Just wait 'till they figure out it isn't really there at all!
Posted on 07/07/2010 9:06:34 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Sophisticated measurements from experiments indicate the radius is 4% smaller than thought. If true, the finding could have major ramifications for the standard model used in modern physics.
Physicists might have to rethink what they know about, well, everything.
European researchers dropped a potential bombshell on their colleagues around the world Wednesday by reporting that sophisticated new measurements indicate the radius of the proton is 4% smaller than previously believed.
In a world where measurements out to a dozen or more decimal places are routine, a 4% difference in this subatomic particle — found in every atom's nucleus — is phenomenally large, and the finding has left theoreticians scratching their heads in wonderment and confusion.
If the startling results are confirmed, a possibility that at least some physicists think is unlikely because the calculations involved are so difficult, they could have major ramifications for the so-called standard model on which most modern physics is based.
In an editorial accompanying the report in the journal Nature, physicist Jeff Flowers of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, England, said there were three possibilities: Either the experimenters have made a mistake, the calculations used in determining the size of the proton are wrong or, potentially most exciting and disturbing, the standard model has some kind of problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
However, a proton is still larger than Obummer’s brain.
Why do they assume that a proton is spherical?
What difference does it make, with the budget being over 3 trillion, they won’t get any funding anyway.
...er, make that “What difference does it make, with the deficit being over 3 trillion, they won’t get any funding anyway”
The proton finding won’t impact most people’s daily lives. But if it proves correct, it means something fundamental is wrong in particle physics.
It’s possible the smaller proton means the Rydberg constant hasn’t been correctly measured. This value describes the way light gets emitted from various elements—a key component of spectroscopy, which is used, for instance, to tell which kinds of elements exist in galaxies and the vast interstellar gas-and-dust clouds called nebulae.
Or, if the Rydberg constant is correct, the smaller size of a proton could mean the equations in QED theory will fail to work.
Like, duh, anyone could have seen that by just looking at a proton.
Who cares what the true radius is? Why don’t they just go with a consensus of leading physicists?
Because they’re physicists. Don’t you know the joke about a physicist designing a dog house? “Well, first we assumed the dog was a sphere...”
(By the way, even ellipses and prolate and oblate spheroids have radii.)
physics ping
Weird. What’s taken for a standard, or well-known established value, is at times in history .. found to be not so, because it is some measurement or value of a parameter rarely used in practice.
The shape of a proton depends on the speed of the quarks inside. The spherical shape is the shape most physicists expected to find. The peanut shape is produced by quarks traveling nearly at light speed and spinning the same direction as the proton.
omi-gawd!!!
This can’t happen!
This is horrible news! Just tragic!!
*sob*!
no not really. ha!
Better yet: why do they assume that the proton, as particle, has fixed physical dimensions? As a wave, its dimensions are zilch; as a particle, I’d expect them to fluctuate. Perhaps this 4% deficit is actually the “lower bound” measurement.
My protons are actually 4% BIGGER, that’s why
girls like me.
Actually, protons are shaped like soccer balls.
...and —most importantly— those aren’t quarks inside the protons and neutrons. They’re frosted lucky charms.
“Physicists might have to rethink what they know about, well, everything. “
Not a problem. According to the reports and articles I read, they do that about once a month.
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