1 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:11,400 Speaker 1: Hey, Orne, Hey, do you have a lot of cousins 2 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: in your family? Yeah, I've got a few. I have 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: maybe over thirty six cousins, maybeing around the number. Wow, 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: that's a big family. Well, would you be surprised to discover, 5 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: sort of late in life, a brand new cousin you'd 6 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: never even heard of before? That would be pretty amazing, 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: kind of weird, I guess, but maybe yeah, I would 8 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 1: be surprised, all right. And then what if that cousin 9 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 1: turns out to be exactly like you, like, look like 10 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:39,160 Speaker 1: you in every single way. Okay, Yeah, that's that's getting 11 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: kind of weird, all right. And then what if this 12 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: cousin looks exactly like you? Accept there are two hundred 13 00:00:46,080 --> 00:01:07,399 Speaker 1: times more massive Dan, Hi, I'm Poor. Hey, I'm a 14 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,240 Speaker 1: cartoonist and the creator of PhD comics. Hi I'm Daniel. 15 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,279 Speaker 1: I'm a particle physicist, and I do not have thirty 16 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: six cousins. Welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explore 17 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: your Family Tree, in which we examine all the amazing 18 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,280 Speaker 1: and fascinating things about the universe, about the big things, 19 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: the small things, and about how things are related to 20 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: each other. Yeah. So, um no, that's not the name 21 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,000 Speaker 1: of our podcast. It's actually Daniel and Jorge explain the 22 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: university production of My Heart Radio, in which we do 23 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:40,319 Speaker 1: examine crazy things about the universe and we try to 24 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: make them relatable. We try to present them in a 25 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:44,680 Speaker 1: way that you can understand them, so they connect to 26 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:46,840 Speaker 1: topics that matter to you. Yeah, in a way, we 27 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: do sort of explore the family tree of the universe. 28 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: You know, how you came to be here, what what 29 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: sort of pairings and fusions occurred for you to be 30 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: here in this universe appreciating it and listening to funny podcasts. 31 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: H I think one of the reasons people are interested 32 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: in the origins of the universe and the creations of 33 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: our cosmos is because they want to understand how we 34 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:09,959 Speaker 1: got here and what it means in the same way 35 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: people explore their family tree. They want to know where 36 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 1: did my family come from, what stories are in our past, 37 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: what is my personal context? And also I think it's 38 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: a useful way for us to sort of organize our thoughts. 39 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: You know, when we think about the the universe in 40 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: terms of particles, we sometimes think about how those particles 41 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,519 Speaker 1: are related to each other, Like, do particles have families. Yeah, 42 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,679 Speaker 1: and I think you know, every part of anyone's family 43 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: tree or origin tree kind of tells you a little 44 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:39,239 Speaker 1: bit of the story of the of the whole thing, right, 45 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: like how you came to be, how things work, and 46 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: how things move about in life, and other ways your 47 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: life could have gone. Like if you have a very 48 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: successful cousin that's a gazillionaire, then you know, you wonder 49 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: could I have made different choices and been a gazillionaire? 50 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,359 Speaker 1: Or if be people's paths in life diverge. Yeah, or 51 00:02:57,400 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: if you are that busile in our cousin, then good 52 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,679 Speaker 1: for you. Please please contact us. We would love to 53 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: take your donations. That's right. It would be awesome to 54 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: have at least one gazillionaire listener. Who is our richest listener? 55 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,640 Speaker 1: That's a good question. Pod. You have to send us 56 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: a check. Whoever sends it is the biggest check that 57 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: doesn't bounce. When's this little plaque here that I am 58 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: just now putting together. It's made of platinum? Right, Yeah, 59 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: well it's going to be once we get those checks. Yes, 60 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: you'll get a drawing of a plaque that's made of platinum. 61 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Even more valuable from a well known 62 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: internet cartoonist exactly. But we do try to understand the 63 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: world around us, and sometimes that means putting things in 64 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 1: context and understanding what are the patterns, what are the 65 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: structures there, and what clues do those patterns give us 66 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: about that sort of fundamental nature of the universe. Yeah, 67 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 1: so to be on the podcast, we'll be talking about 68 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: a particle in nature that is maybe not the most 69 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: famous one um and maybe not the most well known 70 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 1: one or consequential in your existence, but which does I 71 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: think tell you a little bit about and told humanity 72 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: a little bit about how the universe works. Yeah, this 73 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: is the non gazillionaire cousin. This is the cousin that 74 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:19,599 Speaker 1: ended up maybe sleeping under the overpast and wearing funny 75 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: clothes to the family reunion. I feel bad for this particle. Now, 76 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,160 Speaker 1: this particle doesn't need your help. It's very massive. Yes, 77 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: So in today's episode, we'll be talking about the muan electrons, mysterious, 78 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: lesser known, much more massive cousin. And I'm biased, of 79 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:43,159 Speaker 1: course because I'm a particle physicist, but I think it's 80 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,920 Speaker 1: really fascinating to think about how we know each particle 81 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: is there. We talk about the standard model of particle 82 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: physics sometimes, but that's a theoretical construct. It's like our 83 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: idea for how these particles might relate to each other. 84 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: And that's fascinating. We'll dig into all that, but I 85 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: think it's also really important. Remember each of these were discovered. 86 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: There's a story behind each particle. Humanity didn't know it 87 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: existed and then boom, some experiment revealed it. And on 88 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: the podcast, we've talked about the first discovery of the particle, 89 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: how the whole concept of a particle was created, the electron. 90 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: Then we talked about how we know the photon is 91 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: a thing, how we know it's really a particle, the 92 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:22,479 Speaker 1: photo electric effect, And so now we're gonna take the 93 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,040 Speaker 1: next step and talk about the discovery of the muan. Yeah, 94 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: because you know, I think that every particle tells a story, 95 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: you know, and also every story is made out of particle. 