WEBVTT - What's the problem with the Standard Model? 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.280 Hey, Daniel, are you guys done with physics yet? Done 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:13.680 with physics? I mean we're just getting started. Yeah, But 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.280 then you build that large hattern collider. Didn't that answer 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.520 all of your questions? Now there's always more stuff to 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.919 figure out? Man, What do you mean people paid ten 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.280 billion dollars for that and now you need more money. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.320 That was just like the down payment on the project. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.080 What was that a defined print? We missed that. Somehow 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.960 research is exploration. Man, They're never any guarantees about what 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:35.960 we're going to find. But I thought the Higgs Boson 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:40.040 completed the standard model. I mean it's called the standard model. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.360 Aren't you done? It's the standard model. Now we want 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.080 to upgrade it to like the super standard model. Sounds 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:46.680 like you need to go work for Apple. It sounds 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.440 like we should work for f t X. Sounds like 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.680 we paid you ten billion dollars for the wrong model. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:01:09.320 Can we have a hundred billion please? Hi am more 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.080 hammered cartoonist and the creator of PhD comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.000 I'm a particle physicist and a professor at U C Irvine, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.039 and I will never be done asking questions about the 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.880 nature of reality. But what if you get the final answer, 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.680 wouldn't you be done? Well? The lesson from that book 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.000 is that you're never done that even if you do 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.399 get the final answer. The next question is, well, why 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.080 this answer and not something else? Why do we live 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.200 in a universe where the answer is forty two and 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.920 not forty seven? What does it mean anyway? The questions multiply. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.759 Maybe the ultimate answer is because that's a non answer. 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.840 It's an answer, it's not a very satisfying answer, and 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.560 in the end we're looking for explanations, not nonsense. But 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.280 welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge Explained the Universe, 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:55.680 a production of I Heart Radio, in which we try 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.520 to satisfy your curiosity about the nature of the universe. 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.600 Why is the world made up of tiny little particles 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.000 frothing together to build up our reality? How far down 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.600 do you have to go before you can really understand 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.359 the universe at its most basic level? And is there 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.480 even a most basic level? Or is there an infinite 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.320 tower of questions all the way from galaxies down to 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.760 black holes, down to particles, down to strings, and then 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.960 down to whatever strings are made of. Yeah, it's an 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.600 incredible universe full of gigantic phenomenon like black holes and 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.840 galaxies and clusters of galaxies, but also with a lot 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.320 going on at the microscopic level, with atoms and particles 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.839 and tiny little quantum lips, and somehow it also needs 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.359 to be ruled by the same rules. The same rules 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.760 supplies from the tiniest levels to the most cosmic of 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.280 all levels. It really is incredible how many layers of 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.359 zoom we have for the universe. Like we can think 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.040 about the universe on the scale of super clusters of galaxies, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.320 objects that are hundreds of millions of light years across, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.440 and they follow gravity. We can make predictions about how 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.320 they swirl around each other, and then you can sort 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.320 of adjust your zoom knob and think about planets and stars, 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:09.560 and you can adjust your zoom knob again and think 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.000 about rocks and liquids, and you can do it again, 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:13.800 and think about atoms, and you can do it again. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.080 You can think about protons. You can do it again 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.440 and think about corks. And we just don't know how 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.200 many layers of zoom are there, and we don't actually 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.440 even know the answer to the question of whether they 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.720 all follow the same rules. You know, our reductionist approach 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.760 assumes that there is a basic nature to the universe 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.400 with a certain set of laws from which everything else emerges. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.560 But that's sort of a philosophical assumption. We're not even 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.560 sure that's true. Do you find yourself, Daniel, reading a 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.960 scientific paper that you print it out on paper and 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.160 then you're trying to zoom in with your fingers? Does 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.240 that work? I do sometimes click on blue links on 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.280 printed out papers, and I'm frustrated that they don't just 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.480 like print out the right paper for me. That would 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:53.960 be awesome if you could click on a link on 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.480 a paper and your printer would just print the next paper. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:58.840 But it is pretty amazing that we know so much 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.520 about the universe, from the neest levels to the largest 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.600 of all stages the entire universe. And I guess the hypothesis, 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.200 like you said, it, is that there's one set of 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.120 rules that somehow rules at all. That's certainly one philosophical approach. