1
00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:11,280
Speaker 1: Hey, ho, hey, you ready for this? I don't know.

2
00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,240
Speaker 1: I had kind of a big lunch. Let me guess

3
00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:16,520
Speaker 1: what you had for lunch. Oh, well, that's not hard.

4
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:20,759
Speaker 1: I always have cereal. But which kind of cereal though? Mm?

5
00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:26,040
Speaker 1: Something made out of protons, neutrons, and electrons, maybe clothes.

6
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,280
Speaker 1: I had a new cereal called neutrinos. Now I'm just kidding.

7
00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,520
Speaker 1: Let's just regular atom based cereal. How did you know? Well,

8
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:35,279
Speaker 1: you know you gave me a massive hint telling me

9
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:38,560
Speaker 1: it was a heavy lunch, right right, and only things

10
00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:43,720
Speaker 1: with protons, neutrons, and electrons have mass. That's right. Maybe

11
00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,720
Speaker 1: you should try something lighter, like a photon based meal. Hmm.

12
00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,519
Speaker 1: It sounds like a brilliant and delicious idea good for

13
00:00:51,600 --> 00:01:08,679
Speaker 1: my diet. Hi am or hand made cartoonists and the

14
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,800
Speaker 1: co author of Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe. Hi,

15
00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,640
Speaker 1: I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor at

16
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:17,640
Speaker 1: u C Irvine, and I'm pretty glad that I can't

17
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:20,520
Speaker 1: eat photons. Well, how do you know? Have you tried?

18
00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,479
Speaker 1: Could you taste it? Then? Have you shown a flashlight

19
00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:25,120
Speaker 1: down your throat? I think they do that at the

20
00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:28,240
Speaker 1: doctors all the time, so I think you have eaten photons. Yeah, well,

21
00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:30,160
Speaker 1: but if I lay down in the sun for a nap,

22
00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,960
Speaker 1: for example, I still sometimes wake up hungry. Maybe you

23
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,600
Speaker 1: shouldn't put on sun block the no photon diet, But

24
00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:39,400
Speaker 1: I mean, do you nap with your mouth open? Though?

25
00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:42,679
Speaker 1: Have you tried that? I have not tried napping with

26
00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:44,959
Speaker 1: my mouth open. But I was imagining that maybe humans

27
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,920
Speaker 1: would evolve to photosynthesize, so we could just like absorb

28
00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,840
Speaker 1: photons as well walk around or lay in the sun.

29
00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,680
Speaker 1: Oh wow, it's pretty cool. Yeah, we could all be

30
00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:57,720
Speaker 1: green with envy and photosist. It would be pretty hard

31
00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:59,040
Speaker 1: to go on a diet, though, I guess you'd have

32
00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,200
Speaker 1: to like walk around with an umbrella. You could sell

33
00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:04,960
Speaker 1: a diet sunblock, I guess, or paracel would be like

34
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,200
Speaker 1: a new fashion accessory for the super thin. Stay thin

35
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:10,640
Speaker 1: and pale. But welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge

36
00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,480
Speaker 1: explain the Universe, a production of I Heart Radio, in

37
00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,440
Speaker 1: which we don't eat the photons, but we do gobble

38
00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,200
Speaker 1: of all of the information provided to us by the

39
00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:23,120
Speaker 1: particles in the universe. We are made of particles. Everything

40
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,800
Speaker 1: around us is made of particles. And in their incredible dance,

41
00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,880
Speaker 1: they convey to us everything that is happening out there.

42
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,760
Speaker 1: They tell us about the fundamental nature of the universe

43
00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,880
Speaker 1: at the smallest scales, and they come together to describe

44
00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:39,360
Speaker 1: the sweeping motions of enormous galaxies and the dance of

45
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:43,200
Speaker 1: galactic clusters as they get pulled apart by dark energy.

46
00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:45,760
Speaker 1: Everything around us is made of particles, and all of

47
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,840
Speaker 1: our understanding of it is stored in particles in our brain. Yeah,

48
00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,440
Speaker 1: because it is a tasty and brilliant universe full of

49
00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,280
Speaker 1: amazing thanks to discover full of information beaming down to

50
00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,799
Speaker 1: us from the light of stars and planets and nebulas.

51
00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,080
Speaker 1: They're in the cosmos, ready for us to digest and

52
00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:07,520
Speaker 1: absorb all of those amazing knowledge nutrients from the universe.

53
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:09,520
Speaker 1: And the most amazing thing about the particles that make

54
00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:12,880
Speaker 1: up your brain is that they are curious about all

55
00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:17,320
Speaker 1: the other particles. These particles want to understand those particles,

56
00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,480
Speaker 1: and that bubbles up in the form of questions, Questions

57
00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,360
Speaker 1: that we ask about the nature of the universe around us.

58
00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:27,119
Speaker 1: Questions we ask ourselves, Questions we ask our friends, Questions

59
00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,640
Speaker 1: we whisper to ourselves quietly at night when we stare

60
00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:33,760
Speaker 1: up at the stars and questions we send to podcast hosts. Yeah,

61
00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:36,280
Speaker 1: the world is full of questions. Everyone has questions. It's

62
00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:38,840
Speaker 1: kind of an inherent part of being human, and in

63
00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:41,160
Speaker 1: this podcast we like to answer some of those questions.

