where does pad thai come from

Pad Thai is written as "ผัดไทย" in the Thai language. "Pad" means "to stir fry" so the phrase is loosely translated as Thai stir fried noodles.

Pad=stir fry

the basic steps is to brake down particles and dissolve them

Since Thai is not written with the Roman alphabet, either conversion to the Roman alphabet is OK and arguably correct.

*Nearly all Thai restaurants use pad Thai, because it is a standard conversion for consistency in translation - however there is a big problem with this. If you are new to the Thai language and you are an English speaker and you say phat or pad Thai, you will not be saying it correctly. English speakers read "pad" and say it exactly like the English word pad as in "note pad." Unfortunately "pad" does not sound like the actual Thai word ผัด which sounds like "putt" as in "golf putt." *(Noo2012)