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/sci/ - Science & Math

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4874283 No.4874283 [Reply] [Original]

Talk Higgs Boson to me.
Anyone who can explain what exactly it is and why christfags think it proves the existence of god will win +10 internets.

>> No.4874295 [DELETED] 
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4874295

>>4874283
>why christfags think it proves the existence of god
>the 'god particle'
always makes me laugh

>> No.4874307

Did you check the archive and Wikipedia?

>> No.4874309

It was a hypothesis. According to the math, it had to be there, but it was hard to do the tests, so a guy called it "the goddamn particle" as in "damn it, we can't find this shit". Goddamn became God and Higgs Boson became the God particle. It has nothing to do with religion, it has nothing to say on religion. It was just the dumb media twisting the name so that everyone could get mad at it.

>> No.4874318

you know how when you swim the water kind of holds you back. making you swim slower. that's kinda what the higgs boson does to everything.
its a field that if it interacts with other fields has the same effect as a mass term would have had. so it gives things mass.

>> No.4874333

It was a massive mistake to call it the "god particle" because people with limited scientific understanding apparently seem to think it proves their religious fantasies correct. The actual scientists working on the project are entirely opposed to the moniker.

Little is known with precision about its characteristics, but from what I gather the Higgs Boson seems to be related to the mass of atomic and subatomic particles, and therefore the way in which elements are formed.

Ideally, more research would give us clues about the fundamental composition of matter and the way matter interacts with other types.

Please call it the Higgs Boson and never "god particle"

>> No.4874340

>>4874318
OP here. So help me out, I'm not at all scientifically inclined but I really want to get a firm grasp on what's going on.
We've thought that space is basically nothing, right? And then it was discovered that smaller objects float through with little resistance while larger objects are slowed down, meaning that space is in fact "something", in the same way that water is...?

>> No.4874353

>>4874333
Therein lies the reason I'm asking /sci/ for help: I'm sick of religion being tied to something that I see no religion in. I'm interested in the science.
What does the Higgs Boson mean for us?

>> No.4874355

>>4874340
It is believed that empty space actually is filled with electrons traveling through other dimensions

>> No.4874360 [DELETED] 
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4874360

>>4874355
>it is believed...

>> No.4874374

>>4874318
I understand your analogy to water when a mass is accelerated. But what about a mass already in motion with no acceleration? In water, your velocity would go to zero without force applied, while in the Higgs field, your velocity remains the same?

>> No.4874380

>>4874355
does that mean that a type of friction exists in space to slow things down?

>> No.4874382

>>4874340
not smaller and larger, but lighter and heaver. space is filled with this field and when something moves in it it gets held back, the amount it gets held back determines the "mass" we measure the object to have. this is very simplified of course. it actually has to do with a field that has its lowest energy state not being the vacuum, so that the vacuum actually has more energy that if the field was there, this field is the higs field. and it interacts with matter (like how a charged particle interacts with the electromagnetic field.) in such a way that the particle gains potential energy, this potential energy is in the form of mass term that retards the object, making us see it as having mass.

>> No.4874389

>>4874374
the analogy is not perfect.

>> No.4874397

>>4874389
I fail to see anything right about the analogy.

>> No.4874402

>>4874340
Let me put it this way:

The Higgs Boson is not really important at all - the only reason we care about it is because it is created by the Higgs Field (which does all the work) and the only practical possibility to prove that the Higgs Field exists.

The Higgs field is the thing that slows other particles down ('like water'). And because being slower than light and having mass is basically the same thing, this is why people say that it gives mass to other particles.

go see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uh5mTxRQcg
and also check out pat II

>> No.4874404

inb4 the thread derails over an analogy

>> No.4874410

>>4874389
I wasn't criticizing, just trying to understand the theory a little better.

>> No.4874411

>>4874382
Lowest energy = vacuum by definition.

Maybe you are confusing "vacuum" with having zero field.

>> No.4874413

>>4874397
it makes accelerating harder. like water.

>> No.4874426

>>4874411

yes, i should have said the vacuum still has fields in it

>> No.4874429

>>4874413
While technically there is a force proportional to your acceleration when you're moving through water, it's not what anyone will think of when they hear this -- they think of drag, which is proportional to velocity. I give it -1 points on that count.

It's easier to just say that it's a field whose value controls the mass of certain particles.

>> No.4874435

>>4874429
Sorry, should be
*drag, which depends on velocity
Only in certain regimes is it proportional; in general, it's quite complicated.