It's a bit of a stretch going from javascript to physics, but why not? On the web today, "answers" are all around us. It's fun to find the ones that work for me and, perhaps, you...
I watched the video by John Ellis referenced below. It was the first explanation by anybody that made the Higgs Boson thing click for me, conceptually speaking.
For of all, composite and elementary particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, neutrinos, quarks, gluons, klingons (just kidding) and leptons) have no mass intrinsically. From a parental perspective, they're like pre-teens. Full of nothing but potential... It's through their daily travels that they acquire mass as you would pick up lint when you put on black clothing and your dog wants some attention). But some particles, like photons and gluons, never wear lint-attracting clothing...
So here are my video points from Ellis' video:
If you want to know more about where the sub-particle name Boson came from (since Higgs gets all the press), be sure to read the web page at ibtimes.com. Just another story from the amazing culture of India... with a great story about the role that Einstein played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QG8g5JW64BA
David
I watched the video by John Ellis referenced below. It was the first explanation by anybody that made the Higgs Boson thing click for me, conceptually speaking.
For of all, composite and elementary particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, neutrinos, quarks, gluons, klingons (just kidding) and leptons) have no mass intrinsically. From a parental perspective, they're like pre-teens. Full of nothing but potential... It's through their daily travels that they acquire mass as you would pick up lint when you put on black clothing and your dog wants some attention). But some particles, like photons and gluons, never wear lint-attracting clothing...
So here are my video points from Ellis' video:
- The key is understanding that Higgs Boson introduces both a field and the particles (Higgs Bosons) that reside within that field.
- It's the particle that CERN detected, not the field. The field is implied by the prediction and detection of the particle.
- It's the journey through the Higgs Field, which is everywhere in our universe, that gives particles their mass, such as electrons.
- Certain particles that have no mass, like photons, can traverse the Higgs Field much like the bottom of a skier's ski... No Higgs Boson particles "stick" to the slick surface of that photon and therefore the photon acquires no mass.
- What did CERN discover? They discovered the particles, or snow flakes, that reside throughout the Higgs field... namely the Higgs Bosons. So they did not discover the field itself. They discovered the particles that reside there... the things that latch onto certain particles, giving those particles mass.
- So, another way of looking at it is that particles with no mass, like the photons that deliver light, are smooth and slick and therefore the Higgs Field that they plow through has little consequence in terms of build up of Higgs Boson particles. And particles that acquire mass have a rough surface and therefore accumulate Higgs Boson particles along their journey. The rough and smooth attributes are not necessarily attributes of particles. I'm just using them as conceptual elements.
If you want to know more about where the sub-particle name Boson came from (since Higgs gets all the press), be sure to read the web page at ibtimes.com. Just another story from the amazing culture of India... with a great story about the role that Einstein played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QG8g5JW64BA
David
