I don’t get how we discovered particles and that are so small. What could’ve possibly lead to a discovery of it?
In: Physics
People observe things and come up with theories to explain the observation and then do experiments to validate (or disprove) their theories.
One such scenario might be how a paddle wheel turns from the operation of steam. Steam is invisible and composed of particles too small to be observed with our eyes or a microscope, and we only “know” it exists as water molecules in a gas state because of experiment rather than direct observation with a super microscope.
Same for the discovery of the electron. A paddle wheel was placed in a cathode ray tube (like an old TV tube) and some invisible thing inside the tube made the paddle wheel spin when perturbed by a magnet. Observation led to theory which experimentally proved the existence of the electron.
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