# Haiku in Physics Today

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiku-in-physics-today/1000875>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** poetry\
**Created:** [April 28, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiku-in-physics-today/1000875 "2024-04-28T20:02:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiku-in-physics-today/1000875/1 "2024-04-28T20:02:14Z")

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There on the letters page pf the April issue of Physics Today there’s a blue box with, instead of a letter, a haiku:

> [@](#):
>
> Little bitty quarks  
> whirling inside the proton  
> we can’t set you free.
> 
> …Mac Mestayer  
> …Spring 2021

I can’t recall seeing anything quite like it before in the magazine.

There are plenty of physics-based haiku out there.

Mac Mestayer is an experimental physicist who worked at the Jefferson Lab in Newport News on understanding the quark structure of baryons, so he’s the right one to be writing this. He’s apparently retired as of 2022, according to his LinkedIn account.

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiku-in-physics-today/1000875/2 "2024-04-29T00:09:03Z")

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The Leptons (sans one)

Electron, Muon  
Electron Neutrino, Tau  
Muon Neutrino

(The Tau Neutrino oscillated into one of the others, apparently.)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiku-in-physics-today/1000875/3 "2024-04-30T16:05:39Z")

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Don’t tell me my speed  
Now I have no idea  
Where the hell I am

(old physics joke made into a haiku)