64
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,040
Speaker 1: Most of the time, at least we like to ask them.

65
00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:46,240
Speaker 1: We don't always answer them. I guess we answer them

66
00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 1: as best as we can. Some of these things are tough.

67
00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,080
Speaker 1: Explaining concepts in an understandable way, which are often just

68
00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,200
Speaker 1: described mathematically can be a real challenge, but we do

69
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:57,840
Speaker 1: our best to boil it down to the essential ideas.

70
00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:00,600
Speaker 1: I guess saying I don't know is also answer, So

71
00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:04,160
Speaker 1: technically we we do answer every question. Yeah we have

72
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,920
Speaker 1: no idea is a valid answer to not just a

73
00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,160
Speaker 1: good book. Absolutely. And sometimes when I'm posed with an

74
00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:13,080
Speaker 1: especially difficult conceptual question like can you make me understand

75
00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,320
Speaker 1: why X, y Z happens? I'll walk the hallways here

76
00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:18,279
Speaker 1: you see I, and I'll ask the theorists, why do

77
00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:20,080
Speaker 1: you think this happens? Why do you think that happens?

78
00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,360
Speaker 1: You have an intuitive understanding of this, And often I'll

79
00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:27,320
Speaker 1: get very different ideas and sometimes conflicting accounts for why

80
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:30,520
Speaker 1: things happen, which just tells you that even the experts

81
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:34,400
Speaker 1: don't always deeply understand the why right right because the

82
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:38,080
Speaker 1: X and the Z are easier or what? Because sometimes

83
00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:40,160
Speaker 1: the A, B, C s are easier than the X, Y, Z,

84
00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:43,800
Speaker 1: so they do come first, I guess. But it's not

85
00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:46,200
Speaker 1: just the scientists and the physicists of the world that

86
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,240
Speaker 1: ask questions. Everybody asked questions. Everyone looks up at the stars,

87
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:51,400
Speaker 1: at the sky that things around and and they wonder

88
00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:53,680
Speaker 1: what's going on? How does it all work? They do,

89
00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,719
Speaker 1: and especially our listeners are curious folks. We hope that

90
00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,679
Speaker 1: you are listening to the podcast because you wonder about

91
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,520
Speaker 1: the nature of the universe, and because you want to

92
00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,200
Speaker 1: understand it. You want to do more than just here

93
00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:09,000
Speaker 1: an explanation. You want those pieces to fit together in

94
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:11,159
Speaker 1: your mind in a way that you can manipulate it.

95
00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:14,080
Speaker 1: You can rotate it and probe it from different angles

96
00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,640
Speaker 1: and make sure that it sort of hangs together. And

97
00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:18,599
Speaker 1: when it doesn't, we encourage you to write to us

98
00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:20,760
Speaker 1: so we could help you fill in those gaps. So

99
00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:29,840
Speaker 1: today on the podcast, we'll be tackling listener questions number

100
00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:32,279
Speaker 1: thirty two. Oh my goodness, we don't thirty two of

101
00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,920
Speaker 1: these listener question episodes, so we have We get lots

102
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,200
Speaker 1: and lots of listener questions. Many of them come to

103
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,880
Speaker 1: our email address two Questions at Daniel and Jorge dot

104
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,320
Speaker 1: com and we answer all of them. So if you

105
00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:46,560
Speaker 1: have a question, please don't be shy. But sometimes we

106
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,440
Speaker 1: got a question which I think will be really fun

107
00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:51,159
Speaker 1: to talk about or is quite tricky and requires me

108
00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:53,400
Speaker 1: to do a little bit of background research, and for

109
00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:55,280
Speaker 1: those we ask people to send in some audio so

110
00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 1: we can talk about it on the podcast Interesting. And

111
00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:01,279
Speaker 1: So if this is our thirty second listener Questions episode

112
00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:03,760
Speaker 1: and we do about three questions and episode, that means

113
00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,760
Speaker 1: we're close to like a hundred questions. I mean, one

114
00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,599
Speaker 1: of you, anyone sending the question in now could be

115
00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:13,000
Speaker 1: the one hundred listener question we answer on the podcast. Wow,

116
00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,359
Speaker 1: are we going to give away a prize? Yes, a

117
00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:19,280
Speaker 1: possible answer. I think we should at least shower them

118
00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,360
Speaker 1: in digital confetti or something, send them a gift or

119
00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:27,279
Speaker 1: an emoji COMPETI instead of a gift, you just got

120
00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:31,080
Speaker 1: a gift. There you go leave out the tea. They

121
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,720
Speaker 1: get a gift or a Jif we do love answering

122
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,479
Speaker 1: questions from listeners, and today we have some pretty interesting

123
00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:41,080
Speaker 1: questions in that they're all about particles and kind of

