A física dos quarks e a epistemologia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present, conceptually, the physics of quarks as an accessible and motivating subject that shows unequivocally the relationship between theory and experimentation in physics. The quarks' story is told and this story is used to exemplify epistemological issues. Throughout this narrative images axe never used because of the author's belief that in this area of physics the use of images may just reinforce mental representational obstacles that can almost hinder meaningful learning. Copyright by the Sociedade Brasileira de Física.