Question 2 of 21

What are scientists hoping that the hypothetical Higgs boson will help explain?

... Although it's yet to be discovered, scientists believe that the Higgs boson will explain why all other particles have mass.

Question 3 of 21

Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named quarks after a line from which James Joyce book?

... Mann named quarks after a nonsense line in Finnegan's Wake.

Question 4 of 21

What is String Theory?

... String Theory proposes that all particles consist of 1-dimensional loops with filaments that oscillate. Scientists have named these "strings."

Question 5 of 21

These are being used to break particles down into smaller and smaller subatomic particles.

... Particle accelerators, also known as atom smashers, have the ability to smash particles together at astounding speeds.

Question 6 of 21

What type of particle is a quark?

... Quarks are one type of elementary subatomic particle with a few very unique features.

Question 7 of 21

What type of particle is a hadron?

... Hadrons are composite subatomic particles formed when quarks combine and are held together by a strong force.

Question 8 of 21

What are composite particles?

... Subatomic particles occur when quarks combine.

Question 9 of 21

What are the six types of quarks referred to as?

... Commonly called "flavors," the six types of quarks are usually regarded in pairs: up/down, charm/strange and top/bottom.

Question 10 of 21

For every quark there exists a what?

... As with everything in life, quarks have an opposite, so for every quark, there exists an anti-quark.

Question 11 of 21

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) built this atom smasher.

... And quite smashing it is. The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy atom smasher.

Question 12 of 21

Why are leptons divided into families?

... To help scientists understand lepton decay, they created three lepton families: electron and electron neutrino; muon and muon neutrino; and tau and tau neutrino.

Question 13 of 21

There are six types of leptons. How many of them are charged?

... Of the six leptons, half are charge and half are not.

Question 14 of 21

What are the two classes of hadrons?

... Baryons and mesons. Baryons are made up of three quarks -- two up and one down. Mesons, on the other hand, consist of one quark and one anti-quark.

Question 15 of 21

Fermions are named after physicist Enrico Fermi who, among many accomplishments, built the first experimental one of these.

... Enrico Fermi built the first experimental nuclear reactor.

Question 16 of 21

Bosons obey this law, which states, in a nutshell, that atoms can form to act as a single wave or superatom.

... Bosons obey the Bose-Einstein condensation law that states when the gas of an atom is cooled to its lowest state, the atoms gather in that lowest state, merging into a single wave.

Question 17 of 21

Quarks and leptons fall into this subatomic particle class.

... Quarks and leptons, along with most composite particles, fall into fermion category.

Question 18 of 21

The largest known thing in the universe really is called this.

... It's true. The largest known thing in the universe is named the Newfound Blob.

Question 19 of 21

Baryons are made up of what?

... Baryons are made up of three quarks -- two up and one down.

Question 20 of 21

The charged lepton particles are what?

... Like electrons, the muon and tau leptons are charged.

Question 21 of 21

All subatomic particles share this property.

... All subatomic particles share a fundamental property: they have "intrinsic angular momentum," or spin.

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