Every Day Is Special: quarks

Showing posts with label quarks. Show all posts

November 10 - Charmed Quark Day

Posted on November 10, 2019

You can't see atoms, but their existence explains SO MUCH, so you accept that they really exist.

You can't see the parts of an atom - the protons, neutrons, and electrons - but their existence explains SO SO MUCH, so you accept that they really exist.

You can't see the parts of protons and neutrons - quarks - but their existence explains SO SO SO MUCH, you really should accept that they truly do exist!

Two up quarks and one down quark make a proton, and two down quarks and one up quark make a neutron. But there are all these other quarks, too - which were first predicted because they make sense mathematically, and which were only later discovered using particle accelerators.

Making teensy-weensy particles go REALLY fast (like 99.997% of the speed of light) and then smashing them together helps us understand the universe more because - even though temperatures, speeds, and energies like the ones inside particle accelerators are way unfamiliar to us average humans - they are definitely known in the universe.

Stars exploding, the Big Bang, quasars, and cosmic rays are all examples that match or beat the extreme conditions in our accelerators.

Today is Charmed Quark Day because two different research groups discovered evidence of its existence, around this date in 1976. As I mentioned before, this quark had already been suggested by theory.

Charm or charmed quark is sort of a buddy to strange quark - I love these names so much! - just as up and down are buddies, and top and bottom are buddies. Quarks and leptons (like electrons) make up matter; bosons (like the gluons that "glue" together quarks and the photons that make up light and X-rays and radio waves) are called "force carriers."

And if you understood all of that - good! Now take an advanced class in particle physics and explain it to me!

To celebrate the day, consider getting some Charm Quakr merch! Like this shower curtain, or a T-shirt, mug, or ...?

Oh, boy - now I've seen everything. This is a quark
charm bracelet!

Also on this date:

World Science Day for Peace and Development

Maputo City Day

Rebenlichter in Switzerland

U.S.Marine Corps's birthday

Sesame Street's birthday

Biologist Francis Maitland Balfour's birthday

Area Code Day

Windows Day

First Cry of Independence in Panama

Anniversary of a the Hope Diamond gifted to the Smithsonian

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

December holidays
December birthdays
Historical anniversaries in December

January 19 – World Quark Day

Posted on January 19, 2019

Today's a celebration of quarks??!?

Oh, frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Quarks are some of my favorite sub-atomic particles!!!

But as I did research to find out why today is Quark Day, I realized something dreadful:

We aren't celebrating quarks, the six flavors of fundamental particles that make up protons, neutrons, and other hadrons...Instead...

Instead, today's supposed to be about quark, a very soft cheese or a very thick yogurt or (at any rate) some sort of dairy product! It's made by adding lactic acid to milk; the whey splits from the curd, and the solids that come from this process are turned into quark.

Quark is supposed to be like a smoother, creamier cottage cheese. It's neither sweet nor sour, and almost all quark is sold without any added sugar / other sweetener (yogurt is often sweetened) nor any added salt (most cheese has added salt). Because of that, quark is supposed to be healthier than many other dairy products.

But...but...that's enough on quark-the-food! What about quarks-some-of-my-favorite-sub-atomic-particles?

The six flavors of quarks are up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange.

Note that every flavor of quark has a corresponding anti-particle.

Two up quarks and one down quark are said to make a proton. (But...)

Two downs and one up quark are said to make a neutron. (But...)

The "But..."s indicate that the explanation of a proton having only 3 quarks (2 up, 1 down), and neutrons having only 3 quarks (1 up, 2 down), are just major simplifications. The truth is much more complicated...

Strange, charm, top, and bottom quarks are all heavier than up and down quarks, and the heavier particles are very unstable. Physicists have observed them during high-speed particle collisions, but then these heavier quarks quickly change into up and down quarks.

There is a lot we don't know about quarks (and anti-quarks!), and hopefully when we learn why there are so many different flavors, and why these various particles have the spins, charges, and masses that they have, we'll know a lot more about life, the universe, and everything.