Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The Higgs Boson and The Higgs Field
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The Higgs Boson and The Higgs Field
Imagine you're at a high school reunion in a crowded room when a popular former student, let's call him Steve, walks into the room. As he enters, people close to the door gather around him. As he moves through the room, the crowd around him moves with him, making it harder for him to move quickly. This is similar to how the Higgs Boson works in the universe.
The Higgs Boson is a subatomic particle that gives other particles mass. Think of it as the people at the reunion that slow Steve down. It’s part of something known as the Higgs Field which is like the room full of people. The Higgs Field is an energy field that exists everywhere in the universe. When certain particles move through the Higgs Field, they interact with it and slow down, similar to Steve in the crowded room. This slowing down gives them mass.
Without interaction with the Higgs Field, particles like electrons and quarks would move at the speed of light and have no mass, which means atoms wouldn't form and neither would stars, planets or life as we know it.
The Higgs Boson was predicted over 50 years ago but confirming its existence was a huge task. Scientists had to build the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to be able to detect it. In 2012, scientists finally announced they'd found a particle that behaves the way the Higgs Boson was predicted to, a profound moment in scientific history!
In conclusion, the Higgs Boson and the Higgs Field are fundamental to our understanding of the universe. Like the popular person in a crowd, the Higgs Field slows particles down, giving them mass and allowing the universe, and everything in it, to exist.
View all episodes
By TILImagine you're at a high school reunion in a crowded room when a popular former student, let's call him Steve, walks into the room. As he enters, people close to the door gather around him. As he moves through the room, the crowd around him moves with him, making it harder for him to move quickly. This is similar to how the Higgs Boson works in the universe.
The Higgs Boson is a subatomic particle that gives other particles mass. Think of it as the people at the reunion that slow Steve down. It’s part of something known as the Higgs Field which is like the room full of people. The Higgs Field is an energy field that exists everywhere in the universe. When certain particles move through the Higgs Field, they interact with it and slow down, similar to Steve in the crowded room. This slowing down gives them mass.
Without interaction with the Higgs Field, particles like electrons and quarks would move at the speed of light and have no mass, which means atoms wouldn't form and neither would stars, planets or life as we know it.
The Higgs Boson was predicted over 50 years ago but confirming its existence was a huge task. Scientists had to build the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to be able to detect it. In 2012, scientists finally announced they'd found a particle that behaves the way the Higgs Boson was predicted to, a profound moment in scientific history!
In conclusion, the Higgs Boson and the Higgs Field are fundamental to our understanding of the universe. Like the popular person in a crowd, the Higgs Field slows particles down, giving them mass and allowing the universe, and everything in it, to exist.