  Scientists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, BNL) recently
discovered, that the hottest known form of matter is not a gas, but acts like a
fluid. Furthermore, this fluid of quarks expands and flows much more perfectly
than water or any other well known fluid. This aspect of the RHIC discovery can
be introduced even to primary levels of physics education, noting that the
usual solid to liquid to gas sequence of phase transitions now are known to be
followed by a transition to a nearly perfect fluid, a liquid of quarks, at the
largest temperatures made by humans. The educational games described herein
were invented by middle school students, members of a Science Club in Hungary.
The games were invented for their entertainment, the educational applications
in teaching high energy particle and nuclear physics to laypersons are quite
unexpected but most welcomed. This manuscript describes games with a deck of
cards called Quark Matter cards, where each card represents an elementary
particle. The games include an important contribution by Angela Melocoton, an
administrator of the Guests, Users and Visitors (GUV) Center at BNL. It
describes in simple terms, how to play the Memory of Quark Matter style card
games.
