h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

dictionary.com is basically right. I tried to explain the physics in the standard model entry - A666173. A crude idea is this: bosons are force particles, fermions are matter particles.

Bosons were named after the Indian physicist Satyendranath Bose, (and fermions after Italian/American physicist Enrico Fermi, who also gave the name to Fermilab)

It might be a good idea to put a quick reprise of the definition of 'boson' in this entry too. I hadn't come across the term before, and I obviously wasn't alone in that ignorance.

It's that bloke on a ship, isn't it?

B

Oh good. Yes, it does help to know it is named for a physicist named Bose. Based on my vague recollection that the '-on' bit is a suffix, meaning 'particle', common to many such words as ion, proton, neutron, electron, etc., it seemed reasonable to me that 'boson' was a similar construction. I just didn't know what a 'bos' was. Now we know it was an Indian physicist named Bose.

Indications are, from other postings here, that the word will be 'new' to many researchers. Perhaps, just for clarity among the hairy apes, also include a definitive guide to its pronunciation. I suspect it rhymes with proton, with both syllables being stressed; the 'bo' bit rhyming with the 'pro' bit and 'son' rhyming with 'ton'. Some confirmation in the form of a phonetic spelling would be very useful, if only to arrest the wanton spread of BOZE'unz.


~jwf~

I knew what a boson was really, see an entry in the inestimable 'Meaning Of Liff'

Gaffney (n.) One who deliberately misunderstands things for what he hopes is comic effect



B

>> Gaffney (n.) <<


Now I've learned two new words this week and it's only ..uhm...Tuesday.

~jwf~

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Good stuff.

B

Thanks