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Keeping Track of Your Subatomic Particles

Posted by michael on from the where-did-I-put-that-quark dept.

Mike Siekkinen writes "For those that have ever wondered how many different subatomic particles are currently classified, here is your answer. It provides a well organized Flash chart of fundamental particles and interactions, as well as printable JPEGs and PDFs. Now you can keep your fermions and your bosons straight. The site also has another chart depicting the history of the universe, highlighting the evolution of the subatomic world."

5 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. They're missing one subatomic particle by product+byproduct · · Score: 5, Funny

    CmdrTaco's brain.

    1. Re:They're missing one subatomic particle by Misanthropic+Lycanth · · Score: 3, Funny

      CmdrTaco's brain. Not yet observed.

      --

      Physics: Making the universe open source.
  2. An Obvious GLARING Omission... by Tsar · · Score: 3, Funny

    From The Jargon File:

    bogon /boh'gon/ n.

    [very common; by analogy with proton/electron/neutron, but doubtless reinforced after 1980 by the similarity to Douglas Adams's `Vogons'; see the Bibliography in Appendix C and note that Arthur Dent actually mispronounces `Vogons' as `Bogons' at one point] 1. The elementary particle of bogosity (see quantum bogodynamics ). For instance, "the Ethernet is emitting bogons again" means that it is broken or acting in an erratic or bogus fashion. 2. A query packet sent from a TCP/IP domain resolver to a root server, having the reply bit set instead of the query bit. 3. Any bogus or incorrectly formed packet sent on a network. 4. By synecdoche, used to refer to any bogus thing, as in "I'd like to go to lunch with you but I've got to go to the weekly staff bogon". 5. A person who is bogus or who says bogus things. This was historically the original usage, but has been overtaken by its derivative senses 1-4. See also bogosity , bogus ; compare psyton , fat electrons , magic smoke .

    The bogon has become the type case for a whole bestiary of nonce particle names, including the `clutron' or `cluon' (indivisible particle of cluefulness, obviously the antiparticle of the bogon) and the futon (elementary particle of randomness , or sometimes of lameness). These are not so much live usages in themselves as examples of a live meta-usage: that is, it has become a standard joke or linguistic maneuver to "explain" otherwise mysterious circumstances by inventing nonce particle names. And these imply nonce particle theories, with all their dignity or lack thereof (we might note parenthetically that this is a generalization from "(bogus particle) theories" to "bogus (particle theories)"!). Perhaps such particles are the modern-day equivalents of trolls and wood-nymphs as standard starting-points around which to construct explanatory myths. Of course, playing on an existing word (as in the `futon') yields additional flavor. Compare magic smoke .

    Note: This is a static quote from The Jargon File version 4.3.3, which is lovingly maintained by our own Eric S. Raymond. If you are reading this post long after its freshness date, please refer to the original entry.

  3. My Own Omission: Slashdot Particles by Tsar · · Score: 3, Funny
    I forgot to include my list of bogus Slashdot particles:
    • Modon - elementary particle of moderation, classified as one of several flavors based on its mass and spin.
    • Karmon/Antikarmon - elementary particles of karma, created in the energetic collision of a modon with its target.
    • Submiton - elementary particle of story submission. An editor bogon struck by an energetic submiton will occasionally release a facton.
    • Facton - one of a class of particles of information, consisting of origons and dupons. A story is a macroscopic mass of factons.
    • Origon - elementary particle of originality. As the Slashdot universe expands, the total mass of origons remains constant.
    • Anti-origon (Dupon) - elementary particle of nonoriginality. Origons and dupons cannot exist in close proximity. Observed increases in dupon frequency indicate that Slashdot's core is far more dense than previously thought, and may cause the Slashdot universe to eventually collapse rather than expand indefinitely.
    • Penguon - elementary particle of Linux. Very stable.
    • Redmon - elementary particle of Windows. Unstable, but incredibly massive.
    Any others?
  4. Classified particles by SeanAhern · · Score: 3, Funny

    For those that have ever wondered how many different subatomic particles are currently classified...

    I think it must be an artifact of where I work, but my first thought was that subatomic particles aren't classified. Heck, they're freely available for the general public to use!

    If they were classified, would they be Secret Restricted Data? Confidential National Security Information? For Official Use Only? :-)