96 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: So there's kind of this really weird, confusing loop there 97 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: that honestly, Yeah, this is like the Superhero Origin story 98 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: particle version. Yeah. So the muan is not a name 99 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: that rolls off the tongue. Makes me think of maybe cows, 100 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:54,280 Speaker 1: mu muans, maybe uan Muan, Muan mu Off, muanmu Off. 101 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 1: I was thinking sort about karate kid thing there, but 102 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:01,120 Speaker 1: it's back to the eighties reference. Yeah, back to the 103 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:03,920 Speaker 1: age differences. And it's it's funny actually because the name 104 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,719 Speaker 1: Uan is totally inappropriate. We'll dig into it later. But 105 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: they named it before they discovered it because they thought 106 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: it was going to be a different particle, and then 107 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:15,040 Speaker 1: they sort of changed the name later. Um, it's not 108 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: a great history for naming particles. Boy, my favorite topic 109 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:23,880 Speaker 1: in science. Yeah, and so I was wondering, how much 110 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: do people know about me once? Is it a famous 111 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:29,240 Speaker 1: particle or is it sort of the darker cousin of 112 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:31,599 Speaker 1: the electron that nobody really knows about, hasn't gotten the 113 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: same Instagram attention the black Sheep, the gotee wearing particle 114 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:40,719 Speaker 1: of the family tree. Now you're setting enough to be 115 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:42,599 Speaker 1: like the grumpy particle. It's going to come in with 116 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: some evil plan to finally get It's it's revenge, and 117 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: it's you already made this particle, the homeless particle that 118 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:51,359 Speaker 1: lives under a bridge. So yeah, that was the sad 119 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: particle that deserves our love and compassion, not the one 120 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,479 Speaker 1: that's been plotting its victorious return to the center of attention. Well, 121 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: you never know what these particles, you know, physics, there's 122 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,240 Speaker 1: a lot of drama. But as usual, I walked around 123 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:10,119 Speaker 1: and I asked people if they knew what the muan 124 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: was and how we knew it was a thing. Yeah, 125 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:14,200 Speaker 1: So before you listen to these answers, think about it 126 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: for a second. If someone asked you what a mu 127 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: on is, would you know what it is? Have you 128 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: heard it before? Here's what people had to say. I'd 129 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,440 Speaker 1: say it's a unit of measure. It's like one of 130 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: the fundamental elements or particle of what makes up everything. 131 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: Mu one. I believe this to be the name of 132 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: a sub atomic particle uh luans luans uh. I don't 133 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 1: remember what classification they follow under as far as the 134 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:50,040 Speaker 1: naming conventions. Fundamental particle, some sort. It's real small subotomic particles. 135 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:53,000 Speaker 1: I kind of represented what it does. How do we 136 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: know nuance exist um particle starts. So what's your opinion 137 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: of these answers today? Good? It sounds like most people 138 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: have heard of it or I heard of the word before. 139 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: You know, very only a few people said never heard 140 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: of it or think it was a unit of measure, 141 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,280 Speaker 1: like a you know how much water? Would you like, 142 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: I'll have seven muans of water. I wonder that if 143 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,080 Speaker 1: you pronounced it correctly, maybe they knew about it, but 144 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,920 Speaker 1: just under a different pronunciation. Do you think I'm mispronouncing 145 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: the name of mu. I don't know. I mean, what's 146 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: the correct way? Is it muan or muan? Like you're 147 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,000 Speaker 1: making it sound like a Disney movie, like, oh, my 148 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:40,520 Speaker 1: favorite Disney princess is mulan. My favorite Disney princess muan muan. Oh. 149 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: That is a great way, though, to get more attention 150 00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:45,480 Speaker 1: for particles in the mainstream. We should get Disney to 151 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: name the next Disney Princess after a particle. Why not that? 152 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: Why it could be the next Pixure movie. What it's like? 153 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: What's the emotional roller coaster right of being a fundamental 154 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: particle of nature? Yeah? So much to explore there, and 155 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,560 Speaker 1: I expect that will be getting checks from Pixar when 156 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:03,680 Speaker 1: they make a billion dollar movie out of it. But 157 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: I was impressed with these answers, though, I want to 158 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: pick a bone about one thing. People say, yes, it's 159 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:13,000 Speaker 1: a fundamental particle, totally cool. People also say it's a 160 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:15,960 Speaker 1: sub atomic particle or it's one of the fundamental particles 161 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,600 Speaker 1: that make up everything. And that's really a key idea 162 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:22,199 Speaker 1: that I think people have not understood about muans, that 163 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,119 Speaker 1: you can be a tiny particle and not be sub atomic, 164 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: not be part of the atom. Oh, I see, subotomic 165 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 1: doesn't just mean it's smaller than atom. You're saying that, 166 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: it means that you're part of the atom. Remember, fundamental 167 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: particles have no size, their dots, they're zero volumes, so 168 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,200 Speaker 1: they're all smaller than the atom. In that sense of 169 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: being fundamental guarantees you'd be smaller than the atom. I 170 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:48,679 Speaker 1: think to me, sub atomic means it's part of the atom, 171 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:50,800 Speaker 1: like you break it up and you find it inside 172 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:53,920 Speaker 1: the atom. Okay, so we'll get into that, but let's 173 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: bring it down for people. For us, what is a 174 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: muan and why does it sound like an electron? You 175 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:02,679 Speaker 1: it ends with O N, but maybe, but it's not 176 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: the electron. Yeah, but it really is related to the electron. 177 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,880 Speaker 1: It's sort of like the electrons cousin. And by that 178 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,959 Speaker 1: I mean that it's identical to the electron in so 179 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,560 Speaker 1: many ways. It has the same electric charge, it has 180 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 1: the same interactions with matter like it interacts via the 181 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:23,000 Speaker 1: weak force and via the electromagnetic force, but it doesn't 182 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: feel the strong force, just like the electron. It has 183 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:30,080 Speaker 1: a neutrino, just like the electron has its neutrino. So 184 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: in so many ways, it's exactly the same as the electron. 185 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: Sound like when you discover a new particle and it's 186 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:37,440 Speaker 1: totally different, like a cork or a gluon, it's just 187 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:40,960 Speaker 1: completely different from the electron. This one is very very 188 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:43,839 Speaker 1: similar to the electron. It's like weirdly similar, but then 189 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 1: with one important difference. Okay, so it's a particles. It's 190 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,360 Speaker 1: not a cow, it's not a Disney princess. So it's 191 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,839 Speaker 1: a particle, meaning like it's a it's one of these 192 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,200 Speaker 1: things that you see nature in the universe, like things 193 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: that pop up and you can touch them and and 194 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:05,640 Speaker 1: there it's a thing. Yes, muans are a thing. There 195 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: are a little thing. There are particles, and there are 196 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,640 Speaker 1: little dots of matter. They have mass and they have 197 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:14,880 Speaker 1: charge and they interact. Okay, so it's it's a particle 198 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:17,600 Speaker 1: like the electron. But you're saying and you say it's 199 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: a cousin of the electron, not that they share like 200 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: not that their parents were siblings, but just like in 201 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 1: the sense that it's very similar to the electron. Yeah, 202 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: when we organize our knowledge, we look for patterns. We 203 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:33,040 Speaker 1: look for similarities. Right like when we were a hundred 204 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 1: years ago, when the state of knowledge about the universe 205 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 1: was the periodic table. We didn't just have like a 206 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: pile of different elements and say here's an element. There's 207 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:42,320 Speaker 1: an element. We said, oh, look, this one is similar 208 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:44,959 Speaker 1: to that one. They're both really active, or these are 209 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: really similar because they're both really inactive, or this one 210 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: weighs a tiny bit more than that one. We notice patterns. 