Wow, another simulator about fundamental interactions! OVERVIEW: Here is another simulator, but this time, it is the strong nuclear interaction, also known as the strong force. More specifically, the more fundamental level of strong interaction - the one binding the quarks together in over hundreds of particles, two of which are the proton and neutron. This simulator uses a proton. As you can see, there are three quarks - two up and one down - defining characteristics of a proton. What about the colour? Well, quarks carry a charge, but not an electric one - it's a strong force type of charge. We call it colour, but it's not physical colour - just an analogy. As you will see, the three quarks are always different colours - except for the extremely scaled up moments when a gluon is being emitted and is still travelling. So, every second or so, a quark will be shown flipping colour, causing one of the others to flip colours, which *can* cause the last one to switch (if it is needed to keep the colour charges balanced). For example, the red quark can switch to blue, emitting a gluon that turns the blue quark into a green quark, which emits a gluon turning the green quark into a red quark. By the way, during those times, you might see two blues and one green, or all red, or something else. By the way, you can drag the quarks around. They will always come close together within a minute - usually about 20 seconds. One thing that is slightly inaccurate about this project is that in reality, the quarks can be moved farther apart, but this creates lots of other particles. Also, the force here gets weaker with distance, while in reality, it gets stronger with distance. However, overall, I think this models the colour force pretty well. Tell me if you have any suggestions to make this project better!
INSTRUCTIONS: READ THIS FIRST! ^ read the overview or some of the notes below to understand the project c - switch the background colour z - show virtual gluons (interactions and cause of the force) x - hide virtual gluons (effects and what the force does) click and drag - move quarks NOTES: Basically in this project is a proton shown as a group of two u quarks and one d quark. They exchange a particle called the gluon. They are constantly being emitted and absorbed. The number of gluons that were emitted and absorbed is shown in the counter at the bottom. Scales: Well particles don't have size which means any distance is to scale... but it's not really "to scale". Colours: Not showing the wavelengths of photons quarks give off. Instead showing colour charge of quarks. Accuracy: Not 100% accurate, but still pretty accurate. A few minor inaccuracies are strength of the force, and the colour switching isn't 100% accurate, but overall I think it simulates interactions quite well. - One note that I want to make is that, if you turn on show gluons, what you see is not necessarily single gluons... more like waves of gluons, I guess. These particles are waves. - Note: the strong force here is so strong, it can win a battle against my "repulsion" code (which keeps the colour force from making the quarks overlap and collapse into each other)! I had to make the code cause quarks to move away from each other to fight it. If your quarks come together, you can use your mouse to separate them or let wall collisions separate them (wall collisions always disorient particles, giving them a chance to battle the interactions). CREDITS: all art by @CodeBit all scripts by @CodeBit in other words, the whole thing is by @CodeBit PERSONAL THOUGHTS: I think this was a really fun experience. I've learned a lot about fundamental interactions but recently I got an urge to learn more, and by trying to simulate them, I've come up with a lot of questions that I researched about. I've tried to make this as accurate as possible and I think it is a pretty good simulation. :) Did you enjoy this simulation? Please leave a love or fave! Have any constructive criticism or feedback? Comment down below. All feedback will be read. :) Related projects (can all be found under the tag #cbff) https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/269026568/
