Higgs Boson explained

[sjastro]

Higgs Boson: One page explanation

In 1993, the UK Science Minister, William Waldegrave, challenged physicists to produce an answer that would fit on one page to the question 'What is the Higgs boson, and why do we want to find it?'
The winning entries taken from Physics World Volume 6 Number 9.

http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs.htm

Regards

Steven

[multiweb]

This is way way over my head but the last explanation #5 is the only I could comprehend (sort of). :)

[renormalised]

They're all pretty much straightforward answers. Although, if you cut to the chase you could explain what a Higgs Boson is in less than one page.

[CraigS]

Man, this was a challenge issued by the 1993 UK Science Minister, right ?

So, was he the one who judged the papers also ?

I guess the English parliament has funded heaps of HB research since 1993, so I guess the 1993 UK Science Minister 'got it' after reading all the entries, huh ?

Cheers

[renormalised]

Politicians don't get anything...I doubt he was anymore enlightened after that little bit of basic science education for the masses (pun intended:))

[astroron]

Just a little bit of information for your Enlightenment:P
William Arthur Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill, PC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Council_of_the_United_Kingdom ) (born 15 August 1946), is an English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_people) Conservative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_%28UK%29) politician who served in the Cabinet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_the_United_Kingdom) from 1990 until 1997 and is a Life Member of the Tory Reform Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory_Reform_Group). He is now a life peer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_peer). Lord Waldegrave is also the Chairman of the Rhodes Trust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Scholarship) and the Chairman of Trustees for the National Museum of Science and Industry. He is currently Provost of Eton College (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College), formally taking over the position on 8 February 2009,also Studied at Harvard University USA:thumbsup:

[renormalised]

That doesn't mean anything. I know of plenty of politicians that have important positions in many different organisations and not one of them could light a penny bunger with the electrical activity in what passes for a brain amongst any of them. Even having formal qualifications doesn't mean they're going to be anything out of the ordinary. Some are actually inveterate idiots, despite their education and experience. Yet, you do get some with a few brains and promise, but the system chews them up and spits them out, or they go all chummy and become part of the system themselves.

[CraigS]

I guess they're a bit like BBT - flawed, but its (they're) all we've got.
A necessary evil.

Cheers

[astroron]

A bit like BBT?
Just Clicked:rolleyes:

[sjastro]

The second part of the question "..... and why do we want to find it?" is a dead giveaway for a non scientific question.

Besides by having to answer it the physicists have wasted valuable lines that would otherwise have been used to explain the Higgs boson.:)

Regards

Steven

[CraigS]

Perhaps that part of the question was for his benefit (to pass funding).. and the real issue for the scientific community !

Cheers

[renormalised]

There once was a guy named Peter Higgs
Loved his astronomy as well as his figs
Wondered why atoms were so damn heavy
Not one equation to define this he could levy

But one day an idea he saw that appealed
An answer as easy as a scalar field
But to give them some mass he had to arrange
Something as simple as a particle exchange

To tie them down as they whizzed on by
An exchange of energy whilst on the fly
But what could give such a boost by post on
Another particle perhaps, a truly big boson

But how to produce such an enormous mass
Out of this new field it sounded so crass
So instead of resorting to magical trickery
All that it took was some broken symmetry

Hooray and hoorah, Peter became famous
With something so simple it really did shame us
And now there's a particle that we rely the most on
To give us some weight, the Higg's bloody boson!!!

[CraigS]

& that's LESS than one page, too !!
'Cept I don't seem to be able to find out who wrote it ??
Hang on !! .. the small print says something Wald.... ? (I can't make out the rest of it) !
:)

[renormalised]

Who?? "Lord Waldo Hardy Ha Ha"...Sir Osis of Liver, Baron von Backstab, Lord Warden of the Sunk More Port, Percy of the Peerage...not likely:):P