211 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: We put those patterns together in the same way we're 212 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: looking for patterns in the fundamental particles. So we try 213 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:58,520 Speaker 1: to figure out which ones are related to each other. 214 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:01,440 Speaker 1: And we have only a few handles on each particle. 215 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:03,160 Speaker 1: Is only like a few things we can know about 216 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:06,240 Speaker 1: a particle, right, And so is this a particle that 217 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: we can see in our everyday lives, like is it 218 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:14,120 Speaker 1: floating around? Does it move around wires and electricity like 219 00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: the electron, or is this kind of a weird one 220 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: of those weird particles And you know you don't ever 221 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: actually see Yeah, you don't see the muan because it 222 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:26,679 Speaker 1: doesn't last for very long. It lives for two point 223 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 1: two microseconds and then it turns into an electron and 224 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,360 Speaker 1: some neutrinos. But they are actually everywhere. There's ten thousand 225 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,840 Speaker 1: muons going through a square meter of Earth every minute, 226 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:39,560 Speaker 1: so there's a lots of muans everywhere, but you just 227 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:42,040 Speaker 1: can't really see them very easily because they don't last 228 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:43,760 Speaker 1: very long. Wait, what I mean? How can they be 229 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:47,840 Speaker 1: everywhere but also only last two point to microseconds? Does 230 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,640 Speaker 1: that mean that they're they're constantly coming into existence, lasting 231 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,560 Speaker 1: for two point two microseconds and then disappearing and breaking up, 232 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,080 Speaker 1: or what does that mean? How can they be all 233 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,800 Speaker 1: around is but also evaporating at the same time. Well, 234 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:02,559 Speaker 1: there's two things going on there. One is your right, 235 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,120 Speaker 1: they're being created um when particles hit the atmosphere. So 236 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 1: protons hit the atmosphere and they create a shower of particles, 237 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,719 Speaker 1: some which include muans, and those muans fly along a 238 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 1: little bit, but they don't last very long, just two 239 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:17,000 Speaker 1: point two microseconds, and then they turn into electrons. But 240 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: they last for two point two microseconds according to their 241 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: clocks because they move really fast. There's a relativistic time dilation. 242 00:13:25,559 --> 00:13:28,439 Speaker 1: So the according to us that two point two microseconds 243 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:31,880 Speaker 1: takes longer to click, and so for us it can 244 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,680 Speaker 1: take like seconds or minutes from muans to decay. But 245 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: for them, if you're sitting on top of the muan, 246 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: it would only last You would only be alive for 247 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:44,920 Speaker 1: two point two microseconds. Yeah, that's the half life of 248 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 1: a muan. So muon is not stable. It's not like 249 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: an electron you can just sit there for eons and 250 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,080 Speaker 1: eons and just be itself. A muon is a heavy particle, 251 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,040 Speaker 1: and heavy particles like to decay into lighter particles. In 252 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:58,160 Speaker 1: this case, the muon turns into an electron very quickly 253 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:00,320 Speaker 1: according to its clock. Oh, I see the ones that 254 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: we see. The ones coming from the atmosphere are moving fast, 255 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:05,920 Speaker 1: so they last longer. But if I just created a 256 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,640 Speaker 1: mew on here in front of me, it would last 257 00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: only for two point two micro seconds, and it's not 258 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 1: going anywhere. If you could bake muans in your oven 259 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:14,439 Speaker 1: and you take them out of the oven two point 260 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: two microseconds later, boom, they turn into a electro. Yeah, 261 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 1: you gotta eat them up real quick. Exactly. They're like 262 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: making fortune cookies or toss them really fast, have him 263 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: pop out of the toaster really fast, in which case 264 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 1: they would last longer technically, right, that's true. Yeah, exactly. 265 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:31,760 Speaker 1: Somebody could shoot muans into your mouth and it would 266 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:33,880 Speaker 1: last long enough to get there. I wouldn't recommend that. 267 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:36,560 Speaker 1: That's that's not a suggestion for something somebody should do. 268 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: And actually, two point two microseconds it is kind of 269 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:41,960 Speaker 1: a long time for a particle that's this massive to last. 270 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:44,760 Speaker 1: And so what does it mean that it disappears or 271 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: breaks up like it? It's just unstable like it, just 272 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: it's made out of other things and it breaks up 273 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,720 Speaker 1: or literally just kind of evaporates into energy and that 274 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 1: energy turns into something else. Yeah, that's a great question. 275 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:00,160 Speaker 1: These are fundamental particles, so they're not made up of 276 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,440 Speaker 1: anything else. As far as we know. The muon turns 277 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:05,880 Speaker 1: into the electron. It's not like it has an electron 278 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: inside of it, and it breaks up into an electron 279 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 1: and other stuff it converts. It goes from a muan, 280 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,160 Speaker 1: it turns via the weak force into a W particle 281 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,520 Speaker 1: and a neutrino, and then the W particle turns into 282 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 1: an electron and another neutrino. So the muon turns into 283 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: an electron and two different neutrinos, but it didn't have 284 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,080 Speaker 1: those bits inside of it. Remember, particle physics is like alchemy. 285 00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: We can convert one kind of matter into another kind 286 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 1: of matter. Okay, so it's um. It doesn't break apart, 287 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: it's just somehow. It's it's very existence. The universe sort 288 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,120 Speaker 1: of doesn't like it. Like it. It can just seesis 289 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 1: to exist and in favor of other things existing instead 290 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, and this is true for every particle 291 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,200 Speaker 1: that is pretty massive. The universe doesn't like massive particles. 292 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:55,400 Speaker 1: It's like putting a particle on the top of a hill. 293 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:58,240 Speaker 1: Eventually it's going to roll down. And so the muon 294 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 1: is like the at the top of the on. The 295 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 1: electron is rolling down to the bottom of the hill. 296 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:05,000 Speaker 1: Eventually the muon is going to turn into the electron. 297 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 1: And every particle in nature that that can do this 298 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 1: does this. The only reason the electron doesn't is that 299 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 1: there's no lighter particle for it to turn into. Oh, 300 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 1: and that's why we are able to exist, because the 301 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:23,560 Speaker 1: universe does seem to like electrons and quarks which make 302 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: us up. And so that's why we were stable. But 303 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: if we were made out of me as, we would 304 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: disappear pretty quickly. Yes, exactly. We are made up of 305 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,560 Speaker 1: the lightest particles out there, up corks and down corks. 