Higgs Series Index

1. The Physics Behind the Discovery of the Higgs Boson
2. Higgs Series: Newtons Dream
3. Higgs Series: The direction of science
4. Higgs Series: Towards a Final Explanation
5. Higgs Series: Realizing Newtons Dream
6. Higgs Series: Physics Before the Revolution
7. Higgs Series: Galileo's Principle of Relativity
8. Higgs Series: Einstein's Principle of Relativity
9. Higgs Series: Time is Not Absolute
10. Higgs Series: Space-time
11. Higgs Series: Time Dilation and Proof of Relativity
12. Higgs Series: Relativity's Effect on Mass
13. Higgs Series: The Need for Quantum Mechanics
14. Higgs Series: Quantum Mechanics: The Upshot
15. Higgs Series: The Uncertainty Principle
16. Higgs Series: Position and Momentum Ecoded in the Amplitude
17. Higgs Series: Stability of Matter
18. Higgs Series: Other Implications of QM: Waves vs Particles
    • Bonus From CLAUDE Draft Stability of Matter II

We have now introduced the 20th centrury revolutions in physcs: QM and relativity. Both Relativity and QM have counter intuitive implictations that sound crazy An obvious question is Why dont we notice these strange effects ? We dont see the world around us behaving in these strange ways, so arent these new ideas obviously wrong?

The reason these crazy effects arent apparent to us and the reason it took physicssts so long to figure them out is that the fundametnal constants associated with the theories are very far outside our everyday experince.

The physical constant associated with relativity is the upper speed limit and it is a really big number, about half a billion miles per hour. The wierd effects of relativity only kick in when you are approaching that speed. With QM the new constant h which sets the thickness of lines in the space time diagrams is very small. Its numerical value is 10^-34 in the coorespondinging units (Js) that are appropriate for human scale.

These extreme numbers mean that the size of the strange effects of QM and relativity are very small.

In relativity, we saw that time slows down in moving reference frames. If you travel with resect to earth you will experience time dialation and will age more slowly than your friends back home. However If you move about as fast as humans know how to move, an – airplane going 500 mph – for about as long as humans live – 80 years, you would only gain about a millisecond due to time dialation.

In Quantum Mechanics, if I know the position of a tiger crouching in the bushes there will be an uncertianty on its momentum. Lets say, for arguements sake, that I know the postition of the tiger to the size of an atom, this is of course much more preciese than we could ever measure it. There would then be a QM uncertianty on its momentum and therefore on its velocity of about 10^-26 mph.

These are effects that are totally irrelevant for everyday objects. So its not suprising that we had not noticed them for so long; you have to measure objects going very fast or that are very small very preciecely to see these effects.

Its also not suprising that this physics isnt intuitive to us. Our brains have evolved to have a working understanding of physics that is relavant to our survivial. Having an intuation about the QM uncertianty on the position of the tiger would in no way effect whether the is going to eat you.

Preview of whats going to happen next. The obvious next step is to combine these basic principles; we need to combined QM and relativity. We are going to see that it looks like its impossible.

The first part fo the 20C was putting these revolutions in place, comingup with the new ideas. the second part, was trying to put them together, trying to combine them. Again it looks impossible, and in general it is impossible.

The Physicists in this second period grew up with the development QM and relativity. The revolutions just happened in their lifetimes. So they assumed that revolution was the key to solving problems in physcis, it worked so well last time.

It turns out the big lesson from the 2nd half of the 20C is to be very conservative. It turns out it is possible to combine the ideas of relativity and QM, if you impose major restrictions on the world, they can be made compatible and these restrictions are exactly what we see in the world.