What are the fundamental things that exist?

[pears]

If you had to describe the universe in terms of its fundamental components what would you say they are?

 

As someone with a love of science but no formal education beyond GCSE and pop science books, I would hazard:

spacetime

forces

energy/matter

 

Does that sound right? What would your list be?

[ajb]

Observables are the basic "things" that "exist". Though we may get in knots with that word, "exists".

 

The things you list are indeed some fundamental concepts needed in modern physics.

 

Much of modern physics is formulated in terms of fields, which can informally be thought of as attachements of "values" to each point on space-time. This is the modern way to thinking in both classical and quantum physics.

[pears]

Thanks AJB - very interesting links - although now my head is spinning somewhat

 

So I guess my list should be revised to

 

spacetime

fields

matter/observables

 

What are the fundamental fields?

 

Apologies for my noobish questions. I think I have a lot of reading up to do

Edited August 23, 2013 by pears

[ajb]

What are the fundamental fields?

In the standard model each particle has an associated field. See the chart below.

 

 

 

The particle associated with the electromagnetic field is the photon. Associated with an electron is the electron field.

 

 

The only thing missing here is the gravitational field, which has resisted our attempts to apply the rules of quantum theory to it.

 

So the basic fields as we understand them today are all the fields of the standard model plus the gravitational field.

[pears]

Thanks AJB - very helpful and interesting

 

I will go forth and digest, hopefully!