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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think that the possible sighting/discovery of the higgs boson particle

55 replies

londonone · 13/12/2011 23:08

has hammered home that being very intelligent doesn't make you a good teacher or good at explaining things!

Maybe I am exceptionally dim, but I have heard multiple scientists "explaining" what it is today, and I am none the wiser!

OP posts:

LineRunnerCrouchingReindeer · 13/12/2011 23:11

It means that you exist.

GypsyMoth · 13/12/2011 23:11

Like Santa?

Original poster

londonone · 13/12/2011 23:13

But they're not sure they've found it. Does that mean maybe I/you/we don't exist!

OP posts:

SantaAteAllTheBiscuits · 13/12/2011 23:14

In order for the currently accepted 'rules' of the physical universe to work there needs to be a particle responsible for transferring gravitational force between matter. The other physical forces; electromagnetic force and the strong and weak atomic forces all have known particles which control their effects.

Gravity, the force which creates mass, is presumed to have a particle as well.... the Higgs bosun, but as of yet it has not been 'seen' so cannot be proven to exist.

Esta3GG · 13/12/2011 23:15

YANBU
But I love seeing beardy boffiny types on the telly again - rekindling fond memories of old OU programmes.
I thought HBP was the reason why other particles have mass.

MrsHiggsBoson · 13/12/2011 23:16

He's not the Messiah...

troisgarcons · 13/12/2011 23:17

I think therefore I am

Descartes had this nailed yonks ago.

LadyBeagleBaublesAndBells · 13/12/2011 23:17

I'm exactly the same OP.
I haven't got a clue, and my ds's explanation is just as convulated. He's 16 and totally understands all that scientific stuff.

CupAndSorcery · 13/12/2011 23:18

I would love to see Brian Cox explain how Santa makes it round the world in one night - in a very dry physicist type way

I do however, get the impression that he is a bit of a boring bastard like his militant atheist friends Dawkins and Wiseman and would suck all the fun and magic out of it no matter what... (caveat - i am an atheist but love a bit of magic in life)

LineRunnerCrouchingReindeer · 13/12/2011 23:19

It also means that Professor Brian Cox exists.

I'll transfer my energy to his mass any time.

Original poster

londonone · 13/12/2011 23:19

Santa - This is why physics makes my brain hurt!

OP posts:

madonnawhore · 13/12/2011 23:20

In really, really simplistic terms, the higgs boson is the gravity particle.

Physicists still can't explain how gravity works, but they're hoping the higgs boson will be the missing link, so to speak.

reelingintheyears · 13/12/2011 23:20

I don't think and that is why i get into so many scrapes.

I love Brian.

LineRunnerCrouchingReindeer · 13/12/2011 23:21

CupandSorcey Brian Cox does do this in the Christmas Radio Times.

What more need I say?

NotADudeExactly · 13/12/2011 23:22

Santa's explanation is very good and IMO easy to understand as well as correct (as far as my own, limited understanding of big bang cosmology goes).

However, I agree that understanding a subject matter is one thing and doesn't necessarily imply good presentation and didactic skills - hence the many university professors who are universally reviled by their students but brilliant researchers.

reelingintheyears · 13/12/2011 23:22

madonnawhore

I can show you the effects of gravity...

scottishmummy · 13/12/2011 23:22

I'm following this its diverting.love science

CupAndSorcery · 13/12/2011 23:23

I will check that out LRCReindeer ... and apologise forth width at his very scientific feet....

Esta3GG · 13/12/2011 23:23

They still can't explain how gravity works?
Fuck me I thought Newton had that nailed donkeys years ago.

LineRunnerCrouchingReindeer · 13/12/2011 23:23

One of my university lecturers was sick in the bin once whilst he was lecturing. He'd had a few. A genius, though.

madonnawhore · 13/12/2011 23:23

CupAndSorcery I went to a Brian Cox lecture a while ago and it was fascinating.

When you start to understand a bit about quantum mechanics* it's way more improbably mind boggling than any magical thing you could imagine.

*I'm an arts graduate and well thick when it comes to science. But I could just about follow what he was on about.

scottishmummy · 13/12/2011 23:24

gosh it's rivetting ipad correction
I love this stuff really

NotADudeExactly · 13/12/2011 23:24

Cup I think Dawkins would disagree about the magic thing. His magic is just, ahem, different.

It's not exactly something I feel strongly about, but I just remembered that he recently published a children's book entitled ^The Magic Of Reality".

QuintessentiallyFestive · 13/12/2011 23:25

But that is pure empiricism. I thought we were beyond only believing what we could see or experience ourselves?

In fact, maybe this hobsons bafoon, really is a religious concept after all.

madonnawhore · 13/12/2011 23:26

Esta3GG Well Newton discovered that there was such a force as gravity and that it worked on all objects that had mass. But no one's ever figured out what gives objects mass in the first place. The theory is that the higgs boson does.

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