306 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: Of the lightest corks. Electrons are the lightest version of 307 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 1: that kind of particle called a lepton. So the matter 308 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:41,360 Speaker 1: that makes us up that's stable is made out of 309 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:44,120 Speaker 1: stuff that can't turn into lighter stuff because there is 310 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: no lighter stuff for it to turn into. Right, Yeah, 311 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,640 Speaker 1: there's nothing for it to turn into, so we we 312 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,960 Speaker 1: stay where we are. But the muon is heavy and 313 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:55,760 Speaker 1: could turn into something else. So it does precisely. And 314 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 1: for those of you wondering, like, well, what about a photon? 315 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,240 Speaker 1: Why can't an electron turn into a photon? Of photon 316 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,040 Speaker 1: is mass lists Remember that there are rules about how 317 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: these things happen, and one of those rules is conservation 318 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: of electric charge. An electron has a minus one charge, 319 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: so it can't turn into a photon which has zero charge, 320 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,560 Speaker 1: because you have to somehow disappear that charge. The only 321 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:16,879 Speaker 1: way for that to happen is for an electron to 322 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,800 Speaker 1: hit a plus one positron, and then they can turn 323 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 1: into a photon together, but for a particle to just 324 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,000 Speaker 1: spontaneously decay, it has to convert to another particle that 325 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 1: has all the same sort of quantum mechanical numbers. Okay, 326 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:34,160 Speaker 1: so the muon is the electrons massive cousin or massive 327 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 1: sort of like alternate universe version of the electron. Right, Yeah, 328 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:40,400 Speaker 1: it's two hundred times the mass of the electron. It's 329 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:43,840 Speaker 1: really really massive. That's a lot. It's like crunched into 330 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 1: the same meat. Yes, exactly. It's like if you met 331 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,679 Speaker 1: another version of you, but you weren't bigger, you were 332 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:51,960 Speaker 1: denser or something. You're two hundred times as much mass, 333 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:56,199 Speaker 1: but still fundamental. And it doesn't hang around existence very long, 334 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,560 Speaker 1: and it usually breaks up into or not breaks up 335 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:03,480 Speaker 1: into runs into lighter particles, so we don't really seed 336 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:05,920 Speaker 1: around that much. But still it's sort of an important 337 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: part of the universe, and it seems that it's important 338 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:10,760 Speaker 1: part of the universe and also tells us a lot 339 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:14,240 Speaker 1: about the mysteries of how everything is put together. Yeah, 340 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:17,320 Speaker 1: and it actually lasts a long time for a heavy particle. 341 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,160 Speaker 1: Other particles that are heavy, like the Higgs boson, they 342 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,399 Speaker 1: decay much more quickly. They decayed in like ten to 343 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:27,520 Speaker 1: the minus twenty seconds, whereas this one decays very slowly, 344 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 1: it's just two point two microseconds. And the reason is 345 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:32,720 Speaker 1: that it decays via the weak force, which is very weak. 346 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,199 Speaker 1: To the weaker the force, the longer takes for that 347 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: decay to happen. M hmm. All right, let's get into 348 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 1: that a little bit more, and also how it was 349 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: discovered and why it is such an important particle. But 350 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:58,280 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break. All right, So the 351 00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:01,000 Speaker 1: meuan decays by the weak force. What does that mean? 352 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,919 Speaker 1: How can something decay via a force like the force 353 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,359 Speaker 1: makes a decay? Yeah, the fource sort of provides the 354 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: avenue for the decay to happen. Like, how does a 355 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:12,600 Speaker 1: muon turn into an electron just just roll down a 356 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,200 Speaker 1: hill and say, hey, now I'm an electron. It has 357 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:17,840 Speaker 1: to has to be an interaction there. And so what 358 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:21,320 Speaker 1: happens is the muon turns into a W particle and 359 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,280 Speaker 1: a neutrino. And the W particle, remember, is the particle 360 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,000 Speaker 1: of the weak force. It's like the weak force version 361 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:29,520 Speaker 1: of the photon. And so that's what we mean when 362 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:32,200 Speaker 1: we say uses the weak force to decay. It doesn't 363 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:35,600 Speaker 1: just spontaneously happen. Something has to sort of carry that information, 364 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,000 Speaker 1: so it has to make it happen. It's like a reaction, 365 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:41,000 Speaker 1: and that reaction always includes one of the forces, and 366 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,399 Speaker 1: in this case it uses the weak force, right, and 367 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:46,200 Speaker 1: that weak force came out of just its own energy. 368 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:48,320 Speaker 1: It uses the mass. Right. The muon is a huge 369 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 1: amount of energy in it because it has so much mass, 370 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: and that mass is turned into the energy of the 371 00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: electron and the neutrinos that come out of it. So yeah, 372 00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:59,159 Speaker 1: the weak force turns the mass of the muan into 373 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:02,160 Speaker 1: very small masses of these other particles and gives them 374 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:04,240 Speaker 1: a lot of energy, right, and it ends up as 375 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:08,520 Speaker 1: an electron and to neutrinos precisely. All right, Well, to 376 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:10,919 Speaker 1: tell us Daniel, how was it discovered and why is 377 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,600 Speaker 1: this an important particle? Well, it was discovered initially in 378 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:17,439 Speaker 1: cosmic rays. Um. People saw these particles just sort of 379 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,359 Speaker 1: shooting from the sky and they didn't understand what was 380 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:22,639 Speaker 1: making them, and they thought, oh, well, you know, we 381 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: found a few particles, so these are probably electrons. This 382 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:27,880 Speaker 1: is you know, in the early nineteen hundreds, we didn't 383 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: have a really deep understanding of how particles work. We 384 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: didn't have a good bench of particles, and so people thought, 385 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,200 Speaker 1: you know, everything they saw they thought in terms of 386 00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:38,680 Speaker 1: the particles at the time. So you have to sort 387 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:41,239 Speaker 1: of wind your mind back to what we knew at 388 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,240 Speaker 1: the time. Back then, we knew about protons, we knew 389 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: about neutrons, we knew about electrons, and so people saw 390 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:49,720 Speaker 1: these particles shooting from the sky. They didn't know what 391 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 1: made them, but what they saw was that they penetrated 392 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:56,359 Speaker 1: really far into matter, much more than electrons could. We 393 00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:59,439 Speaker 1: saw the actual nuance and not the not what it 394 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,200 Speaker 1: looks like after it decays or turns into something else. 395 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: Like we actually you can actually see and feel the muants. 396 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:08,399 Speaker 1: You can't really feel them, but you can make particle 397 00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:10,840 Speaker 1: detectors that can detect them. You can actually do this 398 00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:13,800 Speaker 1: in your garage using something called the cloud chamber. They 399 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,200 Speaker 1: were able to see them using detectors that they put together. 400 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:18,919 Speaker 1: And these detectors were like a cubic piece of film, 401 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,920 Speaker 1: like remember the old way films worked, where like light 402 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:23,919 Speaker 1: was exposed on the film. You didn't have a digital 403 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:26,440 Speaker 1: camera or anything, and that made some kind of chemical change. 