In episode 03 we are discussing the possible sighting at the famous Higgs Boson that is also sometimes called the God Particle. In this part 1 we analyse the recent annoucement at CERN that, at least, a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson had been found. I want to highlight that the physicists at CERN weren’t using microscopes or similar tools to view the Higgs boson directly; they were looking at the energy signatures of other particles created. CERN researchers used those signatures, along with particle physics Standard theory, to claim the discovery of the Higgs boson.
In Physics we mostly rely on two approaches in describing the world we live in
We either build bigger and better space telescopes here on earth or in space like Hubble so we can look at the distant galaxies and check out the stars and quasars in in various stage of their life or perhaps to look really far to study the edge of the universe that is visible to our tools here on earth. We also go on and build bigger and more energetic particle accelerators to study the sub atomic – the elementary particles and the forces that hold them together in the hope to work out what is holding the universe together.
In all this we have to make some basic fundamental assumptions to allow us to build the physics we need to describe our world. Here is just couple of those basic assumptions: Firstly Our ruler that measures distance in space or the clock that measures time- does so from our reference frame here on earth – so it is the same measuring tool today here now today – as well as billions of years in the past – and therefore we assume that for example the speed of light is a constant and it is the same now as it was near the big bang some 13 billion years ago.
We also apply the same measuring tools in the sub atomic world — to explain it better, let us imagine that we are microscopic & small enough to stand on the surface of the nucleus of the atom or one of the sub atomic particles — then the proposition is that we would be still measuring the space and time using the same ruler and clock here on earth and not the smaller microscopic one on the surface of the subatomic world. So for example IMHO time may be running a lot faster close to the nucleus of atom than here on surface of earth – but since we cannot measure or even comprehend the scale – we stick with the SI standards set here on earth
The Last Week Announcement at CERN is by no means the end of this chapter – the physicist Stephen Hawking once made a $100 bet claiming that the Higgs boson was fiction. A lot of physicists still think so mainly because a lot more data is needed to back up this discovery – for example we need to prove that this Higgs boson is not spinning otherwise it is just like any other particle with mass – this is not going to be easy – Furthermore even if we do find more data to prove all this, so that all the jigsaw parts of the Standard Model Theory is elegantly put together, it still is not explain gravity. To finish this episode we will have look at a great animation that explains The Standard Model and Higgs Boson a lot better than I can ever do and in the second part of this series I will go how we got here with a finer tooth comb –
Also watch animation explaining “Higgs” easy way as well as Dr P Higgs himself appearance about the discovery.
Credits, videos and Images used in the video:
zeitgistminds – www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4TO1iLZmcw
Atom Visualization by Chaîne de orishimak – www.youtube.com/user/orishimak
Hubble Space-Shattering Discoveries by SpaceRip – http://hubblesite.org/gallery/
Search for the Higgs The Atlase Experiment – http://public.web.cern.ch/public/
Standard Model- Quarks – www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQwkdu9WbE
What Caused the Big Bang? by tdarnell – www.youtube.com/watch?v=uabNtlLfYyU
3D Artist – www.youtube.com/user/AlienScientistFan/videos
Good Old Daze – www.youtube.com/user/goodolddaze/videos
Minute Physics animation – The Higgs Boson Part 1 / Part 2
Higgs Boson explained the easy way! by jplorre
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