quark
pronunciation
How to pronounce quark in British English:
UK [kwɑ:k]
How to pronounce quark in American English:
US [kwɑrk]
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- Noun:
- hypothetical truly fundamental particle in mesons and baryons; there are supposed to be six flavors of quarks (and their antiquarks), which come in pairs; each has an electric charge of +2/3 or -1/3
- fresh unripened cheese of a smooth texture made from pasteurized milk, a starter, and rennet
Word Origin
- quark
- quark: [20] The term quark was applied to a type of fundamental particle by its discoverer, the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann. He seems first to have used quork, but then he remembered quark, a nonsense word used by James Joyce in Finnegan’s Wake 1939, and he decided to plump for that. It first appeared in print in 1964.
- quark (n.)
- 1964, applied by U.S. physicist Murray Gell-Mann (b.1929), who said in correspondence with the editors of the OED in 1978 that he took it from a word in James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (1939), but also that the sound of the word was in his head before he encountered the printed form in Joyce. German Quark "curds, rubbish" has been proposed as the ultimate inspiration [Barnhart; Gell-Mann's parents were immigrants from Austria-Hungary]. George Zweig, Gell-Mann's co-proposer of the theory, is said to have preferred the name ace for them.
Example
- 1. The new results confirm that quark gluon plasma acts almost like a fluid , with minimal viscosity .
- 2. In this it will resemble the top quark , the latest fundamental particle to have been detected .
- 3. Like the top quark , the higgs will be conjured up by smashing heavy particles called hadrons ( which include protons and their antimatter equivalents ) .
- 4. The three lhc experiments that study lead ion collisions all presented their latest results today at the annual quark matter conference , held this year in annecy , france .
- 5. The results - released at the quark matter conference recently held in annecy , france - allows scientists to understand the evolution of the early universe recreating the conditions that existed back then .