A bit more complicated, though.

“English, like Feynman diagrams, has rules.”

I like this phrase.

I do my best to proof my posts, but sometimes I let a few typos through. (Though I would have hoped that the multiple times in that post that I used the possessive “its” correctly would have shown that this was indeed a typo rather than a deep misunderstanding of grammar.) It is helpful when people politely point out mistakes so that I can fix them.

I’ll make the appropriate correction.

By the way, in your comment on my W boson post you misspelled the word ‘diagrams.’

“the Standard Model actually has a third cousin of the electron, the tau”

Good catch: what I meant to convey was that the tau is the third cousin (of three), rather than the “electron’s third cousin.” Since we’re spelling things out in these comments: there are three charged leptons, which I refer to as ‘cousins.’ The tau is (enumerating by increasing mass) the third, but of course that would make it the electron’s second cousin. (In the enumerative sense, not the genealogical sense.)

I’ll update this in the main post as well.

Thanks,
F

“it’s heavier cousin”

The apostrophe should not be there. In the word “it’s”, the apostrophe must represent one or more omitted characters: “it[ i]s”, “it[ ha]s”.

“It’s difficult to understand quantum mechanics”. (“it is”)
“It’s been a long time since I had this much trouble learning something.” (“it has”).

—

“the Standard Model actually has a third cousin of the electron, the tau (τ)”

Above you referred to the Muon as a cousin. That would be the first such cousin. If the tau is the third, what is the second? I doubt it’s the positron, which would be better described as the electron’s “evil twin” with a goatee and such.