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Was "beauty" a quark name they used in the past?

There are several naming conventions in the High Energy Physics community. The names of the quarks don't necessarily mean anything in particular. For instance, the "up quark" and "down quark" don't really point up or down; those were just sort of arbitrary names. In the same way, the "truth quark" and "beauty quark" are just names. The beauty quark is actually still used by some physicists, but is more commonly referred to now as the "bottom quark." The truth quark is more often referred to as the "top quark." Perhaps there is some belief that the public would be more receptive of less fanciful names.

Author:

Scott Schwahn, Radialogical Controls Group

Related Pages:

What kinds of quarks are protons and neutrons made of? What was the old name for the Top and Bottom quark?

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