The universe is composed of two types of elementary fermions (quarks and leptons) and two types of elementary bosons (gauge and scalar).
Bosons have integer spin. Scalar bosons have a spin of 0, of which Higgs is the only one. Vector bosons have a spin of 1. The elementary vector bosons in the Standard Model are called gauge bosons, and they carry the strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions: photons carry electromagnetic, gluons carry strong, and Z and W bosons carry the weak interaction.
Fermions have 1/2 spin. Quarks and leptons are fermions. Quarks are the fundamental constituents of matter, and use the strong interaction to combine into hadrons.
Hadrons with an even number of quarks are called mesons. All known mesons have two quarks -- a quark and an antiquark. Possible tetraquark and hexaquark discoveries are being investigated. Despite being composed of fermions, mesons are bosons because, having an even number of 1/2 spin particles, they have integer spin.
Hadrons with an odd number of quarks are called baryons. Examples include the proton (2 up, 1 down) and neutron (2 down, 1 up). Quarks have a charge of either 2/3 (up-type) or -1/3 (down-type), so baryons combine like 4/3 - 1/3 = 1 or 2/3 - 2/3 = 0. All known baryons had three quarks until two pentaquarks -- containing an additional quark and antiquark -- were discovered in 2015. Having an odd number of quarks, baryons are fermions.
Leptons do not undergo strong interactions, so they don't combine to form composite particles. They have integer charge of -1 (charged) or 0 (neutral). Electrons are of the charged type. Electromagnetism holds electrons in orbit around the oppositely charged atomic nuclei.
Atoms are composed all of the elementary particle types. The nucleus is composed of particles composed of quarks, leptons orbit the nucleus, gauge bosons hold them together, and the scalar boson gives them mass. Atoms combine to form molecules, which form everything we consider matter.
Quarks and leptons have corresponding antiquarks and antileptons, which have the same mass and opposite charge, so up-type antiquarks have a charge of -2/3, down-type antiquarks have a charge of 1/3, and charged-type antileptons have a charge of 1. Antiquarks combine into antihadrons. There are no antimesons because mesons are already composed of a quark and antiquark, but there are antibaryons. Examples include the antiproton (2 antiup, 1 antidown) and antineutron (2 antidown, 1 antiup) which, together with antielectrons (called positrons) constitute antimatter.
sad that this is too obscure :(( i'm so interested in elementary particles that i even made a chart some time ago and memorized them all (i swear i didn't use it on this quiz)
I've been surprised at the average score on the quiz. It could be that people only take it if they already know the Model, or maybe it's not as obscure as I thought.
You use the word "obscure" a lot. But why would someone know such an obscure piece of knowledge? Really, you get mad at people for including racing sausages because it's an "obscure piece of knowledge." yet you call your own quiz obscure. Hypocrite.
I acknowledge that most people are unlikely to know about the Standard Model. There's no rule against making a quiz about obscure knowledge. If you're going for mainstream knowledge, don't include things that are obscure. If you're going for obscure knowledge, don't include things that are mainstream. In other words, an easy quiz shouldn't have one super hard question in it, and a super hard quiz shouldn't have one super easy question in it. Without context, I can only assume that I pointed out an "obscure" question in an otherwise mainstream quiz, and this somehow makes me a hypocrite when I create an entire quiz that only contains obscure knowledge. Whatever I wrote, I'm pretty sure that I wan't mad about it. Written criticism can look like anger, but it's tricky to read emotion in the written word. (That's why they created emojis.) Whatever I wrote probably isn't worth getting upset about. Accept or reject the criticism and move on.
Haha! The funny thing is that I agree with renaming strange and charm to left and right for consistency with the other names, and I prefer strange and charm bosons to Z and W. I'm also totally on board with losing the Greek letters in favor of N for neutrino and M for muon... except that "Ne" would look like neon. "M" and "Me" aren't used by any elements. As for the other lepton changes, I always thought that it was pretty clean that you only have to remember three leptons, and then add "neutrino" to the name. Arguably easier than remember six different quark names!
Bosons have integer spin. Scalar bosons have a spin of 0, of which Higgs is the only one. Vector bosons have a spin of 1. The elementary vector bosons in the Standard Model are called gauge bosons, and they carry the strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions: photons carry electromagnetic, gluons carry strong, and Z and W bosons carry the weak interaction.
Fermions have 1/2 spin. Quarks and leptons are fermions. Quarks are the fundamental constituents of matter, and use the strong interaction to combine into hadrons.
Hadrons with an even number of quarks are called mesons. All known mesons have two quarks -- a quark and an antiquark. Possible tetraquark and hexaquark discoveries are being investigated. Despite being composed of fermions, mesons are bosons because, having an even number of 1/2 spin particles, they have integer spin.
Leptons do not undergo strong interactions, so they don't combine to form composite particles. They have integer charge of -1 (charged) or 0 (neutral). Electrons are of the charged type. Electromagnetism holds electrons in orbit around the oppositely charged atomic nuclei.
Atoms are composed all of the elementary particle types. The nucleus is composed of particles composed of quarks, leptons orbit the nucleus, gauge bosons hold them together, and the scalar boson gives them mass. Atoms combine to form molecules, which form everything we consider matter.
I acknowledge that most people are unlikely to know about the Standard Model. There's no rule against making a quiz about obscure knowledge. If you're going for mainstream knowledge, don't include things that are obscure. If you're going for obscure knowledge, don't include things that are mainstream. In other words, an easy quiz shouldn't have one super hard question in it, and a super hard quiz shouldn't have one super easy question in it. Without context, I can only assume that I pointed out an "obscure" question in an otherwise mainstream quiz, and this somehow makes me a hypocrite when I create an entire quiz that only contains obscure knowledge. Whatever I wrote, I'm pretty sure that I wan't mad about it. Written criticism can look like anger, but it's tricky to read emotion in the written word. (That's why they created emojis.) Whatever I wrote probably isn't worth getting upset about. Accept or reject the criticism and move on.