![]() These rules-what we now call the laws of physics-are the DNA that controls the growth of the universe with a different DNA, we’d get a different universe. So before there were any electrons or protons there were rules on how they would have to behave if they were to come into existence. And the nature of those orbits is specified in advance by the laws of quantum mechanics. Negatively charged electrons will be attracted toward and then drawn into orbit around positively charged protons. ![]() ![]() (A proton is composed of two quarks with charges of +2/3 plus one quark with a charge of -1/3, for a net charge of 1.) The simplicity of these rules is mind-boggling.Īnother rule says that charged particles will attract or repel each other. Quarks, however, are particles with a fractional charge of -2/3, -1/3, +1/3, or +2/3, but according to another rule of the universe quarks must assemble themselves into larger, composite particles, like protons or neutrons, that have a charge of either 0 or 1. Another rule states that all particles must have charge of -1, 0, or +1. One states that a negatively charged particle like an electron can exist only if there is a positively charged particle to balance it, so the total charge is always zero. We just know that they are there “in the beginning” and that they constrain what can and cannot happen. We don’t know whether these rules preexist our universe. One thing we do know now about that mysterious beginning is that it proceeded according to a precise set of rules. Read our latest issue or browse back issues. ![]()
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