Also, does "150-200 Higgs to two photon decays and ~5 Higgs to four lepton" mean that for every 2 photon decays there were "sensed" 150 Higgs, or does this mean that in the entire life of CMS only two photon decays had occurred?
Yes, I'm aware that 'taking a photo of a particle' does not have the same properties as 'taking a photo of a human'. Nevertheless, scientists need to rev up their particle accelerator and obtain data. Many of these acquisitions of data do not contribute to the existence of the Higgs but some...
Alternatively, if someone knows the number of photos that were taken of some other fundamental particle before its existence was announced then I would be happy to know that too.
I read once that 37 photos of the decay products of the Top Quark were taken before its existence was announced but I have forgotten where I read it. Does anyone know the number of photos of the Higgs were taken before its existence was announced? Further, why would x number of photos yield a...
Actually, I did not realize that the speed of light is a constant. So let me rephrase the question. Is there a probability of every atom in my body suddenly traveling at 99% the speed of light in a straight line for, say, a minute?As for:
This is a question for philosophy, in particular...
I realize this type of question has been asked elsewhere on competitor websites but I want to make it more precise. Usually, the person asks if anything in QM is possible to which the answer is no, for example, a photon cannot have spin 0, hence some things in QM are impossible. But what about...
Are you sure about that? I remember towards the end of the Gleick book around 1985, some historian asked him if he thought the laws of physics were somehow unified and Feynman asked him some rather hard questions and ultimately he ended the lecture and said it was a waste of time? Plus there...
No. This gets into the distinction between a priori and a posteriori truths. So a billion has 9 zeroes is only true because we decide arbitrarily that that's how many a billion has and, as a matter of fact, no later than 1972 the British decided that a billion had 12 zeroes. It does not mean...
What you have shown is that by one definition there are two and by another definition there are one. It's not that we cannot count equations it's that there are no wide conventions as to what counts as an equation or not. It's the same with the solar system. So by one definition of the solar...
I understand what you're saying, but you can at least come up with a definition of a basic versus a complex equation and using that rule determine what its consequences are. For example, it's hard to count the population of Chicago but if you at least come up with some boundary however...
That was one of my favorite episodes from the Gleick book on Feynman. I forget who it was, maybe Beta, told Feynman to make his lecture more mathematical so as to keep the audience quiet and well-behaved. When you make your lecture less mathematical they start getting too rowdy. I sometimes...