Higgs Boson - definitely maybe.

[accountantpete]

As a non-scientist I'm even more confused now but the following blog seems to sum everything up rather nicely.

http://telescoper.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/higgs-mania-day/

 

[Archie_tect]

Does it?

 

[Fab Foodie]

It's certainly (with a degree of uncertainty) a weight off my mind at least ....

 

[marinyork]

The industry standard is 5 sigma confidence.

If I gave you two dice and one of them was loaded to have a 20% chance of landing on a six and the other was a fair die, how many times would you have to roll them before you were satisfied that you could distinguish which was which?

 

[slowmotion]

The industry standard is 5 sigma confidence.

If I gave you two dice and one of them was loaded to have a 20% chance of landing on a six and the other was a fair die, how many times would you have to roll them before you were satisfied that you could distinguish which was which?

Wasn't the figure 5 a completely arbitrary choice though? I seem to remember reading that somewhere, but I may be entirely wrong.

 

[rich p]

The industry standard is 5 sigma confidence.

If I gave you two dice and one of them was loaded to have a 20% chance of landing on a six and the other was a fair die, how many times would you have to roll them before you were satisfied that you could distinguish which was which?

17?

p.s. I am loaded

 

[slowmotion]

A lovely name, Higgs Boson. I wish there was a Ronald Searle cartoon of one, rather like "Kennedy taming the Gerunds" or whatever it was.

A gerund....

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=Ke...art=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0&tx=79&ty=70

 

[marinyork]

Wasn't the figure 5 a completely arbitrary choice though? I seem to remember reading that smowhere, but I may be entirely wrong.

It is of course arbitrary. That was my point really. It's goldilocks and the three bears really. If it was 1 sigma it would be far too low, if it was ten sigma, people would probably laugh at you. If it was six sigma you're in marketing .

The search for the Higgs and other particles basically relies on time and cranking up the power. If you're really lucky and a Higgs is on the lighter end of the scale (this is) you'd expect to see it sooner. If it was substantially heavier then it might not be seen for a fair old while.

 

[slowmotion]

If it was six sigma you're in marketing .

Great quote! Thank-you.

 

[junglegusset]

The industry standard is 5 sigma confidence.

If I gave you two dice and one of them was loaded to have a 20% chance of landing on a six and the other was a fair die, how many times would you have to roll them before you were satisfied that you could distinguish which was which?

Well the non loaded die would have a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a six whereas the loaded one has a 1 in 5 (20%), not really a massive difference, so my answer would be a lot of times. 100?

 

[TVC]

Even better news tonight, they're now suggesting that those neutrinos they sent to Italy took a short cut. Nice!

 

[ASC1951]

Did anyone hear the oaf Humphrys trying to grapple with the news on Tuesday's Today programme? His "I'm just a simple wordsmith" schtick does get rather tedious.

You're not a wordsmith, Humphrys, you're just another pig ignorant journalist who is too lazy and arrogant to take an interest in science.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Heard about this on the radio today - could have been speaking in Outer Mongolian or Geordie for all I understood.

 

[marinyork]

Heard about this on the radio today - could have been speaking in Outer Mongolian or Geordie for all I understood.

Think of the computer game PacMan (not my analogy, many other people have said versions of this). Whenever there are dots there are upto four Ghosts wandering around the maze. When Pacman eats special pellets he runs around the maze and can gobble up three of the four Ghosts when they start flashing and become food. PacMan runs out of time and the fourth ghost goes back to being a true ghost (this is where the analogy breaks down). There are four Higgs particles, but three of them are eaten up or 'gobbled' as many texts put it. What is informally referred to as the Higgs is the fourth one. There are always ghosts/Higgs around whenever there are dots to eat.