Higgs Boson For Dummies

[AJS-]

Am I the only one who has absolutely no idea what this is? I've had several Wikipedia pages open for an hour, and I can't really make head nor tail of it.

What is it? Why is it important? What can we do with it?

I don't like to think I'm completely stupid, I do take a passing interest in science, and can usually understand at least an outline of what people are talking about, but this one has me totally stumped.

Can anyone shed any light or post a link to a nice simple article?

[steveT350C]

Brian Cox is fairly good

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/episode/...

Start at about 32 minutes

[PeanutHead]

Take a look in here,
http://www.track-days.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
It may or may not help.

[Hoofy]

Finally.

Was going to read a Brief History of Time before trying to figure out what everyone was talking about!

[AJS-]

Watched it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efLeReifW0c as BBC stuff isn't available outside the UK

"The sub particle that gives other particles substance or mass" makes some sense, but then does that mean it would be possible to have an empty atom with zero mass if not for the Higgs Boson? What was thought to be there instead?

[AJS-]

Hoofy said:

Finally.

Was going to read a Brief History of Time before trying to figure out what everyone was talking about!

I thought it was something to do with boats...

[AJS-]

PeanutHead said:

Take a look in here,
http://www.track-days.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
It may or may not help.

The first page didn't, sorry. I'm a level dumber than that.

[Hoofy]

AJS- said:

I thought it was something to do with boats...

I thought it had to do with wearing moustaches, driving a 328 and living in Hawaii.

[AJS-]

Hoofy said:

I thought it had to do with wearing moustaches, driving a 328 and living in Hawaii.

Higgs Boson, a tough cop in a tough town. Sounds right!

[Hoofy]

AJS- said:

Higgs Boson, a tough cop in a tough town. Sounds right!

[Astronut]

Very, very simplistically - E=mc^2 shows that energy and matter are 'interchangeable' and the Higgs Boson is thought to give matter the capacity to have mass and may be responsible for the formation of gravitational fields associated with matter. Manipulation of HB may be a way to get faster-than-light travel.

[Rollcage]

Does this mean I can buy one for my car - it's a bit slow!

[anonymous-user]

Rollcage said:

Does this mean I can buy one for my car - it's a bit slow!

They are only available for 330d's at the moment

[AJS-]

Wait until this Higgs Boson kicks in! Yeah!


Astronut
What would be the alternative to matter having mass?

[LordGrover]

MonkeyMatt said:

Rollcage said:

Does this mean I can buy one for my car - it's a bit slow!

They are only available for mapped 330d's at the moment

EFA

[Conian]

So, folding the rear seats down reduces the amount of higgs bosons and increases power/weight ratio?