124
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:43,600
Speaker 1: about masks. It seems we are you feeling in a

125
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,640
Speaker 1: kind of particle mood or do you think these questions

126
00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:47,200
Speaker 1: just all came in at the same time. Now, these

127
00:06:47,279 --> 00:06:50,000
Speaker 1: questions are not sorted by when they arrive. I try

128
00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,320
Speaker 1: to group them together, so the concepts are a little

129
00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,839
Speaker 1: bit related. So we do a batch about black holes,

130
00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,120
Speaker 1: and a batch about particles, and a batch about how

131
00:06:57,160 --> 00:06:59,599
Speaker 1: physics might kill you, so we can dive a little

132
00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,440
Speaker 1: bit were into the topic. Al right, Well, today we

133
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,599
Speaker 1: have three particularly particle ly questions, some of them about

134
00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:10,720
Speaker 1: virtual particles, about particles that may or may not exist,

135
00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,760
Speaker 1: and also about what kind of particle light is. And

136
00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,720
Speaker 1: so our first question comes from Carter, who wants to

137
00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,520
Speaker 1: know about all the other particles in existence. Hi, this

138
00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:23,800
Speaker 1: is Carter, and my question for you is why do

139
00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:28,080
Speaker 1: particles other than the electron, the electron, neutrino, and the

140
00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,240
Speaker 1: up and down corks exist if we only need those

141
00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:35,280
Speaker 1: four particles to build up the world around us. Awesome question,

142
00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:37,960
Speaker 1: Thank you, Carter. It's amazing to me that you have

143
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,960
Speaker 1: a question like that. Absolutely. Carter is twelve years old

144
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,560
Speaker 1: and he's already at the forefront of particle physics asking

145
00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,680
Speaker 1: questions we don't know the answers to. Yeah. I think

146
00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:48,960
Speaker 1: when I was twelve, I was mostly just wondering what

147
00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:52,280
Speaker 1: I was going to have for lunch that day. I

148
00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:54,480
Speaker 1: think when I was twelve, I was watching the movie

149
00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:57,120
Speaker 1: Stand by Me over and over every single day for

150
00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:59,440
Speaker 1: a summer. I mean, the one where they find a

151
00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:03,120
Speaker 1: dead body. I don't know why I watched that every

152
00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:04,600
Speaker 1: single day for a summer, but I remember there was

153
00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:06,440
Speaker 1: a summer where I watched that in the morning and

154
00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:09,080
Speaker 1: then I wrote computer programs in the afternoon. Unlike that

155
00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,160
Speaker 1: was my summer. Wow, it sounds like you've got a

156
00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:15,480
Speaker 1: lot of sunlight, or or at least light from your

157
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,160
Speaker 1: monitor exactly. The Carter apparently is thinking about the nature

158
00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:21,240
Speaker 1: of the universe and how it comes together and why

159
00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,000
Speaker 1: there are weird particles out there. Yeah, because, as he said,

160
00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:26,800
Speaker 1: we only sort of need a certain number of particles

161
00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:29,600
Speaker 1: to make the things around us. Like everything we can

162
00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:31,880
Speaker 1: see and touch and stand on and look up at

163
00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:34,080
Speaker 1: this guy at it's pretty much made out of only

164
00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:36,600
Speaker 1: three particles, right, I mean, he mentioned the fourth, but

165
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,120
Speaker 1: most of the things that are made out of three particles. Yeah,

166
00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:41,520
Speaker 1: he's right that the things that we are made out

167
00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:45,439
Speaker 1: of technically are just three particles. But as we'll talk about,

168
00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:48,440
Speaker 1: the other particles do play a role in determining the

169
00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:51,640
Speaker 1: nature of our universe. It would be quite different if

170
00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,760
Speaker 1: those particles didn't exist. All right, Well, maybe let's rebuild

171
00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:58,400
Speaker 1: things a little bit. So why is it that everything

172
00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:00,000
Speaker 1: that we're made out of is only made out of

173
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,559
Speaker 1: three particles? So everything that we are made out of

174
00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:05,080
Speaker 1: is made of atoms. Right, if you zoom in really,

175
00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:08,200
Speaker 1: really far, you see that your hand and the table

176
00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:11,200
Speaker 1: next to you, and the lama that maybe you wrote

177
00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,560
Speaker 1: to work on this morning are all made out of molecules,

178
00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,319
Speaker 1: which are built out of atoms from the periodic table,

179
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,320
Speaker 1: everything around us, right, All the kinds of matter that

180
00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,400
Speaker 1: you're familiar with are made out of atoms. This excludes,

181
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,880
Speaker 1: of course, dark matter, which is some other weird kind

182
00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:28,120
Speaker 1: of stuff that's part of the universe but we don't

183
00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:30,719
Speaker 1: understand at all. So all this sort of familiar kind

184
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:32,440
Speaker 1: of matter, the kind of stuff you can see and

185
00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:35,000
Speaker 1: taste and eat, is made out of atoms. And those

186
00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,760
Speaker 1: atoms are made out of electrons, and then in the

187
00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:42,440
Speaker 1: nucleus there are protons and neutrons. Inside the protons and

188
00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:45,720
Speaker 1: neutrons are quarks. Protons and neutrons are made out of

189
00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:49,200
Speaker 1: two different kinds of quarks. Two ups and a down

190
00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:52,720
Speaker 1: make a proton, two downs and and up make a neutron.

