Now that we know about the beginning of our universe, we can start exploring what the big bang created. But wait! Before we begin exploring, we need to know what the universe is made of and what laws govern our universe to understand what the big bang created.
So, what is the universe made of?
This question is a complicated question to answer. I can say that the universe consists of molecules or atoms. This statement is true, but they are made of even smaller things. To see what the universe really is made of, we need to start very small.
Everything you see is made of quarks. In the previous post, we mentioned quarks as friendly and social particles who love spending time with other fellow quarks.
These quarks form a family of three and create either a proton or a neutron. Electrons are loners, so they are elementary particles.
Elementary particles are particles that aren’t made from anything.
Protons, neutrons, and electrons together create atoms. Protons and neutrons form the atomic nuclei, while electrons orbit it orbital clouds (because we can’t determine the exact orbit of electrons around an atom).
And here is where things get interesting.
Depending on the number of protons and electrons in the atoms, you can get different kinds of elements. Hydrogen is the lightest element because it has only one proton and electron. Helium is the next element with 2 protons and electrons after Helium is Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, … and Oganesson, which has 118 protons and electrons. All of these elements are organized into the periodic table of elements. But it wasn’t always this way. Let me tell you a story…
Once there was a 13-year old boy in a village with thirteen brothers and sisters only living with a mother. The boy showed excellent capability and interest, so the mother tried her best to get him to school.
They traveled on foot, applying for universities along the way.
The journey lasted for a year until they reached Saint Petersburg, where he finally got accepted. Soon after, his mother died.
That boy’s name is Dmitri Mendeleev. He made one of the most important discoveries in science in general. Dimitri wrote all of the elements on cards and tried to arrange them for three days and three nights until he collapsed from exhaustion. He had a vivid dream of all the elements falling into order.
With the help of his dream, Mendeleev assembled all of the elements into the Periodic Table of Elements in 1869! The elements were organized by metals, metalloids, gases, and non-metals, and each of them into a solid, liquid, gaseous, and artificial.
But the most significant achievement was that he could predict undiscovered elements. Their atomic weight, at which temperature they melted and what kind of element they were. He created the periodic table of elements which we use today in chemistry.
But, what would happen if we combine those elements? We would get all sorts of molecules. For example, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom create a water molecule. Finally, they make up everything around you.
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