Food: Cereal: Theme
Quarkies   (+42)  [vote for, against]
A little piece of the universe, covered in milk

Quarkies come in six fruity flavors: Lemony Up, Apple Down, Cherry Charm, Strawberry Strange, Banana Top, and Blueberry Bottom. Each flavor has a unique shape and comes in three colors: red, green, and blue. Banana Top is very large compared to little Lemony Up and Apple Down. Lemony Up and Apple Down can be stuck together to make protons and neutrons in your bowl after applying the packet of gluon sugary goo, but make sure to use the right colors! (eight gluon sugary goo packets are enclosed in each box)

Comes with interesting facts on the back of the box. Did you know it takes about 1,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 real quarks to make one quarkie?
-- Worldgineer, Jul 19 2004

Scientific Bedtime Stories http://www.halfbake...20Bedtime_20Stories
Inspired by [Ray] [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Quarks http://hyperphysics...articles/quark.html
For the curious. [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Mesons http://hyperphysics...icles/meson.html#c1
More fun that can be had with a box of Quarkies and a box of Antiquarkies, along with more gluon goo. [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Pentaquarks http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/7/1
"Geez this is heavy..." [Detly, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

We have this man to thank. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce
[AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 05 2005]

Box illustrations http://www.particle...less/images/all.jpg
Start collecting your fun quarkies characters now! Three free in every box (one red, one blue, one green). [wagster, Apr 12 2007]

how long is the shelf life?
-- po, Jul 19 2004


Unlike real quarks, which recombine faster than you could blink (even if time was slowed down a few million times) Quarkies are quite stable. Warning: Do not eat with Anti-Quarkies.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 19 2004


what flavour do these anti-quarkies come in? now they appeal to me.
-- po, Jul 19 2004


(wanders off to do some internet reading) Looks like antiquarks come in the same flavors. However, they are only made in anti-red, anti-green, and anti-blue colors.

By the way, that's a nice shade of anti-blue you're wearing today [po].
-- Worldgineer, Jul 19 2004


you colour blind? po only ever wears red.
-- po, Jul 19 2004


Sorry, I meant anti-green.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 19 2004


Even [po] has her little quarks.
-- k_sra, Jul 19 2004


Mooooom? Mine's entangled!
-- jutta, Jul 19 2004


This puts a nice spin on things.
-- phoenix, Jul 19 2004


For the health conscious: NeutrinO's - one billion billion billion billion times less fattening!

(Warning: do not mix with Quarkies.)
-- Detly, Jul 19 2004


Wow you learn something every day dont you ?
-- tasman, Jul 19 2004


Kids! Try getting just one Quarkie on your spoon - you could win a prize!
-- philmckraken, Jul 19 2004


if you're lucky, you'd get a bowl full of charms
-- elflng, Jul 19 2004


<thinks back to working in photo-lab>Surely anti-red, anti-green and anti-blue would be cyan, magenta and yellow respectively.</tbtwipl>
-- reap, Jul 19 2004


"kwarkies"
-- Worldgineer, Jul 20 2004


Are the Banana Top Quarkies the ones that you can never find because they're stuck to the bottom of the box?
-- st3f, Jul 20 2004


I don't know. At 843 times the size of the lemon and apple flavors, I'm sure you'll find them. Of course, my second link says "The masses should not be taken too seriously", so I may make them only a few times larger than the others.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 20 2004


Would YOU eat something called "Blueberry Bottom" ?
-- shibolim, Jul 21 2004


"ooh mummy, mummy, look I found a Higgs boson!"
-- goff, Jul 21 2004


If kids will buy Muddles - they'll buy these.
-- wagster, Jul 21 2004


Kids?
-- st3f, Jul 21 2004


//Would YOU eat something called "Blueberry Bottom"?// I thought it was fairly harmless, considering I have to have the word "bottom" in the flavor name.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 21 2004


Would Anti-Quarkies help you loose weight. This could be like anti-food, the more you eat the more weight you lose..
-- dlapham, Jul 21 2004


loose? as in flabby?
-- po, Jul 21 2004


[po], it gets so loose that it just falls right off!
-- evilmathgenius, Jul 21 2004


Hats Off to [Tabs] for the etymology!.
I'm sure that we didn't *ALL* know that (be honest now !!)
[Detly]. How many tenths of Femtoseconds did that particle exist for?. I forget!. ;-)
-- gnomethang, Jul 21 2004


[Researcher] "We did it! Stockholm, here we come!"
[Supervisor] "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking..."
-- Detly, Jul 21 2004


But quarks already have flavors...
-- waugsqueke, Jul 22 2004


"..and it looks like it has done a little circular fart, Sir. Let me get you another bowl..."
-- ConsulFlaminicus, Jul 22 2004


