Effective field theory embodies the conception that knowledge of short distance physics is not needed to describe and predict long distance phenomena. It stands as a powerful yet unprejudiced framework to input our experimental data into a picture that can be contrasted with a more fundamental theory. We will put this framework to use with elementary particles and their interactions. In this scheme the Standard Model arises, given the gauge symmetry, as the theory for the leading order interactions in our expansion on the ratio of scales. First order corrections capture physics beyond our current theory; we examine the phenomenology induced by these terms and their experimental search. Finally we look into the scale dependence that is induced at the quantum level.
