Higgs Boson Part III: How to Discover a Particle

How do you know when you've "discovered" a particle? What do we mean by "discovery"? Also, explore a map of the big bang! www.bigbangregi...
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Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in a minute!
Music by Nathaniel Schroeder
Thanks to Ross Diener, Nima Doroud and Derek Muller for contributions and to Perimeter Institute for support.
www.perimeterin... Created by Henry Reich

[@AlcyonEldara]

600 millions collisions. Every second. During 2 years. I love it :)

[@C-mz1bl]

I know. talk about the necessity for overkill.

[@firefish111]

Only then can you uncork the wine to go with your Jarlsberg and crackers....

[@lonestarr1490]

And now estimate how many sunrises there have been since the dawn of men. Basically, we have more evidence that the Higgs boson exists than we have that the sun rises every morning - by orders of magnitude.

[@trissylegs]

"Thanks for walking us through that John" Oh god... (John is using a treadmill desk)

[@dontreadmyprofilepicture151]

Yeah I get angry for no reason too sometimes. Its ok

[@KauanRMKlein]

Adrijana Radosevic you might have a problem...

[@August23579]

Tristram Healy thanks for that. At first I thought he was pelvic thrusting for no reason

[@ChrisBrengel]

Duh, I totally missed that and was about to leave a comment asking why he was on a treadmill...

[@nolanwestrich2602]

He was using a treadmill desk? Well, that explains why he was swaying weirdly.

[@Mustamaggara]

I wish I could grow a proper moustache so I could stroke it and mumble 'interesting...'

[@NotThatTallAtAll]

I just relogged to like your comment

[@gosucalime]

Laughed waay more than I should have.

[@froddd]

Dear Henry One day sitting on my friends bed listening to music and going through youtube, I chanced upon a minute physics video and ended up watching more. At this point in my life I wanted to become an architecture Your videos opened my eyes to something incredible. I now love physics and want to spend my life emerged in the world of science, and though I havent dove very far into it, it is something that brings me more joy and satisfaction then anything ever has and it is because of you!!!

[@simonbart5622]

Un-quark the wine?

[@situationalhelpfulness3432]

That was a *strange* joke, yet pretty *charm* ing. I was feeling *down*, but you pumped me *up* with this joke. I think you're pretty on *top* of things, but this might be a bit close to hitting the *bottom* of the barrel.

[@simonbart5622]

Nice!

[@simonbart5622]

You sure lepton to that one

[@situationalhelpfulness3432]

Simon Bart HAH

[@alyendragon4209]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@GarenPhillips]

So who is paying the electric bill for the hadron collider and the next 3.794688e+16 collisions?

[@xoom1712]

Why was John banging the table in the beginning of the video?

[@ZipaNipa]

Finally found a guy who is asking the real questions

[@yahyachothia]

He was walking on a treadmill.

[@grande1899]

Why is John Green humping the air in the beginning?

[@Owen_loves_Butters]

Lol idk

[@FirstRisingSouI]

This is a good video to point to for people who claim that scientists don't know what they're talking about.

[@FirstRisingSouI]

High confidence, as in 99.9999% confidence. That's 100%, if you round to anything practical.

[@FirstRisingSouI]

No, 99.9999% is pretty close to 100%. This is not a finite-infinite difference.

[@FirstRisingSouI]

There are an infinite number of infinitesimals, but there is a finite difference between them, which you get by subtracting the two numbers (and dividing by 100 to get rid of that % sign). Yes, there is a nonzero probability that they _could_ be wrong, and it is important for skeptics to acknowledge this. But what you said about it not being anywhere near 100% certainty is just wrong. It is, to a close approximation, 100%.

[@FirstRisingSouI]

***** No, that would imply there is no difference between 0.999999999 and 0.000000001 when it comes to probabilities. Which would invalidate the entire mathematical field of statistics, which would imply we should see quantum effects all the time at the macroscopic scale. And no, stop saying 1=infinity. Yes, there are an infinite number of infinitesimals between 0 and 1, but that does not mean that math is broken.

[@FirstRisingSouI]

You said: "I simply said that IF a probability of 100% implies that there is ZERO uncertainty and thus infinite certainty, then it follows that any finite amount of certainty is approximately zero." Do you not understand the implications of this statement? You are saying that any probability that is not 1 is approximately 0. Therefore, nothing will happen unless it has absolute certainty. This is not a straw man; it is the logical conclusion of your statement. What if there are two possibilities, p and ~p. p has a probability of 99.9999%, and ~p, of 0.0001%. You would say that both of their chances are infinitely far away from 1, and thus practically 0. Then, neither happens. This is a contradiction. If not, then explain to me how I have misinterpreted what you mean and how the contradiction is resolved.

