Table Of ContentBenjamin Bahr · Boris Lemmer
Rina Piccolo
Quirky
Quarks
A Cartoon Guide
to the Fascinating
Realm
of Physics
Quirky Quarks
The Authors
Benjamin Bahr, Boris Lemmer, Rina Piccolo
Dr. Benjamin Bahr is a quantum gravity researcher at the University of Ham-
burg, Germany. He and his research group work on a unification of Einstein’s
theory of general relativity with the principles of quantum physics.
Before that, he did his PhD at the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
in Potsdam, and was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK.
When he is not trying to calculate what goes on inside a black hole, or what
happened at the Big Bang, he likes to explain physics to laypeople – by giving
public talks, or writing popular science books.
Dr. Boris Lemmer is an experimental elementary particle physicist, working at
the University of Göttingen and on the ATLAS Experiment at CERN.
Before doing his PhD in Göttingen, he studied physics and mathematics in
Gießen. He does not only love science, but also explaining it to laymen, either
in books, in talks or on stage. In 2011, he won the German Science Slam cham-
pionship.
Rina Piccolo’s cartoons have appeared in numerous magazines including The
New Yorker, Barron’s Business Magazine, The Reader’s Digest, Parade Magazine,
and more.
Her daily comic strip “Tina’s Groove” is syndicated in newspapers and websites
worldwide.
(cid:2) (cid:2)
Benjamin Bahr Boris Lemmer
Rina Piccolo
Quirky Quarks
A Cartoon Guide to the Fascinating
Realm of Physics
BenjaminBahr RinaPiccolo
Hamburg,Germany Toronto,Canada
BorisLemmer
Göttingen,Germany
ISBN978-3-662-49507-0 ISBN978-3-662-49509-4(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-662-49509-4
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016932389
©Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2016
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V
Preface
What Do You Get When You
Collide Two Physicists and a Cartoonist?
If you remember your college, or high school phys- As a cartoonist and writer, I am a natural wonder-
ics textbook like I remember mine, you’ll agree that er, and although like many people I find physics
it was the heaviest of all your books to carry, and the difficult, the stuff of black holes, worm holes, and
most difficult to understand. A quick glance through sub-atomic strangeness has always intrigued me.
the pages of this book – the one you’re looking at The opportunity to work with Boris, and Benjamin
now – will show you that it looks nothing like your – physicists devoted to de-coding nature’s biggest
college, or high school textbook. It’s way too fun puzzles – has made me a better wonderer, and a
looking. Flip through it and you’ll find two dogs, a shade brighter. Thanks to these gentlemen, I now
cat, and quarks with three eyes. You’ll see cartoon understand things like surface tension… and find it
electrons, and comics about Special Relativity. Oh, as mind-boggling as dark matter. (Thanks, guys, for
and let’s not forget the actual science. Explained in adding to my crazy mental catalogue of things I love
plain, everyday language that even a cartoonist like to wonder about.)
me can understand, co-authors Boris Lemmer, and
Benjamin Bahr will show you what anti-matter has If you’re like me, an avid wonderer who enjoys hav-
to do with bananas, and why you feel bloated on ing your mind blown by the often bizarre nature of
an airplane (clue: it’s not because you ate bananas). reality – and you like cartoons – then seek no other
They’ll crack open an atom, and make you question book than this one.
the stability of the ground beneath your feet. They’ll
tell you how to create matter out of energy. They’ll So, what do you get when you collide two physi-
even have you wondering about a possible other cists and a cartoonist? You get quarks, quirks, and
you, in a possible other universe, reading another an enjoyable exploration of the fascinating realm of
book eerily like this one. physics.
–Rina Piccolo
VI
Contents
Preface V
The Characters XIII
The Particles XIV
Measure for Measure On the Units in Science XVI
I – Rocket Science 1
Auroras An Exciting Glow for Humans and Atoms 3
Light Ripples in the Electromagnetic Field 7
Invisibility Cloaks Walk Like a Magician 11
The Doppler Shift The Stretching of Waves 15
Lasers High Quality Light Offering new Possibilities 19
Vacuum and Air Pressure Molecules on the Move 23
Fluid Flow and Turbulences Nothing You Should Test on a Highway 27
Why Does a Plane Fly? How to Guide the Air to Keep You up 31
Surface Tension Minimal Surface for Maximum Comfort 35
Non-Newtonian Fluid Is It Liquid? Or Is It Solid? 39
Rocket Maneuvers Navigating within Nothing 43
Kepler’s Laws The Basic Rules for the Movement of Planets 47
VII
Conservation Laws Nothing Gets Lost in Nature 51
The Voyager Probes Where No One Has Gone Before 55
Birth of the Solar System A Star Is Born 59
Genesis of the Moon A Mini Big Bang Close to Earth 63
Extrasolar Planets Is Anybody out There? 67
II – The Cosmos 71
Spectral Classification A Who Is Who of Stars 73
Red Giants and Planetary Nebulae The End of a Main Sequence Star 79
Supernovae Going out with a Bang 83
White Dwarfs and Type Ia Supernovae Corpses of the Suns and Standard Candles 87
Black Holes Once You Go Black, You Never Come Back 91
The Big Bang The Horrendous Space Kablooie 97
Timeline of Our Universe From the Big Bang to the Present 100
The Cosmic Microwave Background The Oldest Photons in the Universe 105
Large Scale Structure of the Universe A Network Made of Stars 109
Galaxy Types Looks Is Everything 113
Relative Space and Time Why you Can’t Make Light Faster by Pushing it 117
The Theory of General Relativity Curved Space and Warped Time 121
Curved Space Time Getting the Right Angle 125
VIII
Gravitational Lensing Mirages in the Night Sky 129
Dark Matter More than Meets the Eye 133
Dark Energy The Revival of Einstein’s Biggest Blunder 137
III – Quantum Mechanics 141
Wave-Particle Duality Is It a Wave or Particle? 143
The Double Slit Experiment On the Weirdness of the Quantum World 147
Heisenberg Uncertainty You Cannot Have It Both Ways 151
Schrödinger’s Cat Dead and Alive at the Same Time 155
Feynman Paths Reality as the Sum of Possibilities 159
Quantum Tunneling Where There Is a Wave Function, There’s a Way 163
Radioactive Decay About the Life of Nuclei and Their End 167
Alpha, Beta and Gamma Rays Radioactive Rays 171
Nuclear Fusion Energy Source for Dinosaurs and Future Humans 175
Superconductors Super Highways for Electrons 179
Superfluidity The Creepy Kind of Fluid 183
Spin Particle Dances in Discrete Steps 187
Entanglement A Spooky Action at a Distance? 191
Quantum Teleportation There and Back Again 195
Qubits How to Build a Quantum Computer 199
