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Rahul Jain |
Shaheen Gandhi |
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Rahul Jain |
Shaheen Gandhi |
Hi, I'm Rahul Jain, the leader of the team that created this site. Shaheen and I are both about to enter out senior year in Bridgewater-Raritan High School (this link may not work yet). We are both members of our school's computer club; I'm the president and founder and he's the vice president. Also, we are both co-webmasters. My main interests are particle physics/quantum mechanics (obviously) and genetics. Ever since I learned about the atom, I was intrigued by how nature was made up of smaller and smaller building blocks. Also, the idea of having these tiny particles accelerated to outrageous speeds and smashed into each other sounded quite interesting. But it's when you see the results of these collisions that you realize how amazing nature really is. From only two particles, you can get literally dozens of new particles which only last for a fraction of a millisecond before decaying into even more particles. I guess my interest in genetics is related to my fascination with particle physics. Both attempt to explain how a limited number of building blocks can create complex systems; genetics explains how the four chemicals in DNA define all of the creatures on the planet, and particle physics explains how the diversity we see in the universe arises from less than 20 fundamental particles.
A Brief History of Time is an excellent book for some background on particle physics, quantum mechanics, and relativity, but for those of you who want to learn about how to really use the theories of particle physics, I suggest that you read QED by Richard Feynman. Feynman, now passed away, was one of the greatest physics lecturers of all time. In QED, he explained to non-physicists how to use the quantum theory of the electromagnetic force. The most math you need in this book is multiplication. It's a great book for anyone to read, and I learned most of what I know about introductory particle physics from that book. The Tao of Physics was also an interesting book since it shows the parallels between particle physics and eastern religions. It may be a hefty book, but it's worth it.
In case you're curious, I wrote much of the content and made the JavaTM Applets and the navigation bar, and Shaheen made the rest of the graphics, including the ones in the journey, and was in charge of the CGI scripting. Okay, enough from me; now Shaheen can tell you a little about himself.
As you can tell, my name's Shaheen Gandhi. I've always thought of particle physics as a complex and convoluted subject, yet very interesting. To this date, so much has been done to understand the universe on a macroscopic and microscopic plane. Since there is just an overload of information out there that can be learned about the atom and its relatives, we decided to create a site that dealt with the basics of the subject. Though it can get pretty weird to wards the end of the Journey, we hope that you can get at least the basics about how an atom interacts with its surroundings and how electromagnetic radiation is a controlling factor in the continuum of space and time. In addition, I would like to thank Steven Hawking for being so smart and writing his book A Brief History of Time, without which this site, and countless other discoveries, could never have been made. If this site moves you to study more on the topic of particle physics, this book is a must-read.
And, just to lighten the mood of an educational site, here's a sampling of some thumbnails from my own collection:
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Rahul Jain |
Shaheen Gandhi |