Smash!: Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe with the Large Hadron Collider - page 4

So that’s
all there
is to the
standard
model--
six
quarks?
I wouldn’t
want to get
womped by one
of those.
Nope! The model also
includes leptons --six
of them. Remember how
quarks always hang out
in groups? Leptons
are the opposite--
they’re
loners.
let’s
see if
I can
find--
ah!
Got
one!
Here’s
a lepton
you know:
the
electron!
Lemme
try.
I think
I see another
lepton.
kinda
heavy.
That’s a muon--
kind of like the
electron’s cousin.
Like the electron,
it’s also negatively
charged, but the muon’s
about 200 times as
massive.
oh,
look!
this one’s
-URK-
the tau lepton.
It’s more than 3,000
times as massive as
the electron.
Don’t
worry. The
muon and the
tau leptons
aren’t
stable--
18