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.839 We call that reductionism, the idea that the tiny dominates 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.280 the huge. And it sort of makes sense to us 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.600 intuitively that things emerge from the smallest bits, But if 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:22.440 you dig down into it, there's not really a whole 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.200 lot of justification for it. I mean, why should the 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.080 small dominate the large? Why can't rules emerge at the 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.600 larger levels as well and dominate the small? Wait? Who 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.760 said the tiny dominate the large? I would say that 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.080 the particles here on Earth pretty much subject to whatever 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:39.760 the Sun wants to do. I think the sort of 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.280 standard philosophical approach to physics is to imagine that there 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.600 are basic rules at the smallest scale, and those rules 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.920 somehow weave themselves together to make our reality. And so 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.880 in order to understand the basic nature of the universe, 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.640 we should dig deep into the smallest particles to try 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.080 to find the smallest of the smallest of the small, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.000 and a long way we have made a lot of progress, 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.120 a lot of encouraging results. We've understood the nature of 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.800 the periodic table based on how protons and neutrons and 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.839 electrons fit together to make all of those different atoms. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.160 We've even understood how protons and neutrons are built out 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.760 of smaller pieces. So there are a lot of hints 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.760 that suggest that we should keep digging down into the 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.839 nature of reality to understand how the bigger things emerge. 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.240 It's kind of interesting how physics has some I've covered 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.120 both ends of the spectrum, but not the stuff in between. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.480 Like you start on small with the particles and atoms, 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:31.719 but then that's when you're like, ah, that's chemistry, and 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.040 after that biology, and after that you know, political science. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.440 We don't care about that. But then once you get 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.479 to like the size of the planet of the Solar System, 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.719 and you're like, Okay, now I'm back. Now I'm interested 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.080 in this again as a physicist will take over from 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.840 here until the end of the universe. Yeah, that's right. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.320 And it's really fascinating sort of from a sociological point 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.960 of view, because for a long time, those communities, the 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.320 astrophysics community and the particle physics community were totally separate. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.360 The people who worked on galaxies didn't they spent a 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.440 whole lot of time talking to the people who build 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.320 colliders and smashed particles together. Though they were in the 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.080 same department, they didn't really overlap very much. But more 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.080 recently those communities have come together because there is a 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.600 common mystery, for example, the mystery of dark matter. We 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.920 discovered it through astronomical observations that revealed that there's stuff 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.120 out there that is not made of our kinds of particles, 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.479 and now we have particle physicists searching for that dark matter. 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.440 So now we have a new kind of physicist, astro 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.359 particle physicists that work both on the biggest things and 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.320 the tiniest things in the universe. But you're right, skipping 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.599 everything in between. Yeah, I feel like you guys skip 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.760 over anything that's messy and complicated. I wonder if that 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.080 says something about your personalities. I do think that I 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.720 got into physics to avoid all the complications of chemistry 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.159 and biology. That's certainly true. We like approximating things as 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.200 simple objects, dots, spheres, circles whenever we can. Planets, right, 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.680 Planets are also just circles to you. So sons right, 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.280 basic kindergarten, She's as long as you stick with that 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.960 than your physicist. I think kindergarten is probably too advanced. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.400 I mean, I wouldn't want a triangle shaped planet or anything. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:08.760 Wouldn't that be interesting though, I'd be like that sounds 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.160 like chemistry to me. I'll focus on the spears. It 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.760 sounds like geometry. Forget about it exactly. We do have 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.160 a pretty interesting view of the universe now, and an 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.360 interesting model that describes how things work at the tiniest 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:24.040 levels and that we are hoping extends to the largest 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.480 of levels. But we do have a model about the universe, 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.360 and we've been building it over centuries. Right. Physics builds 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.160 our concepts of the universe sort of on these levels. Right. 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.000 We have like the atomic level where we think about 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.240 the elements, and then we zoom in and we think 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:40.320 about the nucleus, and then we zoom in and we 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.600 think about the quarks. And at the level of the 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:44.880 quarks and the electrons. You're right, we have a very 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.120 nice picture of all those particles, how they interact, what 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.080 they do. And that model also explains all the experiments 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.600 that we can do smashing particles together at very high 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.640 energies and all sorts of other very detailed, exhaustive experiments. 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.520 The picture we have of those particles we've been putting 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.080 together for about a hundred years. It's sort of all 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.920 clicks together very nicely. Now. Yeah, it's a pretty good 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.440 theory that describes what we can see and it works 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.360 pretty well. However, we sort of know it's not the 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.480 final theory or the ultimate theory of the universe. That's right. 