404 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,200 Speaker 1: You're saying, you can make like a solid cube of this. Yeah, 405 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,160 Speaker 1: you just take a solid cube of it, you leave 406 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 1: it up on a mountain and you leave it there 407 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:35,520 Speaker 1: for like six months, and then you cart it back 408 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,600 Speaker 1: down or you guys your grad students to do that. 409 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:39,920 Speaker 1: Then you slice it into pieces and then you can 410 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:41,720 Speaker 1: develop each of those. And what you do is you 411 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,360 Speaker 1: see all the particles that shot through it in those 412 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,680 Speaker 1: six months, and so they can see and when they 413 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,000 Speaker 1: did this, they saw all these particles shooting through this 414 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: film and they were surprised at how far they were going, 415 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,440 Speaker 1: because electrons shouldn't get that far. Electrons penetrating a little 416 00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 1: bit and then they stopped. But these particles were shooting 417 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 1: all the way through. It's kind of like a bull 418 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:06,159 Speaker 1: in a china's shop universus, like a mouse in a 419 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: china shop. Yeah, And they didn't understand that. They thought, well, 420 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 1: you know, are there two kinds of electrons or there's 421 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,720 Speaker 1: sometimes electrons can penetrate really far. It was really a 422 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:16,560 Speaker 1: puzzle at the time. What made them think it was 423 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,679 Speaker 1: an electron? Why couldn't it be like, uh, some kind 424 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: of new atom or something. We did know it had 425 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 1: negative charge, and so I think that's what made people 426 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,639 Speaker 1: think it was more likely to be an electron or 427 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,360 Speaker 1: something like an electron than something positive like inside the nucleus. 428 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: And remember, at the time, we only knew basically about protons, neutrons, 429 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: and electrons, and so everything we saw where like all 430 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,840 Speaker 1: of a sudden, having this imagination that we could just 431 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,520 Speaker 1: explain everything in the universe in terms of these particles, 432 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:43,520 Speaker 1: and that was It was a great success of the 433 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: particle model at the time, right, like everything could be 434 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,600 Speaker 1: built out of protons, neutrons, and electrons. What a wonderful simplification. 435 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,040 Speaker 1: And so when we first saw these particles that penetrated 436 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,920 Speaker 1: really far, we thought, well, it must be one of those, right, 437 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 1: But it was not. It was not, and people were 438 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,000 Speaker 1: able to then later douce it in the laboratory using 439 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,479 Speaker 1: collisions and and all sorts of other stuff, and they 440 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: discovered that if you put it in a magnetic field, 441 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 1: it didn't bend as much as an electron. And that's 442 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 1: when they decided, you know what, this must be a 443 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,399 Speaker 1: different kind of thing. It's like a new version of 444 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,639 Speaker 1: the electron, a different flavor of the electron, because it 445 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:19,919 Speaker 1: must be more massive, which is why it doesn't bend 446 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,119 Speaker 1: inside the magnetic field as much reflected as much because 447 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,240 Speaker 1: it has so much mass, it that just has more inertia. Precisely, 448 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,880 Speaker 1: it takes a stronger magnetic field to bend a mu 449 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,280 Speaker 1: on than it does for an electron. And this was 450 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:36,480 Speaker 1: kind of a scandal in particle physics at the time. Scandal. Yeah, 451 00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:38,920 Speaker 1: people were upset. They were like, what a mu on? 452 00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:42,320 Speaker 1: Who ordered that? Like, we don't need this. Get out 453 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 1: of here with your ridiculous new particle. We have this 454 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:47,919 Speaker 1: beautiful description of the universe. We don't want more particles. 455 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,920 Speaker 1: Up until then, everything that you knew about helped make 456 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:54,400 Speaker 1: the universe. It's kind of what you're saying, like everything 457 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:56,960 Speaker 1: you knew about at a purpose. Yeah, we had taken 458 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,120 Speaker 1: apart the stuff around us and found the basic building blocks, 459 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,280 Speaker 1: and then we didn't. Some people were like I don't 460 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: want to hear stories about other building blocks that could 461 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: be out there. It just sort of confuses the issue, right, 462 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:09,560 Speaker 1: It's a shift in the question not just what are 463 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:11,960 Speaker 1: we made out of? But what is the basic organizing 464 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,359 Speaker 1: principle of the universe. It shows you all of a 465 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:17,040 Speaker 1: sudden that there's a larger question you didn't even think 466 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:19,480 Speaker 1: to ask. It's like you find something that you don't 467 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,040 Speaker 1: know what to do with it, like it it doesn't 468 00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:25,639 Speaker 1: help you with what you knew about how things work. Yeah, 469 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:27,879 Speaker 1: you're putting together jigsaw puzzle and all of a sudden, 470 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:29,960 Speaker 1: somebody hands you like a really big piece that just 471 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:33,639 Speaker 1: doesn't fit, and you're like, what I didn't ask for, 472 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,800 Speaker 1: that I don't need. That doesn't help me with my problem. Like, well, 473 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,480 Speaker 1: but okay, but this piece is here and it's not 474 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,520 Speaker 1: going away, right, Yeah, And so it makes you think 475 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: that maybe there's another puzzle, or that the puzzle is 476 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,520 Speaker 1: bigger than you think it is. Yes, all of a 477 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: sudden you realize this is a three dimensional puzzle and 478 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,960 Speaker 1: you've been only playing on on two dimensions, and and 479 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,760 Speaker 1: it just blows your mind. And so that's. Ah, it's 480 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:59,320 Speaker 1: sort of an earthquake, an intellectual earthquake through the field 481 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 1: at the moment. But also it's a great opportunity. Those 482 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: are the kind of discoveries that make you realize, Wow, 483 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,359 Speaker 1: there's a whole larger question to ask, and there's a 484 00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: whole world of answers out there. And of course now 485 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,359 Speaker 1: we know there's not just the meal one. There's also 486 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,040 Speaker 1: the Tao, which is the even heavier version of it, 487 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,159 Speaker 1: and that every particle has these cousins. Yeah. I like 488 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,000 Speaker 1: how this counts as a scandal in physics, Like was 489 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,919 Speaker 1: it on the front page of the Daily Physics News 490 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:31,520 Speaker 1: or the National Enquiring Enquirer of Physics? Um newspapers, people 491 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:36,479 Speaker 1: to tabloids. People had to give testimony about this and 492 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:39,600 Speaker 1: there You know, physicists are not that exciting, so we 493 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,480 Speaker 1: just got to create drama wherever we can. There was 494 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:46,119 Speaker 1: even more drama because some people had predicted the existence 495 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,400 Speaker 1: of a particle sort of similar to this. Mm hmm, 496 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,840 Speaker 1: what do you mean predicted like just just guessing. Yeah. Well, 497 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: there was a famous physicist named Yukaba the Genius and 498 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 1: won a Nobel Prize for all sorts of fascinating stuff. 