Could be worse. They could have chosen any term implying opposite. We could have had left and right handed charges.
Although I suppose we essentially did that when naming the quarks.
Although I suppose we essentially did that when naming the quarks.
Using "positive" and "negative" would have been a disaster. What charge does a positive antiquark have?
Where does levor... come from for left? Perhaps a newer Latin "left" than I was taught?
Funnily enough, although "sinister" came to mean "the bad side", it may have come from Proto-Indo-European for the "favourable side".
I wonder whether the old Latin (right == good/left == dodgy) thing has been perpetrated here or it it is coincidental.
I also wonder whether old Latin speakers really had a snag with sinister ie left handers or is that a modern affectation.