Trouble

Oh, we've got trouble

Trouble, trouble, trouble

Trouble in Particle City!

There's a crack in the Standard Model

That's the neat cubby hole cabinet

That Physicists have stored particles in

Lined up like books in library shelfs

You know what books are

They're those things you can read

Without being plugged in, powered up or turned on

Where you turn the pages, not flip them!

Well, the particles are those things we can't see

That make up matter and energy

Matter is made up of quarks or leptons.

The way that physicists have discovered them

Is by smashing heavy things like protons in a collider!

It's like a boy would smash an alarm clock on the ground

So that he could see the parts it was made from!

In a collider, the particles only last for microseconds

Just enough time to measure their mass and spin!

Yes, particles spin like tops and they have mass!

Well, some of them do, but it's just a fun way to label them!

Quarks come in different colors and flavors like candy

But they mix to make up colorless matter!

Leptons are for much lighter stuff like electrons and muons!

Bosons carry the forces of nature!

Muons spin and wobble in a magnetic field

Like they're dancing after drinking too much!

Well, some smart aleck scientists discovered a muon

That doesn't quite wobble like it should

According to the calculations that describe it!

Good heavens, it's a disaster!

Hundreds of particle physicists

Worked for decades on this Standard Table

Only to have it become shaky

Like an old table with one shorter leg!

Boy, do we have trouble in

Particle Physics City!

This was inspired by a song from my favorite musical, The Music Man!
The sketch is a 3D creation!