[@GlitchedBot]

There is not enough words to appreciate your videos !!

[@chasegilley1906]

Ha, walking us through it. That was good.

[@phlyppoXD]

i just want to say tath higgs was the second one to discover (really discover) the higgs boson. The first one was Francois Englert, a Belgian scientist. But because higgs was more famous in the science world and probably had a better pr-agent, he got all the honour until 2013 when Englert got a nobel prize, unforunatly togheter with Higgs. But higgs didn't discover it first so it should be cald the Englert Boson. The first Neanderthaler was also found in Belgium but the Germans got the honour, we made the Uranium for Fat Boy and Little man, but America got the honour, We also invinted fries, but they are called french fries. And we don't eat as much waffles as you think, but we drink more beer than you think :)

[@dinosaurusrex1482]

timon konings are you from Belgium?

[@kharnakcrux2650]

it just tickles me how you use Cheese in example of matter. Cheese = love I know it sounds gushy, but i'm SO glad i live in a universe where such a magical substance exists.

[@SomeRandomFellow]

Cheese is love cheese is life

[@ryantauhid7417]

Paul Kelly indeed

[@rosagibson6570]

It tickles me that he loosely related Wine to the Higgs Boson particle.

[@MegaMGstudios]

kharnak crux your comment is Cheesy

[@f45tT4g]

I like the little parts of humor you have in your videos. It makes for a much more friendly video for not so bright-minded people to be able to enjoy it for the factual as well as the humor. c: Thank you, I've learned a lot.

[@tiekogalaxylatte8839]

fat neutron C:

[@tzetzo_tzetzov]

The sentence goes well with your profile pic. :D yash

[@tiekogalaxylatte8839]

good point e-e

[@necromanticer621]

I love the irony you threw in at 0:18, it's an interesting bit that makes me enjoy watching your vids all the more.

[@theOneAndOnly12384]

Why was John humping the table? At 0:04

[@davidshavers3819]

He's not, he has a tray table while walking on a treadmill.

[@LostInGamerLand]

I can not tell you how much I agree. Even if I don't understand it, I just can't stop watching them!

[@BBSplat]

1:02 How does the Higgs Boson decay into other particles? I thought it was an excitation of a field, like the electron. Doesn't that mean it's not made of any other particles?

[@unhealthytruthseeker]

+BBSplat Essentially, the same way a wave on a string made of one material can become a wave on a string made of another material if the ends of the strings are linked. The Higgs is an excitation of the Higgs field, but the Higgs field interacts with other fields, so an excitation in the Higgs can transfer its energy into an excitation of other fields.

[@YTEdy]

+BBSplat Let me splain, no, too long, let me summarize. The higgs field was theoretical it was used to explain behavior of subatomic particles. It worked perfectly, but the only way to show that the higgs field was there was to find the Higgs Boson, which should be a short lived particle that occasionally arises in high energy collisions. If they found the Higgs particle, then that would be good evidence that the Higgs field was there as they figured it should be. ANother cool aspect of finding the Higgs particle is they could study it. How long it lasts, what it's mass is, cool stuff like that. That would give them new information about this stuff. The higgs field like other fields, interacts with particles. The Higgs boson, when it's briefly created is a tiny and unstable quantum packet of energy. Energy doesn't disolve into a field, there are quantum properties that must be preserved, like the conservation of energy. I think it, more often than not, decays into 2 photons and something else, so if 2 photons are detected at the proper angle, that's good evidence of the Higgs Boston particle having been there briefly, before it decayed into other particles. I hope my typo filled sloppy answer makes sense. If not, I could try again.

[@alyendragon4209]

U wanna buy sum weed

[@jonathanshapira5578]

I love how all my favorite channels are featuring each other :-)

[@jakobygames]

I have a love hate relationship with physics

[@InTenZeGamingHD]

Maybe because it is and is not a physical relationship

[@alhassanali4829]

@@InTenZeGamingHD lol

[@ObjectsInMotion]

I actually heard a talk from him about this. He originally named it OneMinutePhysics, but changed it when he realized that some topics would have to take a little longer to explain, so he changed it to MinutePhysics so people would get the ideo of a range between 1 and 10 minutes.

[@alyyyxxxx]

Illuminati discovered! Wait, no confirmed...

