Station 1: What Are Particles?

STATION 1: WHAT ARE PARTICLES?
Learning Goal: Students should understand that particles are the building blocks
of everything!
Overview:
What are we made of? You may have heard of atoms, which make up all matter.
But, the truth is, atoms are made up of even smaller particles called protons, neutrons
and electrons. And, what if I were to tell you that protons and neutrons were made up of
even smaller particles than that! Crazy, right?
Particles are the building blocks of everything in the universe! They make up the
air you breathe, the food you eat, the sidewalk you walk on, and most importantly, you!
Everything in the world can be broken down into really really really small elementary
particles. How small? you might ask. Well, a proton, which is a particle found in the
nucleus of all atoms, is smaller than one quadrillionth of a meter! And an electron, which
is found in the cloud around the nucleus of an atom, is 1865 times smaller than that! It is
almost impossible to imagine how small these elementary particles really are!
When we talk about these particles, there are two major kinds: fermions and
bosons. Fermions are matter particles. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up
space. Bosons are force carrying particles This means they are made up of tiny bundles
of energy.
Materials:
Pieces of paper (28 cm long by 1 cm wide)

Scissors
M&ms (or any time of small circular candy)
Flashlight
Activity:
1. Have the students fold their paper strip in half , then cut along the fold.
They now should have two 14cm long strips of paper.
2. Have students discard one of the halves.
3. Repeat steps one and two until they can make no more cuts.
4. Ask students the following questions:
a. Question: How many cuts could you make? (Normally
students can make about 7-8 cuts.)
b. Question: How many hairs wide do you think your smallest
piece is? (Seven cuts is about 20 hair widths.)
c. Question: Quarks are the smallest things known to
scientists. How many times do you think you would have to cut the paper
to get to the size of a quark? (at least 58)
5. Now show students m&ms and a flashlight that is on.

a. Question: What observations can you make about the m&m/
the flashlight?
b. Have the student place the m&m in their hand. Then, have
the student cover the light. Question: What happens when you hold the
m&m or stop the light from shining. Can either of these things move
through your hand?
c. Question: What kind of particles make up the m&m? What
kind of particles make up the light?
d. Question: Is your hand made up of particles too? How do
you know?
STATION 2: WHAT IS THE HIGGS

BOSON?
Learning Goals:
Overview:
Particles will move around and not clump together unless they have mass. What happens when
the higgs mechanism permeates all of space. That mechanism interacts with our particles.
Some particles get very bogged down while others dont interact quite as much. These particles
are not as massive. The photon has no mass whatsoever and that continues to fly off at light
speed. So what is the boson? That is one of the particles in the Higgs field. This allows for the
explanation as to why some particles have mass and why some are bigger than others.
materials:
ping pong balls

string
lunch tray
sugar or sand
STATION 3: CLOUD CHAMBER:

PARTICLES IN ACTION
Learning Goals: Students will be able to see particles and learn about how
scientists can study them.
Overview:
Now that you know a little bit about what particles are, wouldnt it be cool if you
could actually see them? Well, with a cloud chamber, that is possible! A cloud chamber
is a device used by physicists to detect and study elementary positrons. Just like how
the LHC, a cloud chamber can track a particles movement, and a physicist can then
determine the energy and electric charge of the particle. You can think of a cloud
chamber as a very small and simple tool that has a similar concept to the LHC.
But, if particles are so small and if they move so fast, how can we see them? If
air is saturated with some kind of vapor and then it is cooled quickly, tiny droplets of mist
form around floating bits of dust or other material. This mist forms a cloud track.
Materials:
1 large beaker
metal tray (cooking tray will do)
electrical tape
large box or serving container (to hold the ice)
dry ice
felt
isopropyl alcohol (pure is best, but can be 91%)
molding clay
slide projector or light source
Setup/Activity :
1. If you were not able to get a black metal plate, you have to wrap one side
of the metal plate completely with the black electrical tape. This will make it much
easier for you to see the white particle tracks later on in front of a black
background. The bottom will be in contact with alcohol when you run the
chamber, so do not use alcohol-soluble tape or glue to attach it. If you have
already a black metal plate you can skip to the second step.
2. Soak the felt in the alcohol and attach it to the bottom of the beaker (will
be the top of the cloud chamber) with the modeling clay.
3. Now you can close the chamber: Put the metal plate with the black
surface pointing to the inside of the box and turn it around. Your chamber should
how have the beaker inverted, with the metal plate on the bottom. Seal the
beaker to the metal plate with the clay, and make sure it is tightly sealed.
4. Now take the dry ice and put it into the larger box, beneath the metal
plate. Make sure to use thick gloves (the ones for handling heavy things or heavy
winter gloves) and safety goggles when handling the ice. The temperature of the
ice is -78o C! Finally put the box with the metal plate on the bottom on the ice.
Now your chamber is ready to detect particles tracks !!!
5. The chamber will take a few minutes to get to an equilibrium state before
you can see the first track appearing. Cover the cloud chamber with a blanket or
turn off the lights in the room so that you can see the tracks more easily. At first,
you will only see a rain-like mist of alcohol. The sensitive place of the chamber
where you will see tracks is near the bottom of your chamber. Make sure that the
chamber stays sealed and that you have no air leaks. After about 10 minutes,
you should start to see the tracks of particles passing through. The tracks look a
little like spider's threads going along the chamber floor. You should be able to
see a couple of tracks per minute. If needed, you can add extra alcohol through
the holes in the top of the box without reopening the box.
6. You will see different kinds of tracks coming from different cosmic
particles. You might notice that some tracks are very "bright" and thick, and
others are very faint. Besides straight lines of tracks from one particle you might
see:
a. A straight track that sharply "kinks" off to the left or right.
This is a decay of a muon particle. The two dashed lines are particle
called neutrinos (the dashed lines) that your chamber is not able to detect.
b. Three tracks that meet at a single point. In these events, one
track is an incoming cosmic ray, a particle called muon. This particle hits
an atomic electron. The electron and the outgoing cosmic track are the
two other tracks.
c. A very windy, chaotic track. This is "multiple scattering", as a
low-energy cosmic ray bounces off of one atom in the air to the next.
For more directions, see https://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/document/cloud-final.pdf

Station 1: What Are Particles?

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STATION 1: WHAT ARE PARTICLES?

Pieces of paper (28 cm long by 1 cm wide)

5. Now show students m&ms and a flashlight that is on.

STATION 2: WHAT IS THE HIGGS

ping pong balls

STATION 3: CLOUD CHAMBER:

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