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27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 3. Chromodynamics / b. Quarks

[basic particles that make up the nucleons]

3 ideas
Classifying hadrons revealed two symmetry patterns, produced by three basic elements [New Sci.]
     Full Idea: Classifying hadrons according to charge, strangeness and spin revealed patterns of eight and ten particles (SU(3) symmetery). The mathematics then showed that these are built from a basic group of only three members.
     From: New Scientist writers (Why the Universe Exists [2017], 01)
Quarks in threes can build hadrons with spin ½ or with spin 3/2 [New Sci.]
     Full Idea: Quarks in threes can build hadrons with spin ½ (proton, duu; neutron, ddu; lambda, dus), or with spin 3/2 (omega-minus, sss).
     From: New Scientist writers (Why the Universe Exists [2017], 01)
Three different colours of quark (as in the proton) can cancel out to give no colour [New Sci.]
     Full Idea: Just as mixing three colours of light gives white, so the three colour charges of quarks can add up to give no colour. This is what happens in the proton, which always contains one blue-charge quark, one red and one green.
     From: New Scientist writers (Why the Universe Exists [2017], 02)