nPosted on January 19, 2019
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nToday’s a celebration of quarks??!?
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nOh, frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Quarks are some of my favorite sub-atomic particles!!!
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nBut as I did research to find out why today is Quark Day, I realized something dreadful:
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nWe aren’t celebrating quarks, the six flavors of fundamental particles that make up protons, neutrons, and other hadrons…Instead…
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nInstead, 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.
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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.
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.n
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nBut…but…that’s enough on quark-the-food! What about quarks-some-of-my-favorite-sub-atomic-particles?
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nThe six flavors of quarks are up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange.
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| Note that every flavor of quark has a corresponding anti-particle. |
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nTwo up quarks and one down quark are said to make a proton. (But…)
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nTwo downs and one up quark are said to make a neutron. (But…)
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nThe “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…
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nStrange, 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.
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nThere 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.
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| I’m not sure that babies need to know about quarks…? But I love some of the “Baby Loves…” books, |
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nTo learn more, check out this super simple video…
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nAnd then you simply must check out this much candy-animated video that explains how the simple video actually way oversimplifies things!
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nAlso on this date:
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National Popcorn Day
National Popcorn Dayn
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nInventorJames Watt’s birthday
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nTin Can Day
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nRobert E. Lee Day
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nArtist Paul Cezanne’s birthday
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nAnniversary of Captain Wilkes claiming Antarctica for the U.S.
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nSinging Singers Day
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nEpiphany in Georgia
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nPlan ahead:
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nCheck out my Pinterest pages on:
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nJanuary birthdays
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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