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.320 Physics is never done asking questions. And even if we 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.040 have a beautiful concept which clicks together and explains experiments, 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.200 this is will always come up with ways to keep 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.200 the project going. Conveniently, you'll figure out a way to 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.760 keep your job going. You think being driven by curiosity, 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.679 staying up late at night wondering about the nature of 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:37.080 the universe is convenient. It's almost like an obsession. And 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.160 so to the end of program, we'll be asking the question, 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.800 what's the problem with the standard model? I think I 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.280 know the answer, Daniel, is it me? Am I the problem? Well, 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.800 that's one problem, yes, But maybe your main problem is 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.560 that you call it the wrong thing. I mean, you 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.000 call it the standard model. Not everyone thinks it's the 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.160 standard one. But now you're saying it's not standard. Yeah, 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.839 you'll be amazed to discover that we can't even actually 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.920 agree about what is the standard model. Some people think 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.040 the standard model is one thing, other people think it's 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.959 something else. So it turns out the standard is not 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.920 actually standard. It sounds like you guys have no standards 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:21.319 when it comes to naming things, especially models. It doesn't 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.520 surprise me that we didn't impress you on this one. 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.120 But really, maybe the question we are asking here today 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.040 is what are the problems with the standard model? Right, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.520 because there's not just one problem with it, there are many. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.080 There are many problems, There are unanswered questions, there are 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.360 cracks in it, there are missing pieces, there are things 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.880 we know the standard model cannot describe. All of these 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.640 things are vital hints and clues laying the path for 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.079 the next generation of physicists, who we hope will reveal 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:50.000 a deeper understanding into the nature of reality. So maybe 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.120 a better name would have been the model issue or 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.559 the sort of model, the non standard sort of model. Well, 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.680 usually were wondering how many people have thought about this 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.600 question and have wondered what are the missing pieces of 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.760 the standard model? What's wrong with it? So thank you 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.240 very much to everybody who answers these questions for this 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.959 segment of the podcast. We thoroughly enjoy hearing your thoughts 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:14.720 and we would love for everybody else to have a 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.160 chance to participate. If you would like to put your 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.360 voice on the podcast answering these questions, please write to 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.200 me two questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. I 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.320 will set you up. So think about it for a second. 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.240 What do you think are the problems with the Standard Model. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.440 Here's what people had to say. I feel like we're 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.680 confident about how gravity works, like on the microscope or 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.920 macroscopic level, and then we're confident about like quantum mechanics, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.040 but we don't know how to relate the two. And 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.640 that's the problem. As I understand that the Standard Model 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:50.680 describes a proton and the nucleus and electrons, and the 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.400 problem with it is that it describes them as little 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:58.240 actual points in space as opposed to excitations of various 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.559 quantum fields. Uh. Therefore, I remember you saying actually in 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.280 the podcast that it's actually an incorrect interpretation to imagine 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.720 these little things as particles or a little discrete points 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.160 in space. Maybe the problem is that it doesn't have 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.280 anything for the dark matter and dark energy. But my 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.360 problem is that standard model has many things to remember 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.800 and it's too difficult for me. I think the main 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.640 bron with the Standard Model is that there's no room 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.360 for gravity, and I think, especially with the Higgs, it 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.160 kind of almost finalized. It snowork kind of stuck. Well. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.320 I think that the problem with the Standard Model might 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:39.080 be that it is incomplete. It may not have the 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:44.240 particles to describe, for example, quantum gravity, so it can 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:49.000 be reconciled with general relativity. Well, I think the problem 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:55.920 with the standard model is that a people are unsure 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:01.000 about the missing pieces in the pattern, missing holes in 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.520 the periodic table type deal of the standard model. And 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.360 people are curious if there is on some sort of 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.319 emergent or if it's some sort of an emergent phenomena 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:17.360 of smaller particles, even smaller than those that we observe 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.960 in the standard model. All right, a lot of awesome 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.080 ideas here. There seemed to be a lot wrong with 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.439 the Standard model. I think this might be the first 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.960 time we can say that every single answer is correct. Wow, 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:35.000 that's amazing. So we're done. It turns out the listeners 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.840 are answering the questions for themselves. We have trained everybody 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.120 so well that we have worked ourselves out of a podcast. Sorry, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.120 we have reached the singularity. Thank you everybody, it's been great. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.960 What sounds like maybe you need some different standards or 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.000 the standard model, you know, like they have the Gold standard, 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:55.640 the Platinum Standard, Green Standard, the tin Can Standard. Well, 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.520 you know, I do think it's a strange name for 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.920 a theory, The Standard model it's like calling something modern physics. 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.720 You know, what we teach as modern physics these days 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.280 is physics as we knew it about a hundred years ago. 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.320 So when they started calling it modern physics, they sort 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.400 of painted themselves into a corner. And that happens every 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.240 time you give something a name like that. It's like 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.200 calling the draft of your paper final final, ready to submit. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.480 You know, that's not the one you're going to submit. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.440 It's going to be ready to submit virgin seven before 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:27.280 you actually turn that paper in. So then what do 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:32.720 you teach at the graduate level? Postmodern physics, deconstructive is physics, 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.720 impressionist physics. Yeah, now we have avoided giving an updated 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:43.120 name like supermodern physics or actually modern physics. We just 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:45.480 teach whatever it is we know. Now, well, I guess 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.880 there's a classical physics, so you've got to figure out 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:49.920 how to distinguish it from that, right, Yeah, Well, we 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.040 usually think about classical physics and quantum physics, and quantum 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:57.200 physics obviously more recent than classical physics. What do you 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:03.080 call this podcast physics? Light diet physics? No, this is 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.040 the juice man. This we are squeezing physics to extract 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.720 all of the core ideas and understanding. This is like 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.800 a shot of physics. This is like the frozen concentrate 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.640 kind of physics. This is like that protein powder man. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:24.200 This will beef you up in your physics knowledge. Your 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.080 brain might not be great for your kidneys, but it 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.840 will make your mind strong. All right, Well, let's dig 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.200 into this, Daniel. I guess first of all, what is 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.720 the standard model and is it really standard? So the 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.800 standard model is our description of nature at the deepest 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.640 level that we have seen so far. You know, we 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.960 have six quarks, we have six leptons, we have forces 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.600 that tie them all together. The standard model is what 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.280 we call our theory of how all of that works. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.600 And it really has emerged from a piece of work 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.480 that started like about a hundred and fifty years ago 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:59.880 with Maxwell, as he tied together electricity and magnetism into 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.640 a unified concept of electromagnetism. That was really like the 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.800 first step towards having any sort of holistic understanding of 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:12.040 various phenomena in physics and like one big idea. Right, 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.680 But then this sort of this was after Newton, right, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.560 Like Newton had an idea of how forces and masses 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.520 and things interacted and worked. This is more about, like, 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:22.760 let's break it down and think about all the different 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.360 kinds of forces that are out there. Yeah, Newton was 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.720 thinking about how masses move and the effects of gravity, 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:30.960 but there are lots of other phenomena out there that 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.960 can't be explained by gravity, right, like electricity and magnets 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.760 and all sorts of other stuff. And Maxwell brought a 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:39.600 bunch of things together and put them sort of under 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.480 one umbrella. He developed sort of the standard model of electromagnetism, 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.640 and that's sort of like the founding kernel of today's 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.160 standard model. He explained how forces operate in terms of 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.440 fields and how a bunch of different forces really were 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.040 part of one bigger picture, right. And he was looking 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.560 at specifically at electrical things like you said, and magnetic things, 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.000 but not gravity. But it's still kind of using Newton's 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.360 equations to think about like, hey, if I put this 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.000 magnet in this field, how is it going to move 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.160 and why does it move? Like that? It's Newtonian in 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.800 the sense of F equals m A. He was calculating 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.400 the electric force, for example, on an electron, and you 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.840 can use F equals m A to deduce how the 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.120 electron accelerates. So it's part of mechanics in that sense, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:24.640 but really he was digging deeper, was wondering just like, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.840 what is the source of these forces? Why are there 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.640 forces in the universe? And can we explain all of 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.160 them in terms of a single idea rather than having 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.280 like a long list of different ones. And is that 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.080 where the name the standard model came in. The Standard 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.040 Model as a name didn't really appear until much much later, 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.160 like a hundred years later. So we have electromagnetism from Maxwell, 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.880 and then that was turned into a quantum theory when 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.480 we developed quantum mechanics, and it's sort of fine men 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.160 and a bunch of other folks that turned electromagnetism into 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.320 a quantum field theory, which is the more modern version 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.480 of it. That was about the nineteen fifties ish, and 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.720 he and some other folks won the Nobel Prize for that. 