TEACHING MATERIALS

VISITING CERN

LINKS & BOOKS

HST

The Universe Game

Particle Physics Game   by  Joe Cook (USA)

According to our present Standard Model Theory of Physics, the universe started some 15 billion years ago as a Big Bang. The Big Bang was an explosion that pushed the mass of the universe from a point outward to form the stars, galaxies and eventually the solar systems. This game introduces some of the concepts of the Standard Model in a fun and exciting way. The game promotes collective work and cooperation. Students are encouraged to work together as a group to answer the questions so that everyone can get through the spiral of evolution. It is certain that some students will get through before others but their expertise can be called upon when there are mind-boggling questions. We only ask that one waits to be called on to give one’s expertise when it is not one’s turn. Students are also invited to add questions of their own to the board.

Objective:

The object of the game is for all of the players to get from the start to the end of the spiral and out to the universe as quickly as possible. Once everyone has finished, the game is over.

There can be one to four players. Each player chooses a game piece that represents a particle. The particles are as follows

• red cork pieces are up-quarks

• blue cork pieces are down quarks

• red tops are protons

• blue tops are neutrons

• black metal tops are electrons

• white metal tops are positrons

• clear plastic tops are gamma rays

• yellow tops are neutrinos

• green tops are mesons

• gray tops are anti-mesons

 One must upon choosing a particle make it around the board in order to finish the game. The game is not won until the last player makes it around the board. If your piece lands on a square with a word written on it, go to that stack, choose the top card and follow that instruction. If your piece lands on a square with a written instruction, follow the instruction immediately. After answering the question, place the card on the bottom of the stack to be used again. If your piece lands on a square with an anti-particle, those particles annihilate and change into a gamma ray. Sometimes particles decay when they land on a space with the word ‘decay’ written on it. They must then choose one of the resulting particles as their game piece.

Keep track of the time it takes to finish the game on a time chart in order to get an idea of the random nature of scientific processes. You can also add cards with new instructions to each stack to make the game more interesting.

Good luck!

Particles

•q, Quark- Quarks are the basic building blocks for protons and neutrons. There are six different quarks of which only two will be used as game pieces in this game. However students are encouraged to modify the game as their level of sophistication increases.

• e˜, Electron is an elementary particle

• µ˜, Muon˜ - decays into an elecron, anti-electron neutrino and a muon neutrino. The muon behaves like an electron, has a negative charge but weighs more.

•π˜, Pion˜ - decays into a muon˜ and an anti-muon neutrino.

• p, A proton is in the nucleus and is composed of three quarks, two up quarks and one down quark. It was once thought to be an elementary particle. The proton has a positive (+) charge and a mass of 938 MeV’s.

• n, A neutron is in the nucleus and is composed of three quarks, two up quark and one down. It was once thought to be an elementary particle. The neutron has no charge. A neutron decays into a proton, an electron and a neutrino. The neutron leaves no tracks in a detector as do all neutral particles.  

• v, Neutrino-There are three types of neutrinos- muon, electron and tau neutrinos. Neutrinos have virtually zero mass and travel at the speed of light. They can travel through any matter. It is now believed that the other two neutrinos oscillate and change into electron neutrinos.

• Gamma Rays – Gamma rays materialize into an electron and a positron under the influence of a nearby nucleus. It has no charge and zero mass. It is used in X-ray machines and travels at nearly the speed of light.

Each player chooses a particle. All particles are placed on the start square at the beginning of the game.. The dice are tossed and play proceeds counter-clockwise from highest to lowest number. In the case of a tie the players who tie should roll again to break the tie.  

The first player throws and moves his die to that number of squares. The player must follow the directions on that square unless they have an exempt card.

When one arrives within five spaces ofentering the universe, that player must throw the exact number of the number of spaces needed to complete the game.

Players may assist upon request another payer to answer a question and can pass exempt cards to each other.

More Information

At the time of the Big Bang, some 15 million years ago, the beginning of our universe, scientists believe that the only life was elementary particles in the form of quarks, electrons and neutrinos. The temperature then was 10^16 Kº , hotter than our sun today. These particles zoomed at speeds close to the speed of light. Seconds after the explosion, the universe began to cool and the particles began to come together to make bigger particles, the atoms, the molecules and finally the beginning of life forms as we know them today.

In this game you will start off as one of those particles and as you go through the board, you will evolve  in many unpredictable ways  until you emerge into the universe. We hope that you will appreciate the various stages that nature goes through in order to “be”.

Since the presence of men and women on earth, there has been a continuous effort to understand the forces that hold the elementary particles, the building blocks of matter, together. This game provides some information on the forces, the particles and the technology devised to create, accelerate, detect and identify them as well as how they are used to make the world a better place in which to live.

The piles of cards consists of

Particle Interactions

• Quarks

A down-quark combines with another down quark and an up quark to form a neutron, a neutral particle carrying no charged and found in the nucleus of an atom.

 An up-quark combines with another up-quark and a down quark to form a proton, a positive charged particle also found in the nucleus of an atom.

 ?An up-quark joins with a down quark to form a +pi-meson.

?A down-quark joins with a an up quark to from a –pi-meson.

  • Protons and neutrons

-A proton joins with a neutron to form a hydrogen nucleus- a proton and a neutron.

-A hydrogen nucleus joins with an electron to form a hydrogen atom, H.

-Two hydrogen atoms combine to form hydrogen gas, H2

-Hydrogen gas forms with one atom of oxygen to form water

 • Neutrinos

There are three types of neutrinos, the mu, electron and tau neutrinos. Neutrinos have no mass and no charge. They seldom interact and travel at the speed of light.

 • Electrons

Electrons are ≈ 1/2000 times the mass of a proton which means that they are small particles but carry an equal but opposite charge. We say that they are negatively charged particles. They zoom around the nucleus of the atom at very high speeds. They have an anti-matter partner called the positron that has the same mass but a positive charge. When the two collide, they annihilate and form gamma rays and quarks.

 • Cosmic Rays – are high energy protons from outer space that strike particles in earth’s atmosphere. These collisions produce showers of particles that produce pions, muons, electrons, neutrinos and other particles. Cosmic rays leave a heavy dark track on bubble chamber photographs.

 Stacks of cards. The different stacks are as follows

 • Particles -  includes some of the ways that the particles decay and interact with each other and also contains some question cards

• Bubble Chamber – a chamber filled with superheated hydrogen and other gases in which form small bubbles along the trail of charged particles that travel through it. Neutral particles like the neutron, K°, π° and gamma ray leave no trail. One detects them by knowledge of the decay process. The bubble trails are then photographed from different perspectives and the film is studied to provide information on the types of particles involved in the interaction.

 • Accelerators- Machines that propel particles at high speeds and then smashes them into each other or a target in order to break them and create other particles.

• Detectors- Machines that are part of accelerators and are used to track and identify the particles created in an accelerator. If you get caught on an accelerator that measures your type of particle, you are trapped and must start over.

• Technology- comprises the machines themselves as well as the spin-off products that make life better or worse.

Last modified: 28 June 2002