Frequently Asked Questions

The following are questions submitted to us. Helen Quinn, content provider for this web site, offers answers to the questions.

1. Why is so much energy produced when an atom is split or fused?
2. More about time dilation
3. How does a cyclotron work?
4. Have quarks been observed and isolated in the laboratory?
5. Is mass always conserved?
6. How can the exchange of a photon attract a proton and an electron, yet repel two electrons?
7. More about the speed of light.
8. I was looking for a SU3 chart of the quark model.
9. Why is the visual spectrum continuous if it is produced by electrons going from one quantum state to another within the atom?
10. Time, microphysical processes, and probability.

FAQ4: Have particles known as quarks (carrying electric charge ± 1/3e or  ± 2/3e) been isolated and observed in laboratory?

The answer to this question false; quarks have been observed indirectly, but they cannot be isolated.

We understand this is just like saying that you cannot observe a room with all of the air molecules in one half of the room. That is a perfectly possible physical state of the room, but it is extremely improbable, so improbable that it is quite correct to say you will never see it. The same is true for an isolated quark, far enough away from an antiquark, (or from the other two quarks needed to make a proton or a neutron) so that you could observe their separated charges. Its a possible but extremely improbable physical state, and so we never see it.