Learn Modern Physics: 139 Flashcards on Relativity, Nuclear Decay and the Standard Model
Study 139 real flashcards on modern physics: special and general relativity, alpha beta gamma decay, fusion, fission and the 17 Standard Model particles.
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Modern physics is three subjects wearing one coat. Relativity rebuilt space and time, nuclear physics opened the atom, particle physics catalogued what was inside it - and most courses hand you all three in a single semester. The Modern Physics: Relativity, Nuclear & Particle deck on Flip It (code BW4237) holds 139 cards covering exactly that span, from the Michelson-Morley experiment to the 19 free parameters of the Standard Model.
Study this deck: Modern Physics: Relativity, Nuclear & Particle
1 / 10Theory of relativity
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
Nine cards from the deck
| Prompt | What you have to recall |
|---|---|
| Two postulates of special relativity | 1) Laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames. 2) Speed of light in vacuum is constant for all observers |
| Lorentz factor | y = 1/sqrt(1 - v²/c²), a factor appearing in time dilation and length contraction formulas |
| Equivalence principle | The physical effects of being in an accelerated frame are identical to being in a gravitational field |
| Geodesic | The straightest possible path through curved spacetime, followed by objects in free fall |
| Why does GPS need relativity? | Satellites are in motion and in weaker gravity than Earth's surface, causing time dilation effects that must be corrected for |
| Magic numbers in nuclear physics | Certain numbers of neutrons and protons that make nuclei particularly stable because their nuclear shells are filled |
| What element has the highest binding energy per nucleon? | Nickel-62 |
| How many fundamental particles does the Standard Model contain? | 17: 12 fermions (6 quarks, 6 leptons), 4 gauge bosons (photon, W, Z, 8 gluons), and 1 Higgs boson |
| Color confinement | Only colour-neutral particles can exist in isolation; quarks must form hadrons |
Everything the deck makes you name
Relativity: spacetime, relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, length contraction, mass-energy equivalence, Lorentz transformations, proper time, relativistic mass, E² = (pc)² + (mc²)², Einstein field equations, Riemannian geometry, the metric tensor, gravitational time dilation and redshift, the precession of Mercury, light deflection, gravitational lensing, frame-dragging, black holes, neutron stars, binary pulsars, GW150914, the Kennedy-Thorndike and Ives-Stilwell experiments, the luminiferous aether.
Nuclear: alpha, beta and gamma decay, the continuous beta spectrum puzzle, the Geiger-Marsden gold foil experiment, the liquid-drop and shell models, fusion and fission, critical mass, neutron moderators, chain reactions, the Oklo natural reactors, the valley of stability, the s-process and r-process, the CNO cycle, the triple-alpha process, internal conversion, nuclear transmutation, quark-gluon plasma.
Particles: six quarks and six leptons, three generations, colour charge, QCD and SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1), asymptotic freedom, the electroweak interaction, the Higgs mechanism, spontaneous symmetry breaking, parity violation, neutrino oscillations, antiparticles.
Two traps worth drilling
Iron or nickel? One card says binding energy per nucleon peaks "around iron (56 nucleons)", another says the highest is nickel-62. Both are right and students lose marks on it: nickel-62 holds the record per nucleon, while iron-56 is the practical endpoint of stellar fusion. Learn the pair together, not separately.
Relativistic mass is flagged, not taught. The deck notes that modern physics prefers invariant mass. If an older textbook has you multiplying m by the Lorentz factor, use the energy-momentum relation instead.
One structural note: about half the cards have a bare term as the front ("Spacetime", "Geodesic", "Antiparticles"). Flip those - say the term, then reconstruct the definition, then do it the other way round. Definition-first cards are passively easy and actively hard.
Already have the classical groundwork? Start with kinematics and the laws of motion, since relativity is defined against exactly what Newton got right.
Open Flip It and look for Modern Physics: Relativity, Nuclear & Particle (BW4237).
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