# Quark soup???
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 4, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505 "2005-11-04T17:30:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/1 "2005-11-04T17:30:54Z")
What is Quark soup?
i have heard that it is some sort of state of matter but i wan’t to know more i thought there were only four states:
[ul]
gas
liquid
solid
plazma
[/ul]
some other source told me that there were actually 9 states of matter. I have no knoledge of these :smack: . Could someone please help me out? 😕
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### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/2 "2005-11-04T17:40:03Z")
oooops double posting
sorry i don’t know how to delete it
[(sorry!)](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/gatorluke/doubleposters2zs6lz.gif)
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/3 "2005-11-04T17:47:49Z")
The double poster link worked, but the one in the original post didn’t. Do you have a recipe? If so, maybe this is for **Cafe Society.**
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### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/4 "2005-11-04T17:53:27Z")
I’m sure you are very proud of yourself you kook
for your information the 'link in the first one wasn’t a link, it was highlighted and underlined. Don’t post a contradiction if you can’t answer my question.
I’m sure it makes you feel so smart insulting a curious 15 year old get out more mate.
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### Author:  [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/5 "2005-11-04T17:58:24Z")
> [@Wattschri](#):
>
> I’m sure you are very proud of yourself you kook
> for your information the 'link in the first one wasn’t a link, it was highlighted and underlined. Don’t post a contradiction if you can’t answer my question.
> I’m sure it makes you feel so smart insulting a curious 15 year old get out more mate.
Word to the wise, check out the rules regarding insults and the like…
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### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/6 "2005-11-04T18:01:56Z")
[This is you mate](http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/bunny.php)
get out more!
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### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/7 "2005-11-04T18:02:57Z")
oops rules right. sorry. lol i will never insult him again. he just makes me a bit angry is all.
by the way my last post was aimed at him
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### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/8 "2005-11-04T18:06:31Z")
i’m sorry i guess i’m too young to understand why it is wrong to insult the insulter.
could somebody please answer my question i will be good ☹
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### Author:  [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/9 "2005-11-04T18:08:55Z")
Even though he may not have specifically insutled me he was acting antagonistic in his opinions. i shouldn’t have reacted. i guess i have just learnt a lesson in life
Thank the straight dope.
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### Author:  [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/10 "2005-11-04T18:20:43Z")
You may get some good answers here yet, but for the time being since I am not a physicist (IANAP) check out wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States\_of\_matter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_matter)
There is no article at wikipedia for Quark soup, but this article may help you out.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/11 "2005-11-04T18:33:11Z")
**Wattschri,** I had no intent to insult you. You asked a question with very little information in it, and you made a phrase appear to be a hyperlink. I simply pointed that out, and I made a harmless joke. If you thought that was an insult, you need to adjust your hair trigger.
And, uh, welcome to the SDMB.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/12 "2005-11-04T18:45:24Z")
With that out of the way, let’s get back to the original question. Three states of matter is an oversimplification. There can be many, many states of matter, not all of which are available to all forms of matter. In the ranges of temperature and pressure which humans are familiar with, most things can be classified as solid, liquid, or gas, but even in our usual range of experience, that’s somewhat incomplete. What state of matter is peanut butter, for instance?
States of matter are characterized by the transitions between them. Basically, if you change the pressure or temperature of a sample of some material, usually, the material will change in some smooth, continuous way, if at all. For instance, if you increase the pressure of a sample of gas, the gas will increase in density in proportion to the increase in pressure. And if you add heat to water, you’ll get water at a higher temperature. But sometimes, you’ll cross a line, where your material will very abruptly change from one set of properties to another. So, for instance, if you add enough heat to a sample of water, at some point, instead of getting hotter water, you’ll get water at the same temperature, but gaseous, instead of liquid. This is a state change.
You can even have a state change where both states are solids, or both liquids or gasses. For instance, there are 8 or 9 different states of ice. If you put ice under enough pressure, it’ll abruptly change the shape of its crystalline structure, and therefore abruptly change density. This is a state change, even though both states are solid. It’s also possible (though difficult, with most materials) to go from, say, a liquid to a gas _without_ a state change. At very high pressures, for instance, if you heat liquid water, it’ll gradually turn into something that’s sort of like a liquid and sort of like a gas, and eventually become a gas. But there’s no state change here, because all of the changes were gradual, not abrupt.
And so, onto quark-gluon soup. This is a state of matter found only at subatomic levels. Quarks are the subatomic particles which make up protons and neutrons, which in turn form the nucleus of an atom. At least, this is how it works in the matter we’re familiar with. So the nucleus of an atom is one state for quarks. Please note that the nucleus of an atom is _not_ solid, liquid, or gas: Those states are only meaningful when we’re talking about things made of many, many separate atoms. Well, if you heat matter up sufficiently (this is very, very difficult, with our technology), the quarks will go through a state change: Instead of being arranged into protons and neutrons, with the protons and neutrons arranged into nuclei, the quarks can all be mixed up together, in a sort of “soup”. This “quark soup” material has very different properties than the nucleus of an atom, and the transition from one to the other is abrupt, so it’s considered a state change.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quark-soup/329505/13 "2005-11-04T19:03:40Z")
**Wattschri**. Welcome to the boards.
Yes, we have rules here. It makes things run smoother for all involved.
I’m sure you aren’t too young to understand why you don’t insult someone on this board. Especially in this forum, which is **General Questions**.
You seem to have learned…Enjoy the rest of your stay.
Thanks.
**samclem** GQ moderator