THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY October 24, 2002 quark ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: AMD
Challenge me. Surprise me. Free me. AMD me. Click here to find out why. http://www.amd.com/amdme ______________ TODAY'S WORD: quark See our definition with hyperlinks at http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci858975,00.html A quark is one of two currently recognized groups of fundamental particles, which are subatomic, indivisible (at least as far as we know today) particles that represent the smallest known units of matter. Twelve fundamental particles - six quarks and six leptons (the other type) - are the basic building blocks for everything in the universe. Both quarks and leptons are distinguished in terms of flavors as a way to distinguish them from each other. The six quark flavors are: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. Everything in our readily observable world seems to be made up of just the up quark, the down quark, and the electron (which is the most famous flavor of lepton). Murray Gell-Mann named the quark in 1964. Independently of each other, Gell-Mann and another physicist, George Zweig, theorized that the differences between protons, neutrons, and newly discovered particles could be explained by the existence of these still smaller particles. Gell-Mann won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work with fundamental particles. It is entirely possible that quarks and leptons may turn out to be made up of smaller particles. The atom, after all, was once thought to be the smallest possible unit of matter. However, as we now know, the nuclei of atoms are made up of protons and neutrons which are, in turn, made up of quarks and leptons. RELATED TERMS: electron http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212046,00.html atom http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci211610,00.html ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory offers a tutorial about "The science of matter, space and time." http://www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/matter/index.html The National Center for Supercomputing Applications discusses "Quark Soup." http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/QuarkSoup.html Gell-Man's book is called "The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0716727250/reviews/ref=pm_dp_ln_b_6/103-2075670-9533463 The Particle Adventure Web site is dedicated to the fundamentals of matter and force. http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/ QuarkDance.org offers a collection of links to information about the quark. http://quarkdance.org/ ______________________ QUIZ #30 | Troubleshooting Our latest quiz is dedicated to all of you who at one time or another, have had to troubleshoot or debug a computer-related problem. Good luck! >> Take the quiz http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci849563,00.html ______________________ CROSSWORD PUZZLE #5 | Firewalls Improve your flexible thinking skills. Print out the puzzle and keep it nearby to work on throughout your day! http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci856796,00.html ______________________ REAL-LIFE CHALLENGE #18 | Can backup tapes wear out? Bob wants to know if there's a shelf-life for backup tapes. How long can you use the same tapes over and over before they need to be permanently retired? http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?msgInContext@;166.6Twoa8pir9i.0@.1dcfae0e/148!viewtype=threadDate&skip=&expand= ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] HyperTransport http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci858113,00.html [2] barcode reader http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci857995,00.html [3] Quiz #32: Securing Your Network http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci857673,00.html [4] gas constant http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci858191,00.html [5] TP0-TP4 http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci854617,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Associate Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Published by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. If you would like to sponsor this or any TechTarget newsletter, please contact Gabrielle DeRussy at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe from 'Word of the Day' - Simply Reply to this Email with REMOVE within the Body or Subject > or - Go to: http://WhatIs.techtarget.com/register - Log in to edit your profile. - Click on the link to Edit email subscriptions. - Uncheck the box next to the newsletter you wish to unsubscribe from. - When finished, click "Save Changes to My Profile."