191
00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,360
Speaker 1: So out of up corks, down corks, and electrons you

192
00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:58,079
Speaker 1: can build basically any atom, and from that you can

193
00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:01,040
Speaker 1: build any chemical, and from that you and build anything.

194
00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:03,720
Speaker 1: And the thing that's incredible to me is that it's

195
00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:06,520
Speaker 1: not just that all the stuff around us has made

196
00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:09,400
Speaker 1: out of these three particles. It's also made out of

197
00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:14,640
Speaker 1: these three particles in the same relative abundances, Like a

198
00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:17,880
Speaker 1: kilogram of lava and a kilogram of kitten have the

199
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,400
Speaker 1: same number of each kinds of these particles inside of them.

200
00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,960
Speaker 1: It's just the arrangements that are different between them. Interesting. Yeah,

201
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:28,199
Speaker 1: it's amazing that you can reduce the almost seemingly infinite

202
00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,040
Speaker 1: variety of stuff in the universe into three things. And

203
00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:33,040
Speaker 1: like you said, it's amazing that it's just all about

204
00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:35,480
Speaker 1: the arrangement. Although I think you said it's all kind

205
00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:37,360
Speaker 1: of the same proportion is that really true? Like a

206
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,440
Speaker 1: cloud of hydrogen doesn't have the same number or proportion

207
00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:43,920
Speaker 1: of particles as like lava does it it almost does. Hygrogen,

208
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,520
Speaker 1: of course, mostly has just protons in it, though there

209
00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:48,959
Speaker 1: are forms of hydrogen that also have a neutron, and

210
00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:53,160
Speaker 1: most atoms have an equal balance between protons and neutrons.

211
00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:54,840
Speaker 1: So most of the stuff out there in the universe

212
00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:57,679
Speaker 1: has the same number of protons and neutrons in it,

213
00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,439
Speaker 1: and that means the same number of upcore and down

214
00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:03,600
Speaker 1: corks inside. You're right that most of the universe is hydrogen,

215
00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:06,240
Speaker 1: which means that most of it are protons, which means

216
00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,280
Speaker 1: that there are more up corks out there than down corks.

217
00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:10,880
Speaker 1: The stuff that we're made out of, the stuff that

218
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,280
Speaker 1: we interact with, is mostly not hydrogen. I mean, I

219
00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:15,760
Speaker 1: don't know if you're having hydrogen for lunch, for example,

220
00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,560
Speaker 1: but if you're having things made out of more complicated atoms,

221
00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:21,600
Speaker 1: then mostly it's an equal number of protons and neutrons,

222
00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:24,040
Speaker 1: which means an equal number of up corks and down corks.

223
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:25,480
Speaker 1: I do have a lot of gas right now, but

224
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:29,360
Speaker 1: I don't think it's hydrogen um. But that's that's interesting.

225
00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:31,240
Speaker 1: I haven't thought about it before that there are maybe

226
00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:33,480
Speaker 1: more up quarks in the universe and down courts. Yes,

227
00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:36,840
Speaker 1: there definitely are, because the universe is mostly hydrogen out there,

228
00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:39,880
Speaker 1: like it started out as mostly hydrogen, and it's still

229
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,800
Speaker 1: mostly hydrogen. Even though stars have been working furiously to

230
00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,280
Speaker 1: make heavier elements in their cores, and it's been billions

231
00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:49,840
Speaker 1: and billions of years, they really only made a little

232
00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:52,079
Speaker 1: bit of a dent. So most of the matter out

233
00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,400
Speaker 1: there in the universe, the visible matter of our kind,

234
00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:58,440
Speaker 1: is hydrogen, just as a caveat. Remember that there's five

235
00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:01,599
Speaker 1: times as much dark matter as any kind of atomic

236
00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:04,200
Speaker 1: matter out there in the universe. So anytime we're talking

237
00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:06,800
Speaker 1: about this, we're only talking about the fraction of atomic

238
00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:09,440
Speaker 1: matter in the universe. And that's all made out of

239
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,240
Speaker 1: atoms by definition, right, because we are talking about matter particles, right,

240
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:16,440
Speaker 1: there are other particles besides matter particles, that's right, And

241
00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:18,960
Speaker 1: so the up cork, the down cork, and the electron

242
00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:23,120
Speaker 1: these are particles we call fermions. There spin one half particles.

243
00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:25,439
Speaker 1: But as you say, there are other particles out there

244
00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:27,600
Speaker 1: in the universe, and there's a different kind of particles.