499 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:01,439 Speaker 1: And he was trying to understand the strong force. He 500 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: was like, okay, the weak force, we have that one. 501 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,600 Speaker 1: We have the photon for the electromagnetism um, but what 502 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:10,280 Speaker 1: mediates the strong force? And he did some calculations that 503 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,600 Speaker 1: he thought, I bet there's a particle out there about 504 00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,560 Speaker 1: two hundred times the mass of the electron and it 505 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:20,320 Speaker 1: mediates the strong force. All right, So that's his prediction, right, 506 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:22,440 Speaker 1: And back in the day, physics would just make predictions, 507 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,879 Speaker 1: like here's my idea and here's what I predict, Like 508 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 1: we need this for this for what we know to 509 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,960 Speaker 1: make sense. Yeah, just like with the Higgs Boson. Peter 510 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,840 Speaker 1: Higgs said, this doesn't make sense to me, but if 511 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:34,840 Speaker 1: you look at the universe in a new way, then 512 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,119 Speaker 1: it makes more sense. And this new way predicts a 513 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,520 Speaker 1: new particle, so you can test my theory. That was 514 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,320 Speaker 1: what you Kala did, and he predicted a new particle 515 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,320 Speaker 1: about two hundred times the mass of the electron. Then 516 00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,119 Speaker 1: they found this particle and you Kal was like, who 517 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: I was right, But it turns out this particle has 518 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,280 Speaker 1: nothing to do with the strong force at all. So 519 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: it's just like a coincidence, right, And he still got 520 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: the Nobel Prize. He still got the Nobel Prize, but 521 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: not for this and um, not for this one. But 522 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,560 Speaker 1: he's sort of the reason why this particle has a 523 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:08,360 Speaker 1: strange name. Oh really, he he was a fan of Cows. 524 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:11,919 Speaker 1: I don't know if he liked Kobe Beef, you know, 525 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,600 Speaker 1: the guy's Japanese or anything, but he you know, we 526 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: had the electron, which is really really light, and we 527 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,639 Speaker 1: had the proton, which is like two thousand times the 528 00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,240 Speaker 1: mass of the electron, and he predicted a particle sort 529 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,879 Speaker 1: of an intermediate mass, and so he wanted it called 530 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,240 Speaker 1: like the you know, the mazo tron something where mazing 531 00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:32,679 Speaker 1: means like middle, and so that was the sort of 532 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,639 Speaker 1: the origin of this, like, let's call these particles here, 533 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,800 Speaker 1: you know, in this mass region, we'll call the meso particles. Well, 534 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: what do you have to call it the messo on 535 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:46,960 Speaker 1: or messing on or I feel like just to be 536 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,840 Speaker 1: consistent here. And then later people were like, well, it's 537 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,440 Speaker 1: not really have anything to do with these other particles 538 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 1: we found in the same mass, but we'll just keep 539 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: calling it the muon anyway, I bet he wanted to 540 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:03,040 Speaker 1: call it the me on. I'm so smart. Yeah, but 541 00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:09,000 Speaker 1: this is where like, come on, dude, but it's a 542 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,800 Speaker 1: it's a fascinating moment in physics because or the yuan 543 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:16,439 Speaker 1: is the mean, or how about we calling muan done compromise. 544 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:21,560 Speaker 1: That's exactly how these decisions get made, and that's why 545 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: we have such terrible names for particles. Yeah. So, but 546 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,400 Speaker 1: now it's so it's a well known thing, like everyone 547 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 1: knows about muans. Did they know that they're there and 548 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,359 Speaker 1: you can study them. You can. You can. They're coming 549 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:35,879 Speaker 1: through going through our bodies right now at ten thousand 550 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 1: times per minute. Yeah, ten thousand muans per square meter 551 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,120 Speaker 1: per minute, and you're right. At first it was totally 552 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 1: exotic and what is this weird thing? And now we 553 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: know it's a relative of the electron, but also created 554 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,440 Speaker 1: another field, which is cosmic ray physics. It was the 555 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: first cosmic ray scene. And at first people weren't sure, 556 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,480 Speaker 1: like where are these particles coming from? We know they're 557 00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:58,120 Speaker 1: coming down from the sky, but are they made in 558 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,480 Speaker 1: the sky or whatever. And people did all these crazy experiments, 559 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: like balloon experiments with a shot detectors up into the 560 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,920 Speaker 1: atmosphere with balloons and discovered that the higher up you go, 561 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,760 Speaker 1: the more muans there are, and that tells you that 562 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,720 Speaker 1: like muanes are being created in the upper atmosphere, and 563 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: then they're decaying as they sort of come down to Earth. 564 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,080 Speaker 1: And finally people put together this picture like particles were 565 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,600 Speaker 1: hitting the top of the atmosphere and creating these showers 566 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: of particles and we were just sort of picking up 567 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:26,880 Speaker 1: the little last bits of the fireworks as they hit 568 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,360 Speaker 1: the surface. Right. I bet they also try to shoot 569 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:34,720 Speaker 1: a cow to the moon. That's where the inspiration. Well, 570 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: you know how the Russians put a dog in one 571 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,560 Speaker 1: of their first attempts to go to space. I won't 572 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,240 Speaker 1: comment as to whether particle physicists ever used a weather 573 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,400 Speaker 1: balloon to launch a cow. Yeah, they're like, we gotta 574 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,400 Speaker 1: up those Russians a dog. Anyone can launch a dog 575 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:53,960 Speaker 1: into space. This is this is well before the space race. 576 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,160 Speaker 1: This is the cow race. But I love thinking about 577 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 1: what it must have been to be a physicist at 578 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,920 Speaker 1: that time, and too like crack in a whole new 579 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: era of discovery bye bye, you know, putting photographic plates 580 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: up on mountains and just seeing like what's up there. 581 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: There's so many amazing things to discover. Somebody like new 582 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 1: World were opened up. They discovered that all this invisible 583 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: stuff is happening around us. That's really wonderful to sort 584 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:18,880 Speaker 1: of like crack open a new way of looking at 585 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,880 Speaker 1: the universe. Yeah, all right, let's get into the last 586 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,800 Speaker 1: bit here, which is what does the Muan teaches, what 587 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,440 Speaker 1: does it tell us about how the universe is put together? 588 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: But first let's take another quick break, all right, I know, 589 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 1: so the muan is a thing. It's there. It's super massive, 590 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,120 Speaker 1: looks just like the electron. We can feel it. It's 591 00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: going through us right now. Why is it there? That's 592 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: the question that maybe a lot of people have. I mean, 593 00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,360 Speaker 1: we don't need the muan to make iPhones or ezas, 594 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:03,360 Speaker 1: so why is it there? Is that the standard upon 595 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:05,720 Speaker 1: which we judge things. Now, if we don't need you 596 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,400 Speaker 1: for iPhones or pizzas, you don't need to exist. What 597 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:14,720 Speaker 1: else is there? Daniel? That's my whole life basically, just personally. 598 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 1: Um No, it's a good question. It's a question I'd 599 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,120 Speaker 1: like to know the answer to. Why does the muan exist? 