About Quark

Raining so much after so much heat from the early summer sun that I decided to visit an old friend down in the deep blue sea by the deepest ocean trench on paradise earth. And I saw him surprised not expecting me... Davy Jones locker down there in the deep blue sea.

I was making sure he’s still got enough rum in his ocean cache. And indeed he has. And we got to talking about Titanic, so much in the news these days... how big it was back then and how small it is now compared to huge ocean liners that pass over where he is deep down there.

I said those large ships are nothing compared to the vast oceans. He asked how small are they? And we went on swigging bottles of rum talking about big and small things like little kids we were, until he asked... well how small is the smallest thing in the universe?

Well I said there is this quark particle whose size is so small it borders to invisibleness....And that size is?...
It is so small that the radius is billions shorter than a grain of sand you’re standing on...

And what’s that radius? drunk now he asked... anxious...
Without blinking an eye that’s almost shut and aching I said...
“...smaller than 43 billion-billionths of a centimeter (0.43 x 1016 cm).”

He dropped his jaw and almost dropped his bottle of Rum caña!

Our jawing was done I left him looking at me now dazed with rum and totally perplexed about the huge number I threw at him on a very small thing ...a paradox ...almost crying like a kid as if saying... come back soon I’ll have  barrels of gold tequila for you... tell me more about the universe out there... I miss it...

And I swam towards the Great Blue Hole for air.

                                   ***
(c)ndr 06.27.2023
Photo: online space.com