245
00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,720
Speaker 1: Their particles. We call force particles. These are bosons. For example,

246
00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:35,200
Speaker 1: what holds the proton together. It has three corks inside

247
00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,600
Speaker 1: of it. They're tied together by gluons. So gluons are

248
00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:41,800
Speaker 1: inside the proton, and they're just as much part of

249
00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:44,600
Speaker 1: the proton as the corks are. They're just sort of

250
00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:48,560
Speaker 1: like less long lived. There's a huge swarm of gluons

251
00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:51,480
Speaker 1: inside the proton. In fact, most of the mass of

252
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:54,679
Speaker 1: the proton is not the corks, it's the gluons. So

253
00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:57,400
Speaker 1: it's like you have these three very light corks held

254
00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:01,280
Speaker 1: together by an incredibly massive ocean and the gluons. But

255
00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,959
Speaker 1: each individual gluon doesn't last very long, right, right. It's

256
00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:06,680
Speaker 1: kind of like my when my kids make a craft,

257
00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:09,640
Speaker 1: it's like it's mostly hot glue, a mess of hot

258
00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:15,480
Speaker 1: with some you know, popsicles things holding it the glue together. Yeah,

259
00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:19,200
Speaker 1: So most of the energy inside the proton, which is

260
00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,560
Speaker 1: what contributes to its mass, is due to the gluons.

261
00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:24,760
Speaker 1: So you know, can you say that the proton is

262
00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:27,600
Speaker 1: made partially of gluons, Yes you can, but you can't

263
00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:30,280
Speaker 1: like point to a gluon and say this is the

264
00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:33,440
Speaker 1: gluon inside the proton because they're constantly just getting passed

265
00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:36,200
Speaker 1: back and forth between the corks. Whereas the corks you

266
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:38,720
Speaker 1: can say, here's an upcork, I see where it is.

267
00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:41,040
Speaker 1: It's this same upcork. It's been part of the proton

268
00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:43,760
Speaker 1: for a long time. It's a stable state, right right.

269
00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:46,360
Speaker 1: So we're all made out of up and down quirks

270
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:48,840
Speaker 1: and electrons, and you're saying that we also sort of

271
00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,959
Speaker 1: need the particles that glue things together and then keep

272
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:54,120
Speaker 1: them together. But I wonder if Car's question was more

273
00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:57,440
Speaker 1: about the other matter particles that have mass but that

274
00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,280
Speaker 1: don't form the things that we're made out of. You know,

275
00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,160
Speaker 1: it thinks like the top cork and the extra corks

276
00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,840
Speaker 1: and the other metrinos and the extra electrons. Right, yes, So,

277
00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:10,120
Speaker 1: just to complete the story of the force particles, there's

278
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,520
Speaker 1: not just the gluons. Of course, there are photons inside

279
00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:15,439
Speaker 1: of us. There are Higgs bosons that give mass to

280
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,360
Speaker 1: the particles. There are weak bosons like the W and

281
00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:20,360
Speaker 1: D c. All these things are playing part of this

282
00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:23,960
Speaker 1: dance of how those matter particles are fitting together. But

283
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,280
Speaker 1: you're right, there are other matter particles, and I think

284
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:28,040
Speaker 1: these are probably the ones that he was referring to.

285
00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,320
Speaker 1: Because it's not just the electron. The electron has a

286
00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:33,840
Speaker 1: heavy cousin called the muan, and it has an even

287
00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:37,120
Speaker 1: heavier cousin called the tao. And that's true of all

288
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,120
Speaker 1: of these fermions. The up coork has two heavy cousins,

289
00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:42,680
Speaker 1: the charm and the top. The down cork has too

290
00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,560
Speaker 1: heavy cousins, the strange and the bottom. And you know

291
00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:48,160
Speaker 1: a fundamental question, which is, I think basically what Carter

292
00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,320
Speaker 1: was asking is why do these exist? Why are they there?

293
00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,520
Speaker 1: Why isn't there just a single generation? Or why if

294
00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,080
Speaker 1: we have other particles, are they not totally different? Why

295
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:02,600
Speaker 1: are they so similar? Basically tweaked copies of this first generation.

296
00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,000
Speaker 1: The short answer to that is the title of our

297
00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,400
Speaker 1: great book, which is, we have no idea sort of

298
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,040
Speaker 1: why it is that way. We can't say the universe

299
00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,040
Speaker 1: has to be this way. What we can say is

300
00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:15,280
Speaker 1: that if the universe wasn't this way, it would look

301
00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,080
Speaker 1: very different. That is, we would notice if you like

302
00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:21,200
Speaker 1: deleted them from nature. Right. Well, it's kind of interesting

303
00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:24,080
Speaker 1: that you would ask, or that anyone would ask that question, right,

304
00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,240
Speaker 1: I mean, we know these sort of heavy cousin versions

305
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:30,600
Speaker 1: of the electron and the courts exist because they can

306
00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:33,240
Speaker 1: be made in a particle collider, for example. Right, that's

307
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:35,680
Speaker 1: how we know they exist. Tanky exist even though you

308
00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:38,400
Speaker 1: don't see them around very much. Yeah, So by exist

309
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,160
Speaker 1: we mean they're part of the laws of the universe,

310
00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,920
Speaker 1: not necessarily that there are any in existence at any moment, right,

311
00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,360
Speaker 1: And so they can exist. And so the question I

312
00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:49,440
Speaker 1: guess is like, why is it that they can exist

313
00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:51,960
Speaker 1: if we don't see them around us very much? Right?

