Still Looking Like the Higgs

Still too soon to know. That's the latest word from particle physicists working with the world's largest atom smasher—Europe's Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland—as they try to figure out whether the particle they discovered in July is precisely the long-sought Higgs boson or something a tad different. The key question is whether the new particle decays into combinations of familiar particles at the rates that physicists' standard model predicts. So far, the measured decay rates generally match expectations, but the statistical uncertainties are too large to say anything conclusive, physicists working with the gargantuan particle detectors known as ATLAS and CMS reported today at a conference in Tokyo. The plots above show the measured decay rates relative to the standard model predictions, so that a value of 1 means agreement. (The vertical line in the CMS plot shows the average of all the measurements.) More data will shrink the error bars and yield a clearer picture.

Hi onedoug!

Try this link: Paul Wesson's "Time as an Illusion" in PDF. I do believe this is the piece Alamo-Girl was directing you to. It's a dandy!!!

P.S: MHGinTN's speculations on time are fascinating to me. I think he's onto something important here. Certainly I agree with him that our notions of time are rather primitive, being derived from our experiences of direct sense perception. Hint: Not everything in the universe is accessible to direct sense perception, a//k/a direct observation.

SO very true, dearest sister in Christ!

Another example, we cannot physically sense how fast we are moving through space/time which is over 550,000 mph when we include the rotation of the earth on its axis, its orbital length around the sun and the solar system's around the galaxy. To that we'd have to add the expansion of space/time itself which is accelerating, btw.

... we cannot physically sense how fast we are moving through space/time which is over 550,000 mph when we include the rotation of the earth on its axis, its orbital length around the sun and the solar system's around the galaxy. To that we'd have to add the expansion of space/time itself which is accelerating, btw.

So here we are, hurtling through space at 550,000 mph, and instead of getting instant whiplash, we take no "physical" notice at all.

Might this be because we can't take notice of that which we do not "feel" or "observe." Via the bodily sensorium, whose access to information from/of "the outside world" is confined to sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste (and the highly articulated biophysical systems that facilitate the reports of perception/observation to the brain, etc.)

It seems to me there might be some kind of "time problem" implicit in the "whiplash vs. total insensibility" conundrum above.

Perhaps Einstein's concept of inertial frame has wider application than scientists — not to mention we ordinary mortals — usually deal with.

Anyhoot, welcome to this post, my dear brothers, MHGinTN and TXnMA!

[onedoug, the four of us have been kicking around "The Problem Of Time" backstage for a while now. It's been a perfectly marvelous and challenging exchange of knowledge and views, from many different backgrounds. And we have all learned from each other, and are still learning, I do believe. :^)]

Dear MHGinTN, I've been thinking about your account/theory of Time as involving linear/planar/volumetric modes. I just had to follow you there. So, trying to find a "mathematical" model, I started to imagine the problem by analogy to the Cartesian plane — which instantly depicts both the linear and planar dimensions.

At this point, I'm going to run away and draw some pictures. I'll be back ASAP.

Thank you dearest Alamo-Girl, sister in Christ for your outstanding observations!

It seems to me there might be some kind of "time problem" implicit in the "whiplash vs. total insensibility" conundrum above.

Indeed there is. And we cannot sense relativistic time any better than we can sense how fast we are actually moving through space/time.

Truly, one hardly ever hears even a physicist complete the sentence when he is talking about the age of the universe, e.g. ... from our present space/time coordinates.

Thank you so very much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.