[@reedhoward27]

theJamman Here we go again...

[@johnx4224]

"Thanks for walking us to that point, John", referring to that guy walking on a treadmill and in combination with that drawing at 0:20, which is caught up at the end of the video -- that's just great artistic work!! Keep it up! :)

[@werter1887]

Physics's so cool!

[@CapyBrotha]

Absolutely awesome! Thanks so much, I truly appreciate and love the effort that you put forward in educating the general public about these matters! Thanks, Chemistry nerd.

[@enclave2k1]

John Green always seemed too smug for me to enjoy. Needless to say, I enjoyed the 'walking us through that' comment.

[@MrMechanoise]

I think the reason many heads are hurting after these videos is down to an auditory and visual overload. He's a fast speaker, and we're being treated to on the spot drawing. It's too much for some of us to process, but if it were slower it wouldn't be 'minute' physics. It's an excellent series and I'll continue to watch, but not always be able to keep up :)

[@deet0109mapping]

0:21 Yup, scientific fact cheking.

[@MaxxTheMerciless]

As a writer, I'm trying to apply these kinds of discoveries to stories set in the future, and I'd like to try to be as accurate as possible. One idea I had was that if the Higgs-Boson is what gives an atom mass then might it be possible to, say, manipulate that mass someday? Could you make gold light as a feather, but keep all the properties of gold? The sheer impact this would have on construction, logisitics, and everyday life would be enormous.

[@xavierbell5393]

This one was much less confusing than the others

[@Potatinized]

you know what a common, non-science youtubers are doing here watching this video? enjoying the stop-motion with alien narrator. Hopefully there will be a subtitle in english soon.

[@MrSunscoop]

Didn't he mean in QUARK the wine

[@arvienlandicho3360]

oohhhh!!!!! puns of damage!!

[@Mrcoreydunn]

Ive Just started College Doing Biochemistry and i feel Like i have so much to learn about science. sometimes i feel lost watching minute physics!

[@Heiligtree]

"Thanks for walking us through that point, John". *cringes*

[@FrancoCiminoPrado]

awesome video, I'm a young chemist and I don't really understand a lot of particle physics, but your videos are really entertaining

[@PinkMawile]

If the higgs boson can't discover itself because it isn't self-aware, then isn't it accurate to say it was discovered?

[@MGSLurmey]

You can't say you discovered iron if everyone has already known about it for hundreds of years. ;)

[@Fif0l]

Unless nobody ever saw iron, and all we have is a bunch of calculations that say there must be iron, and hope we didn't mess up anywhere. Because the calculations didn't discover iron, they just predicted iron, just like we predicted higgs boson and not discover it with standard model.

[@MGSLurmey]

Fif0l Though the clear flaw in our comparison is that we can physically see, touch and directly interact with iron. We can't do that with the higgs boson nearly as easily.

[@user-ce1eh]

Seeing John Green in a Minutephysics video was a pleasant surprise.

[@shaynedapain18]

Keep up the good work dude! Your videos are great and make people interested with how you make them! Can't wait for more videos to come!

[@SCARd4Life8]

Finally. I actually know what all the hype about the Higgs Boson is for. I already loved physics before seeing this guy, but this makes it sound so simple and interesting

[@puppysfurme]

John Green doing math/science related stuff? My head hurts from the contradicting awesome.

[@jfgsakhg112]

i really dont understand these videos but i like how he draws to go along with it

[@Rudy627]

I love how smart you guys are

[@soccerqween]

I love it when my two favorite youtubers collide!

[@DFPercush]

There are lots of videos about it, but they have massive fiber optics that send mind boggling amounts of information to a computer array where certain images are filtered out if they contain nothing "interesting." So only a small fraction of collisions get saved. But it does save a completely random one every now and then even if the filters would otherwise reject it, and that's called the "minimum bias sample".

[@TerenceClark]

I love seeing crossover episodes of my favorite channels/creators!

[@arhabersham]

I love the way these two approaches (social science and natural science) meet here with the participation of John Green... awesome + awesome = AWESOME :D

[@xTheDeerLordx]

Great series. Informative and concise as always!

[@PSRack]

I don't understand any of this but I can't stop watching...

[@purecheeze3]

You are the best teacher ever.

[@karthikbalaji3739]

+minutephysics Hmm...But isn't there a chance that at the next infinitesimal instant after the collision of the particles and say, they DO make the higgs boson but the higgs boson immediately splits back to the particles from which it was formed? Btw I do not say that all particles combined make the higgs boson. Or does it?

