fresh bytes
Subscribe Now

Still confused about the Higgs Boson? Read this

So I was at a July 4 picnic on Wednesday where one of the other guests used to be a physics teacher at Stuyvesant High School, and he explained this whole Higgs boson thing to me in a way that made it make about as much sense as it’s going to for someone who only took physics in college. And he did the whole thing without using food metaphors — molasses, soup, etc. — which I thought was impressive.

Basically, it’s like this: Sub-atomic particles are either fermions or bosons. Fermions are the things you learned about in high school physics — electrons, protons, neutrons and so on — that share the quality that you can’t have two of them in the same space on an atom. Think of them as the billiard balls: they can be all over the table, but not in the same space at the same time, and where they go is determined by the size of the tables. Most of the widely-known fermions are composites made up of other categories of sub-atomic particles, like quarks (which combine to form protons) and leptons, but the most important thing to know about them for the purposes of this discussion is that they are considered the matter particles.

Bosons are different.
via The Atlantic

Continue reading 

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Mar 28, 2024
'Move fast and break things,' a motto coined by Mark Zuckerberg, captures the ethos of Silicon Valley where creative disruption remakes the world through the invention of new technologies. From social media to autonomous cars, to generative AI, the disruptions have reverberat...
Mar 26, 2024
Learn how GPU acceleration impacts digital chip design implementation, expanding beyond chip simulation to fulfill compute demands of the RTL-to-GDSII process.The post Can GPUs Accelerate Digital Design Implementation? appeared first on Chip Design....
Mar 21, 2024
The awesome thing about these machines is that you are limited only by your imagination, and I've got a GREAT imagination....

featured video

We are Altera. We are for the innovators.

Sponsored by Intel

Today we embark on an exciting journey as we transition to Altera, an Intel Company. In a world of endless opportunities and challenges, we are here to provide the flexibility needed by our ecosystem of customers and partners to pioneer and accelerate innovation. As we leap into the future, we are committed to providing easy-to-design and deploy leadership programmable solutions to innovators to unlock extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.

To learn more about Altera visit: http://intel.com/altera

featured chalk talk

Secure Authentication ICs for Disposable and Accessory Ecosystems
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Microchip
Secure authentication for disposable and accessory ecosystems is a critical element for many embedded systems today. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Xavier Bignalet from Microchip discuss the benefits of Microchipā€™s Trust Platform design suite and how it can provide the security you need for your next embedded design. They investigate the value of symmetric authentication and asymmetric authentication and the roles that parasitic power and package size play in these kinds of designs.
Jul 21, 2023
29,101 views