The experimenters concluded that they had discovered a new particle, similar to electrons, but positively charged. A cloud chamber (tracking system) immersed in a strong magnetic field revealed particles that curved the wrong way to be negatively charged electrons, yet were also too fast to be positively charged protons.
#Particle physics science bowl questions zip
Fast particles zip right through while slow ones loop around, possibly several times.īoth effects were used to discover positrons in 1932. In addition, the deflection is larger for slow, low-momentum particles than it is for fast, high-momentum ones. Thus, a tracking system with a magnetic field can distinguish between matter and antimatter. Magnetic fields curve the paths of charged particles, and the direction of curvature depends on whether the particle is positively or negatively charged. Unlike tracking and calorimetry, the magnet doesn’t detect the particles directly - it affects them in revealing ways. Magnet systems in modern particle physics experiments are used to analyze particle charge and momentum, but the field is strong enough and covers enough volume to give a whale an MRI exam.īroadly speaking, a modern particle physics detector has three main pieces: (1) tracking, which charts the course of charged particles by letting them pass through thin sensors, (2) calorimetry, which measures the energy of charged or neutral particles by making them splat into a wall and (3) a strong magnetic field.
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