Summary: “What’s Everything Made Of?’

Hiewon Ahn

Are we made up of particles, fields, or both?

This seems to be the question modern day physicists are trying to answer today. We knew the periodic table of elements with their atoms had its limitations, and from then we’ve moved onto smaller units of matter- quantum particles. But are things really made up of quantum particles, or are they composed of the fields of energy they create? Or is it both?

Many scientists have come up with different answers to such prompts- in classical electrodynamics, Einstein proposed that quantum particles had fields that would extend throughout space; he believed this would explain why electrons moved away from one another- not because they interacted with each other across a gap, but because they felt the force of each other’s fields. Then came the question of whether or not particles could feel the force of their own fields. Supposing they did, they would have, by all means, combusted from the sheer force of their own fields. Supposing they didn’t, then we have no explanation for why particles go through energy loss if they are not aware of their own energy.

Then came the third option; perhaps there weren’t any particles at all, simply fields of energy. When talking about tiny particles such as electrons interacting with one another’s fields, the size nor shape of the particles have no relative effect on the interactions. This led to Michael Faraday’s theory- that we simply eliminate the particles and keep the electromagnetic fields.

These discrete opinions- particles, fields or both- stake all three sides of the classic quantum debate. Modern physicists have taken all manners of (for lack of a better word) spins on it, some opting to change rather fundamental or widely-accepted laws of physics, while others build upon the stances of these three fundamental opinions.

Of course, this is none but a very general, loose overview of the concepts in quantum physics on my understanding of reading this article; for more information, I suggest you visit the actual article itself! Even though I am nowhere near a science enthusiast, I found this article quite intriguing and well-explained.