptons

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Which quark was the most recent quark to be discovered?

A) top
B) bottom
C) strange
D) charm
E) up

Question 5

The force that holds the nucleus together despite the electrical repulsion between protons is the

A) gravitational force.
B) weak force.
C) electromagnetic force.
D) strong force.
E) electroweak force.

Question 6

Theories of Everything (TOEs) are

A) philosophical theories about how everything on Earth is organized.
B) secular theories of how life began.
C) fully unified theories about how all fundamental forces come together.
D) current political theories about global annihilation.
E) science fiction.

Question 7

Which of the following kinds of particles are made from quarks?

A) leptons
B) protons
C) electrons
D) antiparticles
E) photons

Question 8

How is the proton's +1 charge calculated using nuclear quark charges?

A) 1 quark = +1
B) 1/2 quark + 1/2 quark = +1
C) 2/3 quark + 2/3 quark + (-1/3 quark) = +1
D) 2/3 quark + 1/3 quark = +1
E) 1/2 quark + 1/2 quark = -1

Question 9

The main research purpose of a particle accelerator is to

A) produce streams of 'artificial cosmic rays.'
B) attract more people to the science field.
C) support international cooperation.
D) detect nuclear weapons testing.
E) conduct basic research into TOEs.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a particle accelerator?

A) graviton
B) cyclotron
C) synchrotron
D) linear accelerator
E) medical X-ray machine

Question 11

Which two forces have infinite range?

A) strong and weak
B) electromagnetic and strong
C) weak and gravity
D) gravity and electromagnetic
E) strong and gravity

Question 12

Quarks are one of the basic building blocks of matter. Which of the following particles or structures would not contain any quarks at all?

A) DNA
B) a glucose molecule
C) a neutron
D) an electron
E) a proton

Question 13

The difference between a quark and a lepton is

A) quarks exist in the nucleus; leptons do not.
B) leptons appear in the nucleus; quarks do not.
C) quarks can appear as free particles; leptons cannot.
D) matter is made of quarks; leptons are exchanged to produce forces.
E) none; they are two names for the same particle.

Question 14

Which elementary particle has the same mass but a different charge as one of the leptons?

A) hadron
B) electron
C) mu
D) positron
E) proton

Question 15

Which group below shows the building blocks of matter in order of their size, smallest to largest?

A) quark, neutron, nucleus, atom, molecule
B) molecule, atom, nucleus, neutron, quark
C) molecule, atom, neutron, proton, quark
D) atom, neutron, quark, proton, electron
E) neutron, proton, electron, quark, nucleus

Question 16

Which of the following is an application of elementary particles research?

A) cloud chamber
B) positron emission tomography
C) cartographic topography
D) genetically engineered vegetables
E) medical X-ray machine

Question 17

How are elementary particles detected? 1) using a large electromagnet
2) allowing particles to pass through a grid of thin gold wires
3) by measuring changes that result from an interaction with matter

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) any of 1, 2, or 3 could be used to detect elementary particles
E) none of 1, 2, or 3 could be used to detect elementary particles

Question 18

Which of the following pairs of objects exchange gravitons?

A) the Moon and Earth
B) the international space station and an astronaut
C) two adjacent molecules of oxygen in the atmosphere
D) the Orion Nebula and a newborn baby
E) all of these pairs of objects and all pairs of objects in the universe

Question 19

How do quarks differ from other elementary particles?

A) Quarks exist as free-floating particles in space.
B) Quarks have positive and negative charges that are all multiples of two.
C) Quarks form the basic structure of all electrons.
D) Only six kinds of quarks make up the hundreds of nuclear particles.
E) Quarks can be isolated and observed in a cloud chamber.

Question 20

In what order are the fundamental forces unified as temperatures increase from low to high?

A) electromagnetic and gravity combine first, then strong, finally weak
B) electromagnetic and strong combine first, then weak, finally gravity
C) weak and strong combine first, then electromagnetic, finally gravity
D) electromagnetic and weak combine first, then strong, finally gravity
E) gravity and weak combine first, then electromagnetic, finally strong

Question 21

Arrange the following in order of increasing strength: electromagnetic, gravity, strong weak.

Question 22

Why is an electron described as a "weakly interacting one?"

Question 23

What is reductionism?

Question 24

Why should the average person care about elementary particles?

Question 25

List the steps used to detect a positron with a cloud chamber.

Question 26

What disadvantages did scientists find in using cosmic rays for studying the fundamental structure of matter?

Question 27

How did Carl Anderson's cloud chamber apparatus differ from the ones that preceded it?

A) Anderson's cloud chamber detected cosmic rays.
B) Ionized particles were blocked from Anderson's cloud chamber.
C) Vibrations from celestial movements were filtered from the Anderson apparatus.
D) Anderson used magnets, which detected antimatter.
E) Anderson's device was the first to incorporate electron microscopes in the design.

Question 28

What are the four fundamental forces in universe and how do they work?

Question 29

How are particle accelerators used in medicine?

Question 30

Why do scientists believe that an individual quark will never be confined long enough to be studied?

Question 31

Describe how a PET scan uses an unstable oxygen isotope.

Question 32

What was the innovation in Carl Anderson's experiment

Question 33

What are the parts of a particle accelerator?

Question 34

Carl Anderson and Ernest Lawrence each won a Nobel Prize for their research. Briefly describe their work.

Question 35

Compare a linear accelerator with a synchrotron.

Question 36

Why do scientists find it harder to detect neutrons than electrons?

Question 37

Compared to its matter complement, antimatter has the same

A) electrical charge and magnetic characteristics.
B) mass and electrical charge.
C) mass and electrical charge, but opposite magnetic characteristics.
D) mass, but opposite electrical charge and magnetic characteristics.
E) mass and magnetic characteristics, but opposite electrical charge.

Question 38

We can say that cosmic rays

A) have no charge.
B) are mostly electrons.
C) fall to the ground without interacting with anything in the Earth's atmosphere.
D) were created by humans as a source of high-energy particles.
E) are particles that fall on Earth from outer space.

Question 39

A high-energy physicist might request research funding for studies pertaining to

A) aerobic physiology.
B) hydrogen bombs.
C) solar flares.
D) electromagnetic radiation.
E) elementary particles.

Question 40

A graviton is to gravity as the strong force is to

A) the wind.
B) a photon.
C) both W and Z.
D) a gluon.
E) an electron.

Question 41

Discuss the exchange of gauge particles. Give an example of a condition under which the gauge particles are exchanged and name the fundamental force involved.

Question 42

Review the arguments surrounding the huge expenditure of money for basic science projects such as the Superconducting Supercollider.

Question 43

In what ways do science fiction writers include elementary particle theory in their discussion of space travel?

Question 44

If magnets are used to accelerate particles (in a particle accelerator), does this mean that these particles are magnetic?

Question 45

If two protons in a nucleus have the same charges, they should repel each other. How, then, do atomic nuclei stay together?

Question 46

Describe the advances made by the past generation of scientists in the field of high-energy physics. What do you think will be the next accomplishment?

Question 47

What effects can war have on scientific research? Explain your answer.

Question 48

What observation supports the idea that the strong force is greater than the electrical force at nuclear distances?

Question 49

Subatomic particles and atoms seem very abstract to the everyday world. Give an example of how knowledge of these has created some of the new medical technology in the modern world.

Question 50

Briefly, what are unified field theories?