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Article: Changing Standards.(Standard Model of Fundamental Particles and Interactions)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Popular Mechanics
- Article date:
- August 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The last thing anyone expects after laying a square yard of carpet in a 3 x 3-ft. closet is to see bare floor. Theory, in the form of the times table, says 3 x 3 = 9. Bare floor means something is wrong with either the ruler, our ruler-reading skills or our perception of the way the world works. Earlier this year, a similar dilemma presented itself to physicists at the conclusion of a lengthy experiment to test the Standard Model.
The Standard Model (short for the Standard Model of Fundamental Particles and Interactions) explains how everything in the universe, except gravity, behaves at the subatomic level. It describes what is inside the atom, why hydrogen ...