Re: universe in a nutshell
what got me into physics? frankly, i don't quite know how to answer that. people have been asking me the same question and my answer has always been the same: i don't know.
but if i were forced to write an answer, i would say it's the endless possibility of discovery; and one that particularly interests me, is the higgs boson. also known as the god particle.
back in the days when max planck was still alive, he geared his kids toward non-physics related professions, because that time, everyone thought physics was dead. there's nothing else new to be discovered. everyone thought that universe was already well-explained by what is now called the standard model. that, was until some guys fiddled with a barbecue grill and published a paper on blackbody radiation. i don't quite remember the nitty-gritty of the mathematical calculation, and i'm sure no one in this group cares about the math, but blackbody radiation was the first evidence that there's something not right with the classical model. a blackbody is basically a dark-opaque body that absorbs radiation incident on it, and is a part of the study of thermal radiation. radiation incident increases the kinetic energy of atoms in the body, therefore increasing the temperature. the heated body then also emits radiation. the better absorber the body is, the better emitter it is also. barbecue grill is an example of a blackbody. when the power radiated by the blackbody is being studied, the plot of the spectral distribution as a function of wavelength of the blackbody should have followed the raleigh-jeans law, if the classical model was right. well, it didn't. raleigh-jeans law says that for small wavelength (approaching zero), the energy density of a body would approach infinity, which doesn't make sense since the wavelength is proportional to the temperature of the body. so there's something wrong here. planck then sets up a law that fits perfectly the plot of the spectral distribution. this discovery, along with einstein's prediction of photoelectric effect, gives birth to quantum mechanics, which is one step forward to providing an explanation on how the universe works.
these kinds of things intrigues me, really. physics is like a field of endless discovery, and as long as you pay attention to what you're doing, and be honest, even the smallest mistake you make can turn out to be the next greatest discovery. the theories that exist right now are the ones that have been proven to be correct, or the ones that are waiting to be tested. but sometimes even the correct ones can turn out to be wrong, if tested to the extremes. the most elegant theory right now is the string theory, that basically unifies all the three forces of the universe with gravity. something that even einstein could not do. unfortunately string theory, as mathematically correct and elegant as it is, has not been tested due to the immense amount of energy in needed in the accelerator in order to see the strings. the biggest accelerator is set to run in 2007, the large hadron collider (LHC) in geneva, switzerland, that can go up into the Tera-electronVolts range of energy. but even that is still not enough to see the strings postulated in string theory.
but the higgs boson, the god particle that almost all highenergy physicist is looking, is thought to be in the TeV range, so hopefully the higgs will show up in LHC. higgs boson is basically a particle that is thought to give other particles their masses. the higgs particle interacts in a higgs field, which creates a so-called "attractive force" that makes other subatomic particles pile up around it. as more particles pile up, mass is created. i'm not completely sure how this works, as i'm still far in my studies, but it's really interesting. if you'd like to know more, googling up higgs boson or higgs particle will give you sites that give better explanation. a professor of mine in ucsd, Vivek Sharma, along with his colleagues in the HEP department in ucsd, is an active higgshunter, and will be working in the LHC after it runs. if the higgs boson is discovered, then we're one step closer to explaining the universe.
sorry, i shouldn't rant about physics here in a philosophy group. but yeah, all this cool stuff is why i'm interested in physics.
speaking in philosophical term, i think quantum mechanics also brings us (who believe) one step closer to god. if you like philosophy and you try to study quantum mechanics, you'll understand why i say so. if god created the universe, then god knows how the universe works. this way, if we're closer to understanding the universe, then we're closer to god. =)
maybe it's like what some scientists have been saying: that god is pure immense energy, and our souls, or spirits, are also pure energy. thats why when we die and our souls return to god, it's like the conservation of energy.
ok, i've been talking too much.
but if i were forced to write an answer, i would say it's the endless possibility of discovery; and one that particularly interests me, is the higgs boson. also known as the god particle.
back in the days when max planck was still alive, he geared his kids toward non-physics related professions, because that time, everyone thought physics was dead. there's nothing else new to be discovered. everyone thought that universe was already well-explained by what is now called the standard model. that, was until some guys fiddled with a barbecue grill and published a paper on blackbody radiation. i don't quite remember the nitty-gritty of the mathematical calculation, and i'm sure no one in this group cares about the math, but blackbody radiation was the first evidence that there's something not right with the classical model. a blackbody is basically a dark-opaque body that absorbs radiation incident on it, and is a part of the study of thermal radiation. radiation incident increases the kinetic energy of atoms in the body, therefore increasing the temperature. the heated body then also emits radiation. the better absorber the body is, the better emitter it is also. barbecue grill is an example of a blackbody. when the power radiated by the blackbody is being studied, the plot of the spectral distribution as a function of wavelength of the blackbody should have followed the raleigh-jeans law, if the classical model was right. well, it didn't. raleigh-jeans law says that for small wavelength (approaching zero), the energy density of a body would approach infinity, which doesn't make sense since the wavelength is proportional to the temperature of the body. so there's something wrong here. planck then sets up a law that fits perfectly the plot of the spectral distribution. this discovery, along with einstein's prediction of photoelectric effect, gives birth to quantum mechanics, which is one step forward to providing an explanation on how the universe works.
these kinds of things intrigues me, really. physics is like a field of endless discovery, and as long as you pay attention to what you're doing, and be honest, even the smallest mistake you make can turn out to be the next greatest discovery. the theories that exist right now are the ones that have been proven to be correct, or the ones that are waiting to be tested. but sometimes even the correct ones can turn out to be wrong, if tested to the extremes. the most elegant theory right now is the string theory, that basically unifies all the three forces of the universe with gravity. something that even einstein could not do. unfortunately string theory, as mathematically correct and elegant as it is, has not been tested due to the immense amount of energy in needed in the accelerator in order to see the strings. the biggest accelerator is set to run in 2007, the large hadron collider (LHC) in geneva, switzerland, that can go up into the Tera-electronVolts range of energy. but even that is still not enough to see the strings postulated in string theory.
but the higgs boson, the god particle that almost all highenergy physicist is looking, is thought to be in the TeV range, so hopefully the higgs will show up in LHC. higgs boson is basically a particle that is thought to give other particles their masses. the higgs particle interacts in a higgs field, which creates a so-called "attractive force" that makes other subatomic particles pile up around it. as more particles pile up, mass is created. i'm not completely sure how this works, as i'm still far in my studies, but it's really interesting. if you'd like to know more, googling up higgs boson or higgs particle will give you sites that give better explanation. a professor of mine in ucsd, Vivek Sharma, along with his colleagues in the HEP department in ucsd, is an active higgshunter, and will be working in the LHC after it runs. if the higgs boson is discovered, then we're one step closer to explaining the universe.
sorry, i shouldn't rant about physics here in a philosophy group. but yeah, all this cool stuff is why i'm interested in physics.
speaking in philosophical term, i think quantum mechanics also brings us (who believe) one step closer to god. if you like philosophy and you try to study quantum mechanics, you'll understand why i say so. if god created the universe, then god knows how the universe works. this way, if we're closer to understanding the universe, then we're closer to god. =)
maybe it's like what some scientists have been saying: that god is pure immense energy, and our souls, or spirits, are also pure energy. thats why when we die and our souls return to god, it's like the conservation of energy.
ok, i've been talking too much.
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