[@Ceruleanturkeyz]

That was a great point, I love that confirmation was put in this video! I hope people can use it from now on when referring to "discovery".

[@PheloSaad]

Αt 0:44 there was a upper case eth right next to the “exist” without a space. Also at 2:41, is the y on both ye’s is a y or a thorn? (they don’t have to be the same.)

he was just omitting the speed of light there, so that his new standard spelling model may fit with all the awesomeness it has to describe

[@lolzomgz1337]

The theory of everything series doesn't really contain as many videos as I hoped it would. D:

a heavy particle. The mass values are like the faces of the dice: one face (say 3) occurring more often than others would indicate a true particle giving rise to that excess of 3's, a true heavy particle decaying in pairs (or pairs of pairs) of more "conventional" particles. This is true not only for the Higgs boson, but for all the decaying particles like the Z and W bosons, neutrons, pions and a long list. I'd be glad to see a "Higgs IV" video on how CMS records and analyzes the collisions ;-)

[@resonance2001]

I hope Peter Higgs appreciates the amount of effort in finding his particle. Once they find it, I hope they return it to him, tell him not to be so careless and not to lose it again. I thought I found it under the kitchen table once but it turned out to be my brother pretending to be a particle.

[@excaliber009]

He has a couple earlier videos that explain more about what it is. It is basically the particle that gives all other particles mass.

[@shayhorsey]

I'm really impressed with all of your videos! Keep it up! Such excellent video production value too. I love when people actually put some effort into creating good content. I'm definitely subscribing!

[@hommadi2001]

I work at CERN. But this made stuff more clear to me :) THNX (Am an electrical engineer not a physicist).

[@diegorivero11]

And, with math's beauty, I completely agree. There are +50 values that must be in a narrow range of values to allow live in the universe. Calculating there is 1 in a 1 with a billion 0 behind posibilities that universe conditions would allow life. So, it's beautiful to see how our existence was so imposible, but it happened. You won't say that is a real posibility of being a coincidence, no when winning a planetary lottery looks posible compared to posibility of life's existance in the universe

[@TheMisterApple]

I'm amazed at how well edited this video is! And not to mention the fascinating content :)

[@MaxxTheMerciless]

I understand that, but I wanted their take on this, because right now it's all up to conjecture. The way I see it, if these people want another similar, or bigger supercollider, they need to have a reason why beyond discovery in and of itself. Even if it's fictional; you have to excite people's minds to new possibilities.

[@MissAjayG]

I had no idea that John and Minute Physics knew each other! I found them both separately!!!

[@Xagraniatko]

I don't like the ads, but without these ads KZbin wouldn't be able to function unless you would pay for it. Its a fair trade, cool videos for watching ads that are even interesting sometimes. Also, makers of videos benefit from the ads too :).

[@Caliusfirnus]

I like how John was walking, while he 'walked' us through that (Nerdfighteria!).

[@Nicotrel]

In the most basic sense - it loses energy. all particles vibrate a little, sort of like guitar strings, and just like guitar strings their vibrations get weaker with time (in case of elementary particles, it takes anywhere from 10^-25 of a second to 10^25 seconds) as a result of a phenomenon called dissipation. as the particles energy dissipates it becomes less "stable" and the likelihood of it to decay into other particles increases until eventually it decays into other elementary particles.

[@reNINTENDO]

I believe their use of "fact checking" is relying more on semantics. While it's definitely not the same as "discovering" a continent others were already aware of, we were aware the Higgs boson could and probably did exist, and as a result, it wasn't accidental like what we normally think with discoveries. Perhaps a better word would be "find" or "observe". Oh, and thanks for the CERN explanation!

[@jbeyou]

It is moving along with the earth's rotation just as all objects on earth, including the atmosphere. As an observer from a fixed location on the earth's surface, it may appear that the helicopter is standing still in the air (hovering), relative to the observers position, but it is indeed in motion.

[@wyattnolte]

Brilliant! An obtuse reminder of the cold hard reality of science in practice

[@DZGMR94]

I learned alot watching these videos better than I did in university, thanks alot! keep up the good work!

[@Dyslexic-Artist-Theory-on-Time]

This is an invitation to see an artist theory on the physics of light and time! This theory is based on two postulates 1. Is that the quantum wave particle function Ψ represents the forward passage of time ∆E ∆t ≥ h/2π itself 2. Is that Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle ∆×∆p×≥h/4π that is formed by the w- function is the same uncertainty we have with any future event within our own ref-frame that we can interact with turning the possible into the actual!

