• Question: whats the fastest partical

    Asked by swi7chgb to Chris, Eva, Michael, Paddy, Philip on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Philip Denniff

      Philip Denniff answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Im no physisit so I may be wrong. How about a photon, the paticals that make up light, when it not behaveing as a wave (no i dont understand it either).

    • Photo: Chris Jordan

      Chris Jordan answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Nothing goes faster than the speed of light. So a lot of different particles can go this fast if the have enough energy> Photons (light “particles”) always goes this fast if there’s nothing in the way (ie if they’re in a vacuum) They go slower in something light glass or in the gravity field round a black hole.

    • Photo: Michael Wharmby

      Michael Wharmby answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I’m with Chris – nothing moves faster than a speeding photon (light speed). We can accelerate other particles (electrons and protons for example) to near the speed of light too, but the universe’s speed limit for any particle is lthe speed of light.

    • Photo: Paddy Brock

      Paddy Brock answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      This is great, I’m re-learning a lot of chemistry and physics!

      Personally, I find it hard to imagine particles that are not attached or don’t make up part of an organism of some kind. One of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom is the punch of a mantis shrimp. They have special limbs, adapted into hammers that they use for cracking crab shells and hunting with. They can also use them to break the glass on aquaria! http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/mantis-shrimps-the-worlds-fastest-punch/

    • Photo: Eva Bachmair

      Eva Bachmair answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      light, did you see it?

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