"Waiter, Waiter, there's a sub-atomic particle in my soup. Oh no it's gone. Oh, there it is again!..."
-- goff, Jul 22 2004


When I lived in Germany about 25 years ago, you could buy things called Quarks - they were little pots of fromage frais with fruit at the bottom. They came in various flavours, but I think that's as far as they took the analogy with their sub-atomic namesakes. Needless to say I was astonished to discover years later that Quarks were actually something in physics. Little kids absord amazing amounts of information when it's related to sugary treats, so I think this cereal would be an excellent way of teaching a generation quite a lot about particle physics without their realising it. Imagine their surprise when they get to University and discover that their fondly remembered breakfast cereal was actually a description of the underlying reality of the universe. +
-- spacemoggy, Jul 22 2004


[stage whisper] Quark (pronounced 'kvark') isn't a brand, it's a foodstuff. The reason why those tubs said 'Quark' on the side is because that's what they contained. Call it fromage frais and you'll only upset the Germans.
-- st3f, Jul 22 2004


// "Waiter, waiter! There's a neutrino in my soup!" //

Apparently you have a 370,000-liter soup bowl.
-- waugsqueke, Jul 22 2004


// Did you know it takes about 12,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 real quarks to make one quarkie? //

Incorrect. Cut that number in half, because any company that you actually get to produce this cereal will puff it up as much as possible, or even attempt to make it hollow if they can get away with it.
-- Size_Mick, Jul 22 2004


Yeah, like I was that precise anyway. Big estimates in there including composition and mass of a quarkie. On the box I'd make sure I was right within an order of magnitude or two.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 22 2004


//company that you actually get to produce this cereal will puff it up as much as possible//
Is that some form of 'Inflationary Theory'?. I thought that was refuted under Symmetry Breaking!.
-- gnomethang, Jul 22 2004


// Yeah, like I was that precise anyway. Big estimates in there including composition and mass of a quarkie. On the box I'd make sure I was right within an order of magnitude or two. //

Hey I was just making a joke, I didn't actually believe you sat there and worked it out.

P.S. How many quarks per serving, how many calories from those quarks, with and without skim milk, and how many servings per container?
-- Size_Mick, Jul 23 2004


I knew you were joking, but figuring it out is really not so tough. I took carbon as an average weight and makeup for atoms in cereal. On the periodic chart you'll see an atomic mass of 12 for carbon, which means every mole of carbon weighs 12 grams. A mole is just a count of things - it means there are 6.02 x 10^23 in 12 grams of carbon. Now just take the number of protons and neutrons in a carbon atom - you get that info from the periodic table also, and it's 6 apice. 3 quarks per proton and neutron makes 36 quarks per atom. Assuming each quarkie is a gram gives us 1,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 quarks.

Well, what do you know. I think I missed something last time - I was off by quite a bit. (going back and editing idea)

//How many quarks per serving...// Don't tempt me.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004


Hey kids, what new flavors will we discover next? +
-- sartep, Jul 23 2004


"Mummy, mummy, why can't I make an atom - I'm fed up with protons and neutrons?"
"Sorry dear, it says "Electrons not supplied" on the box. I'll pick up a pack next time I'm in Safeway".
-- goff, Jul 23 2004


//I'll pick up a pack//
If you leave the plug out of a wall socket and put a cup underneath, you can catch them dripping out.
-- angel, Jul 23 2004


Electrons will be added, once sales drops off. "Now, with marshmallow electrons!"
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004


Rebunninated. +
-- sartep, Jul 03 2005


Ever re-read an idea you miss, only to find out that you wrote it? How did I forget about this one? Thanks for the churn, [sarty].
-- Worldgineer, Jul 05 2005


How can you forget Quarkies?
-- daseva, Jul 05 2005


Quarkies Originals come in only four flavours.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 05 2005


I demand that each box of quarkies come with an individual piece of an atom! Construct your own atoms (complete with electron energy sublevels) and, if you are an addict to sub-atomic physics, molecules! +
-- Kozi4361, Jul 05 2005


But they do, once electron marshmallows are added. Glue your quarks together with gluon goo, and create protons and neutrons. Add electrons, and you can make any atom you'd like. Combine your atoms, and get molocules. Add milk, eat, and start over tomorrow.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 05 2005


Build yourself complex carbon-based molecules and form the seeds of life!
-- Kozi4361, Jul 06 2005


There had better not be a Muleish quark or we're all f**ked.
-- wagster, Apr 14 2007


Those can be the toy surprise inside. Just a device with two springs that you pull back, load with hadrons (made of Quarkies and gluon goo), and press a button to fire at each other.
-- Worldgineer, Sep 15 2008


MMMM gluon sugary goo!
-- Arcanus, Nov 18 2008



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