The History of the Meter

In science, precise measurements are everything. In order to prove even the simplest theorems, you need systems of measurement that can be both accurate for your purposes, and translatable to other scientists to facilitate collaboration. This is what the SI units are for; they’re a universal system of measuring things. The meter, as stubborn as America might be to use it, is actually the perfect ruler for science (we’ll see why later). But I wondered today: what did the world do before the French intervened with their fancy “Système International d'unités”? How did we measure football fields? 

Yeah, I went there.

The Fundamentals, Part 4: The Weak (but still really strong) Force

Our final interaction, and it’s a tough one. The weak force is probably the most subtle of the fundamental interactions; it’s responsible for beta decay, or the breaking down of particles like the neutron and proton through radiation. This kind of decay is the main force that powers our Sun, as well as making heavier elements possible. However, there’s a lot more to the weak interaction than meets the eye...

The Fundamentals, Part 3: The Strong Force

Part three is our first venture into relatively obscure physics. I’d reckon that not many people could accurately describe what either weak or strong forces do. Luckily, you won’t be one of those people. 

Years ago, when quantum science was first being explored, physicists started discovering a couple of very, very small pieces of matter and energy that made up everything, particles like protons, electrons, and neutrons. They called these the ‘elementary particles’ because of their special status as the building blocks of the universe. All of this progress led to more accurate models of the atom, and it was finally deduced that all atoms contained a nucleus in the center with a certain number of protons and neutrons, as well as an electron cloud surrounding this core. 

And for this, there was much rejoicing.

But how did the protons and neutrons stay together?