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prettygoodwordTheme week! -- particles ending in -on. I'd call this parton week, except that has a different meaning, the parts that make up a hadron. So speaking of which:
hadron (HAD-ron) - n., (physics) a composite particle that comprises two or more quarks held together by the strong force.
Two basic types are mesons, consisting of two quarks, and baryons, which have three, but exotic higher energy hadrons consisting of four and five have been created. Because they are bound by the strong force, they are subject to it, and so the two most common baryons, protons and neutrons, can themselves be bound together by it, forming the nuclei of atoms. Except for the possible exception of protons, all free aka unbound hadrons are unstable and will decay into other particles. The name was coined in 1962 by Russian physicist Lev Okun from Ancient Greek hadrós, bulky/thick + -(i)on, as a counterpart to the smaller lepton, coined 15 years previously.
(No picture for this, because subatomic.)
---L.
hadron (HAD-ron) - n., (physics) a composite particle that comprises two or more quarks held together by the strong force.
Two basic types are mesons, consisting of two quarks, and baryons, which have three, but exotic higher energy hadrons consisting of four and five have been created. Because they are bound by the strong force, they are subject to it, and so the two most common baryons, protons and neutrons, can themselves be bound together by it, forming the nuclei of atoms. Except for the possible exception of protons, all free aka unbound hadrons are unstable and will decay into other particles. The name was coined in 1962 by Russian physicist Lev Okun from Ancient Greek hadrós, bulky/thick + -(i)on, as a counterpart to the smaller lepton, coined 15 years previously.
(No picture for this, because subatomic.)
---L.
