Eulogy for the Hadron

You can thank your existence in part to the hadron. Hadrons are the particles that are composed of quarks, such as the protons and neutrons that constitute the nucleus of every atom in your body. The quarks are the most elementary particles in this system, and manafest in six flavors: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom.1


The manner in which we are introduced to "charge" gives the impression that charge is a positive/negative system. However, there can be different kinds of charges outside of the common electric charge we first learn. In quantum chromodynamics, quarks break the bonds of a one-part system and experience a three-part charge system. Chromodynamics uses color charge, aptly named due to our RGB color system being perfect to represent this three-part charge. It encompasses red/anti-red, green/anti-green, and blue/anti-blue charges. This should not be confused as being the actual color of any of these particles, rather it is a helpful analogous visualization.

1. As well as six more for their anti-quark counterparts, and another twelve more if supersymmetry unviels itself to our prying eyes and proves superpartners are real.