As everyone knows (this is in jest, for not everyone really knows), the quarks were named quarks after a short poem of James Joyce in Finnegans Wake. So far, I have been able to not finish any novel by James Joyce, even though I have started them many times. They are too dense and I get lost in them. I have finished some short stories in Dubliners. At least you can look at the entry of Wikipedia for quark for some such delightful physics trivia.
In a certain sense, physics naming conventions are non-existent, and to the extent that they exist they are rather boring. For examples, for quarks we call their quantum numbers color and flavor and charge and spin. Even though they don’t taste good nor do they look pretty. And the quark names are not that much fun either.
Here is an attempt at doing some (very short) literature with quark names.
Up and Down they go, on the seesaw.
Strange smiles they receive from passers by.
Their Charm is lost, for they are too old.
Gum is found stuck at the Bottom of their shoes
Now, a race ensues on the hill, all the way to the Top.
It took five minutes to pen. Now, how do I fret. Did I show it to you? What have I done?
Of course, this is a new contest! (Remember this one?) You are supposed to not worry about how other people think of you because you do silly things like I do. Challenge some conventions. Write a few lines with the quark names so that they make sense in complete sentences (like the example above). Consider it a writing exercise with constraints. A game so to speak. I’m looking for something inspirational. Otherwise I will keep on droning the six letters of the alphabet u,d,c,s,t,b. There must be definitely something better than what I did above.
The top and bottom quark were called truth and beauty in some other age. Are those words better? Top/Bottom is better for remembering their positions ( a mnemonic device). You can use these old names if you prefer. And if you’re not original, at least gives us the source.
And the winner gets named, etc, etc.
I always think that “bambino” sounds like a good candidate for a supersymmetric baby. In any case, will you accept sup, sdown, scharm, sstrange, stop, and sbottom?
There was a Strange Charm in how he filled his glass to the Top. “Bottom’s Up,” he said, and Downed his drink.
u,d,s,c,b,t quarks stand for
Unisys, Dell, Soros, Coke, Buffett, and Toyota. Each of them pays USD 3 billion in average and we can build a linear collider.
Deal.
Hi Lionel:
I’ll have sup with that, and please watch the stop sign.
Lubos:
I would agree to that sponsoring program. Imagine the advertisement possibilities …
Up on the rooftops,
Down in the streets;
Strange attractors
Charm people from the
Tops of their toes to the
Bottom of their brains.
The quarks names were much easier for me to remember when I correlated them with the human body. (up, down) and (tits, bottom) are obvious. You probably don’t want to know what I use for s and c.
A strange charm drew me to her,
And the colors of her eyes and hair.
Slowly up and down I gazed as there
She spun like a top unleashed a purr
Of sound in the bottom of my heart.
What is the “etc, etc” means?
Anyway here is my piece
Strange in a strange land
Your only truth the illusive charm
I’ll stay on top despite the pain
Now you’re going down the drain…
Never mind that
Cheers my friend and bottoms up
Giotis:
Etc etc, means whatever I want it to mean (Humpty Dumpty, in Alice in Wonderland anyone?). Usually it involves me being in a good mood and deciding to offer some additional ‘prize’ of sorts.
Some other times, it means nothing at all….
Ok. You are the boss:-)
Do you like art as well as literature?
Look at Melencolia II
[frontispiece of thesis, after Dürer 1514]
Now look at the original
Ever heard of Albrect Durer’s Magic Square? What about this diagram?
Now,what is the difference between the two pictures the one redone by Prof.dr R.H. Dijkgraaf and the original?
Maybe, a symmetry operation?
Best,
A quark is but a jolly parton,
Mass is gluies of the field.
Fermis or klicks do not matter,
Density remains unchanged.
Not by me (but I can’t recall where I heard it):
Truth turns into beauty,
which fades into charm,
which over time decays into mere strangeness,
and even that doesn’t last,
but the ups and downs are forever.
By me:
Up and down Nature’s curves
the physicist’s glance wanders,
taking in her strange charms,
admiring her bottom
and what her top hides.
We rise up each morning and head down to work–
It is strange such dry toil should have charm!
Are we lovers of beauty and seekers of truth
Or (at bottom) not top of the line?
Just winos of symmetry, tangled in strings
Monte-carlo betting our careers
That our Tweedledum histograms differ enough
And our neural nets won’t overtrain
(Rhyming is an extra cost option)
Up the hill and down the dale,
with charm and strange aplomb,
my top switched ends with my bottom,
boy, was I surely dumb
[...] 19, 2009 by dberenstein Well, the contributions on quarky literature have stopped, so we can open the hood of the post and check if anything interesting is available. [...]