The Standard Model - 1. Quarks

Green - Quarks
Red - Leptons
Blue - Force Carriers

"If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist."
Enrico Fermi

The Standard Model was established to create order within the 'Particle Zoo', it's aim is to collect the basic building blocks into one ordered table and explain how these sub-atomic particles interact with each other. At the moment it is comprised of 12 particles of matter and 4 force carriers, however additions to the standard model may become frequent in the near future as particle physics is refined and the search for these 'infamous' particles (Higgs Boson, Graviton etc.) continues.

"quark, quark"

The QuarksThere are six 'flavours' of quarks (along with the anti-counterparts) which can be divided in 3 groups:
-u (up)/d (down) 
-c (charm)/s (strange)
-t (top)/b (bottom).

Unlike protons and neutrons which have whole number charges, quarks have fractional charges - up, charm and top having 2/3 of a charge and down, strange and bottom having -1/3 of a charge.

In a way they are the building blocks, of the building blocks of the things we see around us - quarks make up protons and neutrons which (along with electrons) make up atoms.

This is just a short post for now but I'll continue with Leptons and Force Carriers in later posts. Thanks for Reading - Chris.