I Taught Myself Particle Physics in 1 Week!

...especially if I only give myself 45 minutes a day?

Yes, I set myself an interesting challenge. Although I studied physics at university, and even focused on the study of small things, I never actually learnt any particle physics. So, many years after graduating, I decided to change that.

In order to ensure I didn't end up procrastinating, I only gave myself two 20 minute chunks of learning per day. This way I would be forced to focus, and to skip past any overly complicated bits of particle physics (and ponder over them in other spare time, rather than while learning). I used "Introduction to Elementary Particles" by Griffiths, because it was well reviewed online, and I also had the internet to help me if the textbook ever wasn't clear.

I didn't think I could learn all of particle physics in satisfactory way within a week, but the truth is that this challenge allowed me to do some learning, which is more than what I would have done had I not undertaken this challenge. Providing this structure to my timetable allowed me to enjoy the learning I was missing so much.

So what did I actually learn? Well, the book first discussed the production and detection of particles. Particles can be produced in a few different ways. We talk about the production of electrons from a cathode ray tube, as well as the production of protons by ionizing hydrogen atoms. However more exotic particles do not form most of the ordinary matter we observe around us, so we have to rely on either cosmic rays (proton showers from space), nuclear reactors, or particle accelerators. The last option allows us the most control. We can smash together lots of particles at high energies and watch as they split up into smaller particles.

But then how do we know these particles are there? How can we detect them? Most particle detection relies on the fact that charged particles ionize the matter around them. This can lead to an ionization trail in cloud chambers or bubble chambers. And even uncharged particles can be detected when they split into other charged particles. The way these particles move can help us figure out something about their charge, mass, and other properties.

Now particle interactions can be very neatly described by Feynman diagrams, that show how particles behave over time. In this video we look at one that shows the Coulomb repulsion between two electrons (because they're both negatively charged). In particle physics, a force is mediated by the exchange of a particle, and in this case electron repulsion happens because they exchange a photon.

Ultimately, Feynman diagrams are based on some complicated rules that simplify down to some very beautiful visual rules focusing on the "vertices" between the lines representing different particles.

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Can I teach myself particle physics in 1 week?
1:09 - Watch me learn (here's what I did!)
2:27 - What did I actually learn?
3:09 - How particles are produced!
4:55 - How particles are detected!
6:12 - Crossing symmetry (antiparticles moving backwards in time!)
6:54 - Organizing particles into groups
7:28 - Feynman diagrams

[ParthGChannel]

Hi friends, thanks for watching this slightly different video! Hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what else to cover in future :)

[Mutual_Information]

There’s a good lesson here. You need to factor in time and effort when planning self education. It’s tempting to just say “I’ll learn it all!“ but an optimal strategy heavily considered the extremely finite resource that is time and attention.

[zyadkhater]

Hey Parth. I just finished my final undergrad Physics course which dealt with Relativity/Particle Physics/Nuclear Physics and I was able to succeed in the course because of your videos. I only found out about your channel a few weeks ago when studying for finals but it totally saved me. Just wanted to show my appreciation towards all you do.

[dvid]

Grad school particle physicist here. This video is very good as an introductory, you touch on the basics of both experimental and theoretical particle physics (i.e. Feynman diagrams and detector analysis).
Another interesting fact about how the detector work is how we find unmeasurable particles, which is mainly neutrinos. We build the detector in such a way that at the beginning of the interaction there is only momentum in the Z-axis and through conservation of momentum in the XY plane, we know that the final state particles' momentum should sum up to zero in the XY plane.
This does not occur and we can assign the missing momentum to be a neutrino, or even neutrinos according to what we assume the interactions were in this event.

[KerryLee-nd]

Loved your little video. Reminds me of why I find physics so exciting

[StevieB]

Say Parth, in a solo learner, but without your grounding in academia. This series is one I'll be following extremely closely. Maybe a video about how your sessions work would be fabulous. It's a bit meta, but hella interesting to me, and hopefully others too

[daric_]

Thanks for your video! I have a PhD in nuclear engineering, also love physics, and took several classes in atomic physics, quantum mechanics, etc., but never a course dedicated to elementary particle physics (because usually much of it isn't particularly useful to engineers). But I want to do the same: buying a book and studying it myself. I also considered Griffiths' book as it has good reviews.

[FermionPhysics]

As always, great videos parth. You’re one of the best channels out there on physics. A textbook I’d recommend for particle physics for anyone that wants to learn is particle physics by larkoski.

[elcotera]

I also taught myself particle physics in a week for my final 💀

[vladimirkolovrat]

I enjoyed your tips about time management... from a fellow physicist. Nice content, thank you!!

[themaninred]

1:38 is very relatable. once i get to a concept that i do not understand right away, i tend to stop studying and just come back for it later, hoping i would understand it right away the next time.

[varunv]

"...Didn't put any pressure on myself to do all the problems in the book..."

I feel the same way... I just enjoy reading the text of any Physics book but when it comes to the questions/problems I feel the stress and pressure and it kills the joy of learning...

[TerryBollinger]

Parth, good learning advice! This falls in the category of not just giving folks some tasty fish but also teaching them how to catch their own fish.

[ChrisPattisonCosmo]

Awesome video Parth - a really fun idea and super interesting to see how you learn! Next up, astrophysics? 👀

[the_pandey_academy]

Hey Parth ! It was fabulous and I loved the way you introduced feynman's diagrams. I hope you'll cover the whole book and present on YouTube.
B b b b bye

[lored]

2:06 For me when I come across something that doesn't make sense to me I literally loose every sense of time and can't get into real life until I understand it. 40 Different Chrome tabs open, 3 Videos and hours later, when I think I get it, I'm so tired that I cant continue. But it's very satisfying and kinda addicting

[schmetterling]

I have met people on the internet who became concert pianists in a week. In their second week they were giving a Chopin recital in Royal Albert Hall. Sure... why not... snicker. ;-)

[grapesalt]

you know you could always just livestream i think a lot of people would actually watch that similar to how andrew dotson livestreamed him learning string theory, it'll also focus more cause who want's to procrastinate livestreaming?

[bloodyorphan]

We can also create specific particle mass with Photon Interference and temperature, the LIGO prototype experiment proved this 30+ years ago.

[dean]

Parth should one day explain “External Inflation”..