314
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,400
Speaker 1: Because everything we know that I think that things are

315
00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:58,360
Speaker 1: made out of around us are just the basic electron

316
00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,680
Speaker 1: and up and down courts. Why can these other heavier

317
00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:04,600
Speaker 1: particles exist? Yeah, And there's lots of really fascinating angles

318
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:08,240
Speaker 1: they're One is like, if there are these heavier particles,

319
00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: why do we only see the lighter ones? Why are

320
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,600
Speaker 1: the lighter ones the only ones that seem to be around.

321
00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:15,120
Speaker 1: And the answer to that is that nature doesn't like

322
00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,360
Speaker 1: heavy stuff. It tends to spread out the energy, so

323
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,120
Speaker 1: the heavy ones are short lived. They tend to decay

324
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,280
Speaker 1: into the lighter ones. So if you made a bunch

325
00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:26,720
Speaker 1: of all the different kind of particles, including the heavy

326
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 1: ones and the light ones, the heavy ones would very

327
00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:31,840
Speaker 1: quickly just turn into the lighter ones. Like the top

328
00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:33,760
Speaker 1: cork doesn't last for very long and last for like

329
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,200
Speaker 1: ten of the mine is twenty three seconds before it

330
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,480
Speaker 1: turns into a bottom cork, and then the bottom cork

331
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:41,560
Speaker 1: decays into a strange cork, which decays then into a

332
00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,760
Speaker 1: down cork for example. And so these things just don't

333
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,400
Speaker 1: last very long. That's why they're not around. But the

334
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,920
Speaker 1: deeper question, which I think you're asking, is like why

335
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,960
Speaker 1: can they exist at all? Why are they on the menu?

336
00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:56,840
Speaker 1: And why three generations? And why not too? And why

337
00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:59,400
Speaker 1: not four? Right? I think that's the deeper question you're asking. Yeah, well,

338
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:02,160
Speaker 1: I think they're both deep questions, right, like why can

339
00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,240
Speaker 1: they exist? Yes, first of all, and also why is

340
00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:07,440
Speaker 1: it that right now we only see one time? I mean,

341
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,840
Speaker 1: those are two big questions, right. Well, the answer to

342
00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,680
Speaker 1: why can they exist is really just a flat out

343
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:16,600
Speaker 1: we don't know. We don't know if the universe has

344
00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:19,199
Speaker 1: to be this way. To answer the question why can

345
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:20,840
Speaker 1: they exist? You have to think like what kind of

346
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:24,400
Speaker 1: answer would be satisfactory? And one kind of answer would

347
00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:26,600
Speaker 1: be to say this is the only way the universe

348
00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:30,680
Speaker 1: could exist, like mathematically would be inconsistent or just wouldn't

349
00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,200
Speaker 1: make sense or doesn't hang together. There's no other way

350
00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,679
Speaker 1: for it to be than to have three generations. We

351
00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,400
Speaker 1: don't think that's true right now, Like we could imagine

352
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:42,240
Speaker 1: a universe without those things. It would still have laws

353
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,399
Speaker 1: of physics which functioned well and would make sense. It

354
00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:47,440
Speaker 1: would just be quite different, like it would look very

355
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,960
Speaker 1: different from our universe. But that doesn't mean that it

356
00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:52,359
Speaker 1: couldn't exist. And maybe out there, somewhere in the multiverse

357
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,600
Speaker 1: it does. There are universes with one generation or seven

358
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:59,080
Speaker 1: generations or seven thousand generations. The short answer is this

359
00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:01,600
Speaker 1: is just a number three, and we don't know why

360
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:04,360
Speaker 1: three and why not one. It's not something in the

361
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:07,840
Speaker 1: equations of math of the universe said that that maybe

362
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,399
Speaker 1: tell you why they have to exist, like just to

363
00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:12,960
Speaker 1: make things click or something. Not Right now, right now,

364
00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:16,240
Speaker 1: it's just descriptive, you know. We don't understand it, sort

365
00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:18,720
Speaker 1: of the way like we used to not understand why

366
00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:21,480
Speaker 1: there were so many atoms, like why isn't there just hydrogen?

