- Mar 21, 2005
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The Higgs boson is a particle that gives objects mass. Particles exist in space, and space is filled with Higgs bosons. When they move through this field of Higgs bosons, they are attracted to certain particles and slow them down. We see this as mass.So what exactly is the deal with the Higgs-boson they are trying to find with the LHC?
Basically, the standard model for particle physics has been proven right at every turn, but it predicts that a Higgs boson should exist. If it does, then yay! the standard model is proven once more. If it doesn't, then yay! we know there is something fundamentally wrong with our picture of particles.
The LHC can accelerate particles to such a speed that, when they collide, the Higgs boson should become visable (in some esoteric form). There's a lot of other stuff the LHC will do, but the Higgs boson is essentially it's primary role.
Yes, though I'm not thrilled about the colloquial terminology going on; I feel you're going to lead me into a semantic trap .Would a dinosaur with a navel be considered evolution's Achilles Heel?
Because a fly doesn't exert 13,000 Newtons on a truck . Flies, while fast, are extremely light, so the force exerted on a truck is tiny. Flies weigh about 12mg, so the force exerted when a fly hits a truck is about a millinewton. One Newton is about the force an apple exerts on your hand when you hold it, so a fly hitting a truck is hardly anything. Coupled with the facts that a) such a tiny force on such a heavy truck would yield an even tinier deceleration, and b) a truck has a big machine to accelerate it, you won't see any change when a fly hits it.This always confuses me. Newton's third law states that every action has an opposite and equal reaction, that when objects collide, they exert the same force on each other. Why then, does a one ton truck accelerating at lets say 15 m/s2 seem to not react to the 13,000 odd newtons of force exerted on it when it hits a fly?
The only way I've made it through physics so far is by ignoring logic and just doing the equations, but I don't like it!
Basically, the fly's too small to do anything noticeable.
I've never heard of that, and I'd be surprised it's true. It seems a waste of components, space, and thrust, for such a superficial effect.Is that why some wheels on modern cars have alloys that actually go backwards? So you can film them going forwards?
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