Thursday, July 5, 2012

4th of July and the Higgs Boson

Fourth of July! Time to burn those fireworks!

Look, every year somebody gets hurt. See here for example.

It is best just to watch fireworks, and not deal with that dangerous explosives.

And this year it is HOT. It is best to stay in doors.

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That's it! People have found the long sought Higgs Boson! See here for example. How many people actually know something about that Standard Model? This is not for the faint of the heart. This is some heavy duty stuff beyond the realm of most people.

Most people I know (with a college degree) don't even remember sin/cos/tangent from elementary math. Some people I talked to have absolutely no clue why is the volume of a cone 1/3 π r^2 h... One time some person dare to mock me with "tell me one use of calculus" I shake head at these folks' cluelessness.

When I look at that Standard Model and its confusing arrays of particles and heavy duty mathematics I am just as clueless as those folks.

Higgs Boson found... we now know where "mass" come from. Please don't mock the scientists with "tell me one use of knowing where mass come from", nor mock someone who wants to climb the highest mountain in the world.

Ok BILLIONS spent to find such particle... is it worth it? Should that money be spent to rescue some countries on brink of financial collapse or feed the hungry? Now are you tempted to say, "tell me one use of spending all this money?"

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