The Mystery of Empty Space 2

Clip 2 from the opening of a 43 minute lecture, 'The Mystery of Empty Space: Higgs Bosons, Vacuum Energy and Extra Dimensions', May 2001. Full lecture- http://www.ucsd.tv/library-science.asp?detail=02&showID=5551

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Higgs
• field
• mechanism
• boson
• vacuum
• dark
• energy
• string
• theory

[kamyarghofrani]

so how light moves with speed of light?

[stevebd1]

Because it's technically massless.

[deathing2]

if all matter originally moved at the speed of light, where did the extra energy go when they slowed down in the higgs field?

[stevebd1]

Einsteins full equation for energy conversion is e^2=(pc)^2+m^2c^4 (or e=pc+mc^2) where pc represents energy through momentum and mc^2 represents energy through rest mass. It's assumed that both parts of the equation cannot be satisfied at the same time (i.e. an object either has energy through momentum or mass). Though it's widely considered that photons do not have mass, if they were made to 'stop' the energy would be converted to rest mass.

[leahcimrac]

If the Higgs field slows everything down then how come photons move at the speed of light in space? Just a thought.

[Phospholipidicious]

ive been trying to understand the higgs particle for days now... nothing made sense except this video... i wish i had the intelligence to understand formulas and real physics, but this explanation is great for the layman. thank you sooooo much! :)

[MillyVanillification]

@limbobkebob But only if what sounds to you is correct. The ancient thought that all clocks are running at the same speed, that time is a flow and light is instantaneous. I don't think the ancient had any knowledge about something like a higgs field. They didn't even know what the sun was. They "knew" not very much. What they have been good at was proposing best uneducated guesses like gods and demons.

[Koujinkamu]

@limbobkebob The aincients didn't know shit. Stop stealing the accomplishments of science for a bunch of philosophers.

[limbobkebob]

sounds like the higgs field is ying chi and the other force that cancels it out is the yang chi. the ancients knew this thousands of years ago, we're just learning the science behind it.

[AlexTube2006]

One of the best videos ever since I have been watching science on youtube

[jayseah32]

Is it possible that it took that first picosecond of the process to "create" the Higgs field???? And what about the origin of the Higgs in M-theory???

[0lliehooper]

He used the word discombobulate... haha

[spongah]

Ok I saw the end of the video now where he talked about the big bang.. it seems to me that the higgs field is still related to everything else and perhaps at a high enough temperature it will "turn off" a kind of temperature that was only in existence in the first picosecond of the big bang... it doesn't seem that it would already be here, and turn off during the big bang then turn back on it seems it is still part of the big bang..

[spongah]

maybe the speed of light is the sped of light because of this higgs field? they say in the big bang things had to move FASTER than the speed of light but thats impossible but maybe if there was no niggs field yet it would be possible?