367
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:23,920
Speaker 1: Why are these other weird atoms also out there? These

368
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:27,159
Speaker 1: other elements? Now we do understand it. We understand that

369
00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:30,560
Speaker 1: those things emerge from how smaller pieces come together and

370
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,320
Speaker 1: create these other opportunities. So it's possible that these other

371
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,840
Speaker 1: generations are like that, that they're all made out of

372
00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:40,200
Speaker 1: some smaller bits. Electrons and quarks are not the smallest

373
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,520
Speaker 1: things in the universe. There are even smaller things squiggles

374
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,320
Speaker 1: or squaggles or whatever. And the way that squiggles and

375
00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:48,920
Speaker 1: squaggles come together make all these various options. We don't

376
00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:50,600
Speaker 1: know that that's true right now. We're just in the

377
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,639
Speaker 1: descriptive phase. We see these particles, we catalog them, we

378
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,720
Speaker 1: describe their interactions. We don't know whether they emerge from

379
00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,920
Speaker 1: something deeper, which determines this structure we see, right And

380
00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:02,040
Speaker 1: the other question is why do we only see the

381
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,919
Speaker 1: lighter particles now, Because I think we've talked about this before,

382
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,720
Speaker 1: that like maybe in the early universe there were the

383
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:10,199
Speaker 1: conditions for the heavier particles to exist. They were like

384
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,920
Speaker 1: back then it was common to have those larger, heavier particles,

385
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:16,240
Speaker 1: but just right now you don't see them. Yeah. The

386
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,200
Speaker 1: short answer is that the universe is cold and old.

387
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:22,400
Speaker 1: So back when the universe was young and hot, then

388
00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,480
Speaker 1: there was enough energy density to create these particles. All

389
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,080
Speaker 1: the time, they still decayed that these particles are very

390
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:31,280
Speaker 1: short lived. The heavy ones they turned into the lighter particles.

391
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 1: That's just the natural way of the universe. Energy density

392
00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:37,439
Speaker 1: spreads out right, second law of thermodynamics. But back then

393
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,520
Speaker 1: there was enough energy to constantly just be creating the

394
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:41,480
Speaker 1: amount of the vacuum. So the universe was a hot

395
00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:43,760
Speaker 1: soup of all of these particles, and there was so

396
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 1: much energy that didn't really matter which ones had mass

397
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,679
Speaker 1: and which ones didn't, because there was much more energy

398
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,479
Speaker 1: around than any of the mass of these particles. So

399
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,800
Speaker 1: they were all very very fast moving particles. But as

400
00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,680
Speaker 1: the universe cooled down, it basically wasn't capable of making

401
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,520
Speaker 1: these particles on its own anymore, and all the heavy

402
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:02,560
Speaker 1: ones decayed into the lighter ones, and then it's just

403
00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:05,760
Speaker 1: capable of keeping the lighter ones around making those And

404
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,760
Speaker 1: now the universe is very cold and very old, and

405
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,000
Speaker 1: so the only way you can make these heavy particles

406
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,960
Speaker 1: now is to artificially recreate those conditions by, for example,

407
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,680
Speaker 1: slamming two protons together to create a dot of very

408
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,000
Speaker 1: high energy density. And that's exactly how we discover that

409
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 1: these particles still can exist in our universe, even though

410
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,840
Speaker 1: they don't very often naturally, right, And so that's kind

411
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,520
Speaker 1: of the answer for why we don't see them around anymore, right,

412
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,720
Speaker 1: is that they die right, and they've all died out basically, right,

413
00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:37,160
Speaker 1: Like maybe the early universe had a bunch of them,

414
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,720
Speaker 1: but they're like, you know, I'm done, I'm out. Yeah, Well,

415
00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,239
Speaker 1: it's just not hot enough to make those anymore. And

416
00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 1: you know, there are conditions naturally that will create them,

417
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,360
Speaker 1: like when protons hit the upper atmosphere at very very

418
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:52,280
Speaker 1: high energy cosmic rays from space, they also create these particles,

419
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,919
Speaker 1: So it's not just a large hadron collider capable of

420
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:57,760
Speaker 1: making these conditions. It does occur naturally. But when they do,

421
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,119
Speaker 1: they decay away very very quickly, so you don't find

422
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,440
Speaker 1: like a pile of top corks lying around. You can

423
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,400
Speaker 1: dig into the Earth to find them. And it's fascinating

424
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:07,040
Speaker 1: that some of these things are stable and some of

425
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,200
Speaker 1: them are not, right, Like, we don't have the conditions

426
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 1: to make iron, for example, here on Earth, but iron

427
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:14,800
Speaker 1: is stable. Once you've made it in the heart of

428
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 1: a star, you can take it out of that and

429
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:18,919
Speaker 1: bury it in a planet and you'll sit there for

430
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,720
Speaker 1: billions of years. Top corks are not like that they're

431
00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,400
Speaker 1: not stable, so you make them in the early universe.

432
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:26,840
Speaker 1: You can't then just find hunks of top corks lying

433
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: around all right. Well, then I guess maybe to extend

434
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:33,200
Speaker 1: Carter's question, then, like if the universe couldn't make these

435
00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:37,000
Speaker 1: heavier particles besides the electron up and down corks, if

436
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 1: it was maybe impossible, or if they didn't exist with

437
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,960
Speaker 1: the universe, Notice, would it be any different than it

438
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:45,439
Speaker 1: is right now? Yeah? You might wonder like would the

439
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:48,840
Speaker 1: only difference be for particle physicists creating these collisions at

440
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 1: the large adron collide or would anybody else? Notice would

441
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 1: the universe be any different? Well, apparently we don't sort

442
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:55,719
Speaker 1: of need them to have the world around is right now, right,

443
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,320
Speaker 1: because they don't exist right now right, You don't see

444
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 1: a lot of them around, So why we need them?

