The strange quark was discovered when "strange" particles were first observed in cosmic rays. These particles decayed radioactively giving "strange" patterns in a cloud chamber, a particle detector. Much more recently it was learned that "strange" particles, like the Lambda-Baryon which you may be able to "create" on SciTech's Quark Machine, contain at least one strange quark.
The strange quark is the partner of the charm quark. Its electric charge is -1/3, or 1/3 that of an electron, and equal to the electric charge on a down quark.
The mass of a strange quark is about one-half the mass of a proton.
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