[@VV55VV]

Thank you John and MinutePhysics!

[@Respectable_Username]

YAY FOR JOHN + MINUTEPHYSICS!

[@Absydion]

Your videos are educationally entertaining! Thanks!

[@DancingSpiderman]

Yes, I agree. In particle physics, temperature, mass, and energy are ALL measured in eV.

[@chaseblack9677]

That's John Green, he's an Author, KZbinr (Vlogbrothers, Crashcourse, and others), and is one of the founders of VidCon.

[@Pteromandias]

And an all-round idiot if he doesn't think that two peoples mutually discovering that the other exists, along with the continents they live on, is a discovery.

[@Qbe_Root]

I don’t think someone who just re-invented maths and physics would just say it in KZbin comments without even posting any video about his discoveries or setting any description. But, like I said, if he actually did it, then he can show us an overview or something.

[@csdojo6011]

does every particle interacts with higgs field for sure?? And can we say, for sure, that higgs field slows down the particle?? Thanks :)

[@Tetraglot]

When I first watched this video, I had never seen Crash Course World History. Now, I've watched all the Crash Course World History videos, and I *just* realized the other person in this video is John Green… *mindblown*

[@lindbo96]

Man, you got me adicted to this physics thing...

[@vivianabresch3065]

I know, right? I was so amazed at the brilliance, I bought the very same treadmill desk, and I'm walking right now. I've walked a mile and a half in my free time today.

[@dottedrhino]

Amazingly clear explanation of the Higgs Boson! Thanks!

[@cosmicguy21]

I did some calculations; i have no idea what this means, but the required ammount of collisions for the proof of existance thing is roughly 5.67648e+16.

[@175griffin]

how did we confirm the higgs if it would take 2 years of 600,000,000 collisions per second? does the lhc really perform that many collisions per second?

[@yvesgomes]

Loved that background bass song, bruh.

[@griffithd05]

This channel is terrific.

[@calimann83]

The definition of discover: 1. To notice or learn, especially by making an effort 2. To be the first, or the first of one's group or kind, to find, learn of, or observe. b. To learn about for the first time in one's experience: discovered a new restaurant on the west side. So how is "discovering" a particle not an accurate way of saying it? We can also say the Europeans discovered America because generally its existence was unknown to them.

[@W_TylerMann]

def had breaks. They constantly are seeming to have to repair and maintain the supermagnets that run around the LHC. Look at youtube videos that go more in depth. Amazing what they are doing there.

[@jbeyou]

The helicopter appears to be hovering at the same location to someone observing it from a fixed location on earth, but it is actually moving along with the earth as it rotates, which one might observe from a fixed location in space.

[@918273645o546372819]

I've always meant to ask this, who does the smooth base noodling in the background for you guys?

[@ZOrmiston90708]

There is but one exception to the cheese and crackers analogy... I knew about chocolate; I knew about peanut butter. But when they combined, my understanding of the universe changed.

[@unquestionablelogic]

Henry grew up so fast it was only a matter of time before he got his own channel.

[@GeneralFirearcherPSN]

After these three parts I'm 10 and I understood most of it and my mind is blown

[@Smashbloon]

A KZbin comments section only gives me so much to explain. I do not just go on the simple notion of only complexity. I agree, that the universe is built with laws and not random chance. Why do the laws behave the ways they do? Why do we exist and understand our own existence? Why don't laws break themselves? And the simple question, "Why?". You see, we will never understand those questions. The universe itself is an intelligent being that never changes its nature.

[@HairConfetti]

Your videos melt my brain. Awesome.

[@Fru_videos]

after the wikipedia: " Higgs boson was observed in July 2012, and its behaviour remains consistent with a Standard Model Higgs boson", and "Some versions of the theory predict more than one kind of Higgs fields and bosons." ... "There is no direct evidence for the existence of supersymmetry." and last "If supersymmetry exists close to the TeV energy scale, it allows for a solution of the hierarchy problem of the Standard Model"... in short it does not yet prove string theory right

[@madamerouge123]

Please answer as many of these as possible, and physics gurus out there. The Higgs boson is matter, correct? How long would an isolated Higgs boson last if it were in in a universe with exactly nothing other than the boson? Can you "join" several Higgs bosons together to make something else, like the way quarks can make things like protons?

[@therisingshallfall]

thanks for walking us through that , very subtle pun right there

[@yousorooo]

Finally, part 3 is here ;)