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Posted on 07/12/2010 1:55:19 PM PDT by decimon
An international team measures the charge radius of the hydrogen nucleus and stumbles across some mysteries of physics
Big problems sometimes come in small packages. The problem with which physicists must now concern themselves measures a mere 0.0350 millionth of a millionth of a millimetre. This is precisely the difference between the new, smaller, dimension of the proton, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, and the value which has been assumed so far. Instead of 0.8768 femtometres it measures only 0.8418 femtometres. At the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, an international team of researchers including physicists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has now measured this in experiments which are ten times more accurate than all previous ones. They thus present physics with some tough problems: at least one fundamental constant now changes. And physicists have also to check the calculations of quantum electrodynamics. This theory is assumed to be very well proven, but its predictions do not agree with these latest measurements. (Nature, July 8, 2010)
(Excerpt) Read more at mpg.de ...
Petering particle ping.
“The problem with which physicists must now concern themselves measures a mere 0.0350 millionth of a millionth of a millimetre.”
By atomic standards that’s hugh!
I was up all night worrying about all those protons shrinking away to nothing.
Nonsense! It is Obama’s ill-conceived Porkulus which is leading protons everywhere (and not just the bare proton of the hydrogen atom) to postpone investment in radii until the effects of excessive spending and the increase in arbritary government regulations can be understood.
Was it in the water?
Whoa! The discrepancy was over 5 times the calculated margin of error for the previous measurement. Thats pretty friggin big man. One wonders what repercussions this will have as the results filter down and are confirmed.
Sounds like another serious problem in their never ending conjecture upon conjecture that requires adjustments of previous guesswork in an attempt to make the math work. Oh, and by the way, we were only kidding about the dark matter thingy. ‘Wonder if the two are related?
So does that mean I now have more room to store stuff? My attic & garage are getting pretty full.
Get rid of any power outlets. Those durned electrons are orbiting everywhere.
Seriously, my proton was just in some cold water. Its normally much bigger...
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