" That justifies talking about their purpose prior to talking about their consistency. Models are used as substitutes for originals because properties of the latter are of interest and the originals are not going to be investigated themselves . There may be a number of reasons for that such as taboos preventing from studying the original itself, or inability, the involved cost in terms of resources or moral damage being intolerable, or similar. For an investigator I it makes only sense to consider an entity M as a substitute of an entity O, if I can (1) establish an analogy, similarity, or similar relation between M and O that permits the substitution of O by M with respect to purpose and means, time-horizon etc. , and (2) I can actually investigate M in the required way. That implies firstly that M does not have the properties of O that prevent I from investigating O. Also other properties of O may not be properties of M. Model Search Engine In that sense a model is more abstract than its original. Secondly, a model M will in general have properties that O does not have and that actually aid I in investigating M. "

" Amongst the proton, neutron, and electron, those fermions which constitute the vast majority of matter, the Standard Model considers only the electron a fundamental particle. The proton and neutron are aggregates of smaller particles known as quarks, which are held together by the strong interaction. The fundamental fermions in the Standard Model are given in the table. Table Left handed fermions in the Standard Model Fermion (Left-handed) Symbol Electric charge Weak charge* Weak isospin Hypercharge Color charge* Mass** Generation 1 Electron e -1 2 -1/2 -1/2 1 0. 511 MeV Electron neutrino νe 0 2 +1/2 -1/2 1 < 50 eV Positron ec 1 1 0 1 1 0. 511 MeV Electron antineutrino 0 1 0 0 1 < 50 eV Up quark u +2/3 2 +1/2 +1/6 3 ~5 MeV *** Down quark d -1/3 2 -1/2 +1/6 3 ~10 MeV *** Anti-up antiquark uc -2/3 1 0 -2/3 ~5 MeV *** Anti-down antiquark dc +1/3 1 0 +1/3 ~10 MeV *** Generation 2 Muon μ -1 2 -1/2 -1/2 1 105. 6 MeV Muon neutrino νμ 0 2 +1/2 -1/2 1 < 0. Hot Model Search5 MeV Anti-Muon μc 1 1 0 1 1 105. 6 MeV Muon antineutrino 0 1 0 0 1 < 0. "