600 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:25,320 Speaker 1: The short version of the answer is the title of 601 00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:27,240 Speaker 1: a great book I read last year. It's called We 602 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,600 Speaker 1: Have No Idea? Because we really do have new idea. 603 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,960 Speaker 1: Why the muan is there? Doesn't seem to be used 604 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: for anything, is what you're saying. Like neutrinos, I think 605 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,000 Speaker 1: also are there, but we don't know why why they're 606 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,760 Speaker 1: they're right, Yeah, neutrinos and muans and many of the 607 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 1: other particles are not part of the atom. You know, 608 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: build them, You don't use them to build up the 609 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,880 Speaker 1: stuff that we're familiar with, but they sort of can 610 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,760 Speaker 1: exist there on Nature's menu. You might ask the same 611 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 1: question about like some of the really heavy elements, like 612 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 1: why is plutonium a thing? Well, it turns out you 613 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 1: can assemble protons and new trons and electrons in this 614 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:02,960 Speaker 1: way that's stable, and it hangs out and it does 615 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,760 Speaker 1: this funny thing. We call it plutonium, and plutonium also 616 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,560 Speaker 1: the case, right, it like breaks up. This one actually 617 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,040 Speaker 1: breaks up into other things. But it's also kind of ephemeral, 618 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,800 Speaker 1: like it's only there for so long before it becomes 619 00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:19,360 Speaker 1: something else. Precisely, and in the same way we organize 620 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,000 Speaker 1: our list of particles, and we want to like, why 621 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:25,360 Speaker 1: are these there? What does this tell us about maybe 622 00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:28,960 Speaker 1: one deeper layer of reality, Like maybe the muans and 623 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: electrons are made out of smaller particles and these are 624 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,840 Speaker 1: just like different ways to assemble those little internal bits, right, 625 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: And there's a few ways to assemble them, the way 626 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,360 Speaker 1: that there's a few ways to assemble protons and neutrons 627 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 1: to get different elements. Maybe there's a few ways to 628 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,440 Speaker 1: assemble these little tiny ons. One way is to get 629 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,040 Speaker 1: an electron, in other ways to get a muan, in 630 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,160 Speaker 1: other ways to get a towel, which is the third 631 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,840 Speaker 1: member of that family. We just don't know. We know 632 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,760 Speaker 1: it's a clue, though, right, it's a tantalizing clue that 633 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:57,719 Speaker 1: there's something going on here. We just don't know what 634 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: it means. It's a clue as to some sort of 635 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,720 Speaker 1: hint that there's some sort of rule for how electrons exist. 636 00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,400 Speaker 1: Like if you can make an electron that's heavier, maybe 637 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: that tells you something about what makes an electron an 638 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:13,840 Speaker 1: electron precisely, and why there are three of them tells 639 00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:16,040 Speaker 1: you something about how that rule has to play out. 640 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: Because there's three electrons, the electron, the muant in the towel, 641 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,640 Speaker 1: there's three neutrinos. There's also three up corks is three 642 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,320 Speaker 1: down quarks. Like there's something really fundamental going on there 643 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: we just don't understand. But it seems like an obvious clue. 644 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,040 Speaker 1: You know. It's like you're doing your jigsaw puzzle and 645 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:34,800 Speaker 1: you find this other weird piece. It turns out, oh, 646 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: that piece fits into a different jigsaw puzzle you didn't 647 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:39,720 Speaker 1: even know about, and you know it's as you start 648 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:41,920 Speaker 1: to get this larger picture right or you find it 649 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:44,800 Speaker 1: like all of your pieces have three sides to them. 650 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,080 Speaker 1: Then you start thinking, you know, whoever made this puzzle, 651 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:52,440 Speaker 1: if it was made by somebody had a thing for threes, Yeah, 652 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,360 Speaker 1: the universe has a thing for threes, and we don't 653 00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: know why that is. The Muan was our first clue 654 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,320 Speaker 1: that particles have copies at all, and now it turns 655 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,680 Speaker 1: out every particle has three copies, and so that's a 656 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,320 Speaker 1: huge open question. Is a kind of question people are 657 00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:09,759 Speaker 1: gonna look back in a hundred years and be like, man, 658 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,879 Speaker 1: that was so obvious. Why couldn't they figure it out? 659 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 1: If I was a physicist in I would totally figured 660 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,600 Speaker 1: it out. But it's not so easy when you don't 661 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:20,680 Speaker 1: know the answer when you have to come up with it. 662 00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: But it's important for people to understand it's not you know, 663 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 1: it's not part of the stuff that we are made of, 664 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,239 Speaker 1: but it does answer this larger question. It's like what 665 00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,000 Speaker 1: is the sort of context of everything? That's why we're 666 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,320 Speaker 1: trying to figure out, like what are all the particles? 667 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,680 Speaker 1: Because the more particles you put into this table, the 668 00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,239 Speaker 1: more clues we get as to what the rules are 669 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,440 Speaker 1: for making this table. And then maybe we can peel 670 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:43,960 Speaker 1: back a layer and show how this table is put together, right, 671 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: or I guess maybe a question I would have is, 672 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:47,960 Speaker 1: how do you even know it's a separate thing? Like 673 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:50,560 Speaker 1: why isn't it just called the heavy electron? Could it 674 00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:52,839 Speaker 1: just be an electron that just gets a lot of 675 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,160 Speaker 1: mass added onto it somehow through energy or something. That's 676 00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 1: a deep question and goes sort of to like what 677 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: do we call a particle? Part of the idea entity 678 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,239 Speaker 1: particle is its mass? Like that's how we identify what 679 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,440 Speaker 1: particle we're talking about. We measure the mass and we say, well, 680 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:07,919 Speaker 1: if it has this mass, it's an electron a sort 681 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: of semantics, but it's it's what we mean by an electron. 682 00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:13,600 Speaker 1: We mean quantum dot in space that has these properties, 683 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,239 Speaker 1: and one of those is the mass. And there are 684 00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:17,919 Speaker 1: only a few. It's not like this, it's a there's 685 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,400 Speaker 1: a knob you can't have halfway between ELECTRONO mu on 686 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:22,920 Speaker 1: this like the electron mass, the muan mask, the town mass. 687 00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:25,719 Speaker 1: There's some notches there, right, And so this was the 688 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,880 Speaker 1: first particle that kind of we found outside of the 689 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:30,799 Speaker 1: ones that make up atoms. Is that what you're saying 690 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:34,239 Speaker 1: that this was the first one that was weird? Yeah, precisely, 691 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,160 Speaker 1: it's weird and cute. I'm glad you're finally putting positive 692 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: attributes on the on the muon you're trying to make it. 693 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:43,840 Speaker 1: I said weird, I didn't say cute. I think somebody 694 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:47,200 Speaker 1: has a particle fetish and it's not the cartoon is. Yes, well, 695 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,200 Speaker 1: maybe the particle physicist has a particle fetish. I will 696 00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:55,840 Speaker 1: totally own up to that. I love you, particles. I 697 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,359 Speaker 1: think we all love particles by necessity. We can't live 698 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,920 Speaker 1: without you, like particles when they make up pizza and iPhones, 699 