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.720 So then we had a quantum version of electromagnetism. But 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:07.840 we also have these other forces we had, like the 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.920 weak force, and Steve Weinberg, who won a Nobel prize, 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.920 figured out how to bring the weak force together with electromagnetism. 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:16.880 And that's the first time people really called this sort 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.080 of the standard model. And he wrote a paper called 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.440 a Theory of Leptons, which is what brought the weak 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.640 force together with electromagnetism. And around then is when people 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:28.560 started calling it the standard model. I see, I guess 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.480 what do you mean by the standard model. It's like, hey, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.480 we have all these different ways that particles and things 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.400 can be pushed in, all these different forces that they 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.840 seem to experience. Can we put all of these forces 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.680 into like one umbrella or one you know, equation or theory, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.320 and we can? And that's kind of standard because it 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.639 covers everything. Yeah, although of course the standard model doesn't 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.399 cover everything yet. Right, even the standard model we have 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.720 today does not describe everything, as we'll dig into in 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.199 a minute. So we should think of it as like 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.359 sort of our current best work in progress description of 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.520 all the particles that we can't explain so far. But 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:06.439 it's sort of like, you know, we're all building a 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.520 barn together. Let's all work on the same project at 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.000 least and try to put the whole thing together into 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.879 one edifice. But it's sort of like how far we've gotten. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.680 It's like working draft underscore seven. Now, when you say 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.080 that you're putting all these different forces under one theory, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:23.880 what does that mean. Does that mean that all these 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.000 forces are somehow related to each other, they somehow interact 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.640 with each other, or are they separate. It's just it's 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:34.120 just about, you know, putting them under the same grouping. Yeah, 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.520 that's a really great question. I think there's two ideas there. 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.359 One is putting the forces in the same mathematical language, 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.199 like can we describe these things in terms of the 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.439 same basic concepts? And the basic concept we have for 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.159 the standard model are these fields that fill space and 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.639 carry information and momentum around. And that's the basis for 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.800 why electromagnetism can push on things, and why the weak 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.560 force can push and pull on things, and also why 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.399 the wrong nuclear force can. So we have a mathematical 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.560 sort of formula for how that happens. And the Standard 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:07.920 model is cool because it puts all these things sort 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.600 of in the same mathematical language. For those of you 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:12.479 who know some physics and math, it means we can 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.840 describe everything as a quantum field theory just by specifying 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.240 its lagrangin, just by saying, here's where the fields are 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.960 here's how they wiggle, and also here's how they talk 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.600 to each other. That's sort of like the language we've 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.800 developed for the standard model. But there's another level to it, 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.080 which is deeper, which is that sometimes we can see 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.080 symmetries there. We can say, oh, look this piece of 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.560 the math over here and that piece of the math 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.080 over there. If you bring them together, they actually clicked 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.320 together into something simpler. So that's what we've done, for example, 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.480 with electromagnetism and the weak force, we've combined them into 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:47.080 one mathematical structure we called the electroweak force. So sort 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.159 of two levels to that. One is just writing it 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.960 in the same language, and the other is noticing patterns 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.879 and simplifying things by bringing them together. M Because I 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.520 guess it could have been that that wasn't the case, right, 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.480 It could have been that, you know, you study electromagnetism, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.480 it's like, oh, it works in this way, and there's 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:05.560 this math to describe it. Then when you look at 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.399 how particles pull on each other through a different force, 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.359 like the strong force or the weak force, you know, 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:12.600 you study that and then it turns out that you 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.520 need a totally different kind of mas for that and 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:16.879 the tooth mass are not compatible. That could have been 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:18.879 the case. That could have been the case exactly, and 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.879 in fact, that is the case for gravity. We have 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.640 no way currently to bring gravity into this mathematical framework. 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:27.439 That's one of the problems we'll talk about later. And 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.679 so it hasn't succeeded in every single case, but it 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.960 has succeeded for these fundamental forces, the strong force, the 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.159 weak force, and electromagnetism. All right, so then that's the 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.880 standard model. It's something that describes all the known forces 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:43.840 except gravity, and all of the particles except a whole 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:49.119 bunch of parts. You make it sound like such an 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:51.960 amazing achievement, but really this is the accumulation of a 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.280