If we were asked to design a 6 –hour course on particle physics, what would we feel must be the essential content? ….Designed for 16-19 year olds.

In what order would we present it? …at the end of the programme or at the beginning of the programme?

Pre-requisites:

Know about the atom, nucleus and radioactivity

The differences between the classical world and the quantum world?

Need to consider the purpose.. and recognize that the approach might be different if included at the beginning or the end of a 16-19 course.

Suggestions in the discussion of content:

First suggestion:

Brief history/overview of particle/atomic physics developments in the 20^th century (half hour?)

Radioactivity is good place to start because of the fact that electrons are not to be found in the nucleus but they are emitted by it, where do they come from?

Historical overview introduces the large range of particles

Should learn about quarks and leptons

Second suggestion:

Do not present it from the historical perspective, start with the current view of particles using quarks, leptons and interactions. Show how particles can be built up from quarks and antiquarks. Use detector images to emphasise the reality of the particles.

Relationship between mass and energy E = mc² …for particle creation and annihilation.

What can we use just up and down quarks..or should we include the strange quark, so that students can build nucleons, pions and kaons?

How the use of quarks helps us to understand the ‘zoo’ of particles.

The link between cosmology and particle physics – that it helps physicists understanding the ‘big bang”

Make students aware of the applications that have come from the study of particle physics e.g. positron emission tomography. …spin off from work at places like CERN

Feynman diagrams to illustrate interactions and decays? ..but it might be more appropriate in a longer and a higher level course.

Introduction of what antimatter is? (this links with particle creation and annihilation)

Link between physics and philosophy, a part of culture…link between classical and quantum world…but this should have been done before the 6 hours.

The four fundamental interactions of nature, conservation laws….

Link student’s familiarity with principles of motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields to accelerators…

Extend to understand detector principles…

Note: can use aspects of particle physics to support the teaching in other parts of the general physics course.