Theory of Everything: What is Matter?
What is matter, anyway? What does it have to do with math? And why aren't you made of Jesus? Delving deeper into the theory of (almost) everything - the Standard Model of particle physics....
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Matter is everywhere: we eat it, breathe it, drink it; it is who we are. But what is matter?The most basic particle physics definition of matter comes down to one surprising rule:the Pauli exclusion principle - or, essentially, electrons hate being alike.To understand why, we have to remember the fact that every electron is exactly the same.Not "kind of the same"… They're perfectly identical. Just as you can at anytime, anywhere,spontaneously write down the number three and it will mean exactly, perfectly, three…as if there were some everywhere-permeating "three-ness" always available to produce athree at your whim. It's the same case with the electron: there's an everywhere-permeating"electron-ness...
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Matter is everywhere: we eat it, breathe it, drink it; it is who we are. But what is matter?The most basic particle physics definition of matter comes down to one surprising rule:the Pauli exclusion principle - or, essentially, electrons hate being alike.To understand why, we have to remember the fact that every electron is exactly the same.Not "kind of the same"… They're perfectly identical. Just as you can at anytime, anywhere,spontaneously write down the number three and it will mean exactly, perfectly, three…as if there were some everywhere-permeating "three-ness" always available to produce athree at your whim. It's the same case with the electron: there's an everywhere-permeating"electron-ness...
