On the first day of the APS meeting, I sent a shout out… or is it tweet out, for suggestions for the collective nouns of physicists.

First up was @StanCarey with a ‘measure’ of physicists.

Then @Cromacrox with a ‘condensate’ of physicists (my favourite for a time).

Which prompted @JonMButterworth to suggest “surely it’s an ‘interference’?”

Then @PhysicsTeo with a ‘matrix’? Or a ‘vector’, outside Starbucks at the convention center.

Then @CollectiveNouns RT’d and the trickle became a flow, including a ‘fizz’, a ‘collision’, an ‘approximation’, a ‘flux’ and several variants of ‘particles’ and ‘quanta’.

But the best from @DrPeterRodgers was “An ‘ensemble’ for when they are being serious. And a ‘gas’ for when they are not.”