The
following text is the paragraph associated with the Quarks visual on the
poster:
Quarks
predicted 1961 (Gell-Mann,
Ne'eman) confirmed 1964 - 1998
- fundamental particles
which, with gluons, make up the nuclear material
- mass = ranges from 5 MeV to 174,000
MeV (up = 5, down = 7 MeV, top
- quark = 174.3 GeV) (MeV = mega-electronvolts,
GeV = giga-electronvolts)
- diameter = less than 10-15 mm (less
than 1/1000 of proton's diameter)
- electromagnetic charge: up = +²/3,
down = -¹/3
- up and down
types are common in normal atoms, the other four types
(top, bottom, charmed, strange) can only be produced at high energies
and remain in existence for short times
- come in 3 "colors" - red,
blue, green (a metaphor to explain interactions)
- all 3 colors together become "color
neutral" (proton, neutron)
- anti-quarks come in 3 "colors"
- anti-red, anti-blue, anti-green
- color + anti-color are also "color
neutral" (meson)
- all observed particles do not exhibit
color; they are color neutral
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