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,760 Speaker 1: though otherwise you don't care about them. You objectify particles 700 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:09,000 Speaker 1: and cartoon is cartoonists. Well, I think this particle is 701 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,440 Speaker 1: interesting in that it also kind of hints, you know, 702 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,759 Speaker 1: at the the universe is full, is full of these 703 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: small little details that people can't explain right now, and 704 00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:23,919 Speaker 1: then maybe tell us a little bit about that there 705 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,319 Speaker 1: are other mysteries yet to discover. Yeah, and you know 706 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,680 Speaker 1: the story of how the muan was discovered is also motivational, right, 707 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:32,839 Speaker 1: people saw this weird stuff in these pictures and they 708 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:34,440 Speaker 1: could have just shrugged it off. It could have been like, 709 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,200 Speaker 1: I don't know, electrons are doing some weird that day whatever, 710 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,319 Speaker 1: but instead of cracked open this whole other mystery, and 711 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,719 Speaker 1: we are still doing that. We still don't totally understand 712 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:45,880 Speaker 1: the muan. One thing we'd like to understand is the 713 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:49,359 Speaker 1: muan's magnetic field. Oh, it's a it's odd. It has 714 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,600 Speaker 1: a weird magnetic field. Yeah. These particles, remember, have quantum spin, 715 00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:56,000 Speaker 1: so they're doing something we like spinning. That's giving them 716 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,680 Speaker 1: each a little magnetic field because they have electric charge 717 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,200 Speaker 1: and spinning charges give magnetic fields. But when we predict 718 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,279 Speaker 1: the magnetic field of the mu want from what we 719 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,000 Speaker 1: know about it, and then we go when we measure 720 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,680 Speaker 1: the magnetic field, it's a little bit different. It's not 721 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,160 Speaker 1: exactly right, And that little difference we could say, I 722 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:14,440 Speaker 1: don't know, shrug it off. Maybe mu want is doing 723 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,960 Speaker 1: some weird that day, or it could be a clue. 724 00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,759 Speaker 1: It could be that the muant is like interacting with new, 725 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,000 Speaker 1: weird heavy particles we haven't even seen before. It could 726 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,440 Speaker 1: be the first evidence that there are more particles out 727 00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,200 Speaker 1: there that we haven't yet discovered. And also they help 728 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,640 Speaker 1: us unravel ancient mysteries like maybe you heard about how 729 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,359 Speaker 1: muans are used to take a picture of the inside 730 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:36,680 Speaker 1: of pyramids. What do you mean, like we can make 731 00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 1: an meon viewer, like like me on glasses. No, you 732 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,640 Speaker 1: can use me on to like x ray a pyramid, 733 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,480 Speaker 1: because what happens is muans, zillion muans shooting from the 734 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 1: sky through everything. And if you take a muan detector 735 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:52,920 Speaker 1: and you put it on the other side of something, 736 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:55,799 Speaker 1: you can tell sort of the density of that thing, 737 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 1: because muans will penetrate air differently than they'll penetrate raw, 738 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:03,160 Speaker 1: for example. And so you take a lot of muans, 739 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,920 Speaker 1: you shoot them through something, you can tell whether that 740 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,080 Speaker 1: thing is full, is hollow or not hollow. And so 741 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:11,439 Speaker 1: they did this recently by looking at muans that went 742 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,400 Speaker 1: through the Great Pyramids, because we're curious, like what's inside 743 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:16,360 Speaker 1: the Great Pyramid, but you don't want to take it apart, 744 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:19,120 Speaker 1: and so they use it basically to x ray the 745 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,920 Speaker 1: Great Pyramids, like you put a detector underneath the pyramid 746 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,440 Speaker 1: or or what. Yeah, you take the detectors as far 747 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:27,480 Speaker 1: underneath the pyramids as you can in some of those 748 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:30,640 Speaker 1: rooms that do exist. And you know, you can't build 749 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:32,960 Speaker 1: an x ray gun the size of the pyramids. But 750 00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:36,040 Speaker 1: the sky is a muan gun, right, The sky is 751 00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:38,880 Speaker 1: shooting muans at us all the time. The sky is 752 00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:43,719 Speaker 1: a muan gun. Oh my god. Yeah, put on your 753 00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:46,920 Speaker 1: tin hats, folks, because the sky really is shooting particles. 754 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,560 Speaker 1: That was like, I need like a lead titanium head, 755 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,320 Speaker 1: not a tin head. Maybe, you know, maybe the Pharas 756 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:54,040 Speaker 1: have the right idea. Maybe that's why they have those 757 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,920 Speaker 1: really weird head dresses. Well, that's what I was going 758 00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,080 Speaker 1: to ask, is how do you know what meal On 759 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:03,160 Speaker 1: look like after they go through aliens? If there are 760 00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:08,319 Speaker 1: aliens inside the pyramid, you wouldn't know. Wow. I was 761 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:10,600 Speaker 1: so ready with an answer to that question until you 762 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,080 Speaker 1: went to aliens. And now I'm totally at all awesome. 763 00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:17,040 Speaker 1: That's why I'm here, Daniel, to ask the tough questions 764 00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:21,440 Speaker 1: that are on everyone's minds. Joking aside, they did find 765 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,239 Speaker 1: something inside the pyramids. They think they may have found 766 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,239 Speaker 1: a new empty room inside the pyramids that they didn't 767 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:29,920 Speaker 1: know about before. Is the way the muans full of 768 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:33,839 Speaker 1: cows before the cows are the aliens actually to wrap 769 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:37,680 Speaker 1: it all up, then we're in deep trouble when they're 770 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,800 Speaker 1: overlords coming and they're like, what are you guys doing? 771 00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,440 Speaker 1: And they say, welcome to our our leader, King muon 772 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,359 Speaker 1: the first first of his name. No, they found that 773 00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:54,080 Speaker 1: inside the Great Pyramid there may be a new hollow 774 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:56,560 Speaker 1: section that nobody knew about before. And it's only things 775 00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:59,600 Speaker 1: to Muans that we were able to Muan x ray 776 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:08,160 Speaker 1: the p It's a new on chamber they found. Thanks. Yes, 777 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: so it may not be inside your iPhone and it 778 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:12,919 Speaker 1: may not be inside your pizza, but it does help 779 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:18,040 Speaker 1: unravel ancient mysteries about ancient civilizations. Al Right, well, with that, 780 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,440 Speaker 1: we will wrap it up and we hope you enjoyed 781 00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,600 Speaker 1: that little discussion about this unknown but supermassive and mysterious 782 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,920 Speaker 1: part of the universe, part of our family of cousins, particles, big, small, 783 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:32,799 Speaker 1: massive or not. We'd love you all, at least I do. 784 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:43,120 Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in. See you next time. Before you 785 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,080 Speaker 1: still have a question after listening to all these explanations, 786 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:49,120 Speaker 1: please drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. 787 00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,960 Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at 788 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,399 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge that's one word, or email us at 789 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:59,320 Speaker 1: Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, 790 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,279 Speaker 1: and remember Daniel and Jorge explain the universe is a 791 00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:05,719 Speaker 1: production of i heart Radio. For more podcast from my 792 00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,400 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 793 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:17,240 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah.