Final answer:
Observing the properties of charm, bottom, and top quarks is easier in mesons than in baryons because mesons create cleaner environments with homogenous quark flavors, whereas baryons involve a mix of three different colored quarks.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is easier to observe the properties of the c (charm), b (bottom), and t (top) quarks in mesons rather than in baryons due to the cleaner environments those mesons create. Mesons such as W- or tt (top-antitop) are sometimes referred to as bare charm and bare bottom because they consist of a quark and its corresponding antiquark of the same flavor. This homogeneity allows the intrinsic properties of these heavy quarks to be more easily studied.
In contrast, baryons with a mixture of quarks, like udb, involve a combination of three different colored quarks, red (R), green (G), and blue (B), which makes it more challenging to isolate and study the properties of individual heavy quarks within them. Additionally, each successive discovery of c, b, and t quarks required higher energies due to their increasing masses, making the study of their properties in baryons even more complex.