Read - Watch - Answer | Read - Watch - Answer | Read - Watch - Answer |
Some particles, like the proton and electron, are stable (as far as we know). They don't seem to change into other particles over time, which is to say they don't decay. Most other particles have dominant decay modes. They decay into one combination of particles more often than into other combinations. Many particles also have rare decay modes. If you have the patience to watch a million or so decays, you might see one of these combinations.
Each of the three activities below starts with a page of suggestions and background information for the teacher. The second page is a brief introduction for students. Third is the actual "Watch the Decays" page written in JavaScript. The fourth page consists of a set of questions that should prompt students to investigate the possibilities of the "Watch the Decays" page. Whenever you run across an unfamiliar word related to particle physics, please refer to A Glossary of High-Energy Physics Terms, produced at Boston University's physics department.
Observe Quark Transitions as a Particle Physicist Would - This page is similar to the first page, except that the decay results let you peek inside the particles at their quark constituents. Students could observe the simplification that a quark model lends to this particle behavior. The teacher could guide the class in deducing the amount of fractional charge on each of the quarks.
Sample Many Decays as a Particle Physicist Would - This page is nearly identical to the first page. It has three additional buttons that allow for automatic sampling of 10, 100, or 1000 decays. The JavaScript opens a new document to display the tabulated results. Since the code uses a random number generator to draw results from published values, your samples should approach the results observed in real experiments.