445
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 1: I guess it's probably Cardis's question. Yeah, so we actually

446
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,960
Speaker 1: do need them. They do play a role, Like there's

447
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,360
Speaker 1: not enough energy to make them actually exist, but virtual

448
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,399
Speaker 1: versions of themselves can exist. They can like participate in

449
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: interactions even if they can't ever exist on their own,

450
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:20,400
Speaker 1: And that's important because they do end up playing a role.

451
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: For example, the Higgs boson itself has a bunch of mass,

452
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:27,520
Speaker 1: and that mass comes from interacting with not just the

453
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,159
Speaker 1: particles that do exist, but all the particles that can

454
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,680
Speaker 1: possibly exist. So if those other particles, the top cork

455
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 1: and the bottom cork, weren't on the menu, the Higgs

456
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: boson would have a very different mass and it would

457
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:42,879
Speaker 1: behave differently, right, So that would change how everything operated,

458
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,760
Speaker 1: well not just the Higgs, but basically every other particle

459
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,120
Speaker 1: would weigh the same or have a different mass. Yeah,

460
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 1: it would change how the Higgs field is balanced, and

461
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:52,680
Speaker 1: so that would change the mass of all of the particles.

462
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 1: And so it's a very sort of delicate Rube Goldberg machine,

463
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:57,439
Speaker 1: you know, it all sort of hangs together in this

464
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:01,360
Speaker 1: very complex way. It also it affect how the universe

465
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,399
Speaker 1: had evolved from the very early stages. You know, we

466
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: think that in the very beginning of the universe, matter

467
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 1: and antimatter were made in the same proportions. Now, of course,

468
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 1: it's almost all matter. We don't understand very well why

469
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,320
Speaker 1: that is, but the hints we have suggest that it

470
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 1: has to do with these other weird particles like strange

471
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 1: quirks and bottom quirks that they don't have symmetries that

472
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,480
Speaker 1: there's a difference between particles made of strange quirks and

473
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 1: anti strange quirks, for example, that the universe prefers for

474
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:32,159
Speaker 1: those to decay into matter rather than antimatter. It's not

475
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 1: something we've totally solved, but we think these other generations

476
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:37,800
Speaker 1: play a big role in that. So they weren't around,

477
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:40,440
Speaker 1: then there might just be a perfect balance between matter

478
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: and antimatter, which would have all just annihilated into photons

479
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 1: and the universe would just be light. There would be

480
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:48,399
Speaker 1: no matter left over. It sounds like either way we

481
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 1: just all weigh a little less. We'd all be brighter too. Well,

482
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 1: all right, well, I think that answers Carter's question. Why

483
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 1: do particles other than the electron nutrina up and down quarks?

484
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:01,480
Speaker 1: Is this we don't know, but definitely the universe would

485
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:03,880
Speaker 1: be a lot different, And if they didn't exist, we

486
00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be around to ask this question. That's right.

487
00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 1: But maybe one day we will peer inside the electron

488
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 1: in the cork and we will understand why they exist

489
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:16,880
Speaker 1: and why their cousins exist. So future generations of podcast

490
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 1: listeners might be asking questions about why those little squiggles

491
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,040
Speaker 1: and squaggles again. It could be Carter. He could become

492
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 1: a particle physicist. Do it, Carter? His parents are going, no,

493
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:30,560
Speaker 1: what have you done? I bet they prefer a particle

494
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 1: physicists to a cartoonist. I mean, some cartoonists are pretty rich.

495
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: I don't know any of them, but I hear some

496
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 1: of them are pretty rich. Yeah, we'll have Mac Crowning

497
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 1: on the podcast. All right, well, awesome questions. Thank you, Carter.

498
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:43,240
Speaker 1: So let's get to some of our other questions about

499
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 1: particles from listeners. But first let's take a quick break.

500
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: All right, we're answering this and her questions, and today's

501
00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 1: theme is particles and mass and little tiny things in

502
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 1: the universe. We're drilling down to the core questions about

503
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: the universe, like how do you pronounce Matt Groening's name anyway?

504
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 1: Groaning graining. I've never interested. And so our next question

505
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 1: comes from Ricky from New Zealand. Hi, guys, my name

506
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: is Rookie from New Zealand. I've been listening to the

507
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 1: podcast for a few months and they're really enjoying it.

508
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: So I think seems that I have a question about light.

509
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 1: I was wondering how it would have affected the growth

510
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 1: of the universe and how it would affect our everyday

511
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 1: life now if light had any form of mass to it.

512
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,680
Speaker 1: I think you great question, Thank you, Ricky. I think

513
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 1: his question is how would the universe be different if

514
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,160
Speaker 1: light had mass? And I guess specifically, like, how would

515
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,480
Speaker 1: it have developed differently and how would it be different

516
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: for us today if it had mass. Yes, this is

517
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: a super fun question, and it led me down a

518
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,679
Speaker 1: little rabbit hole of reading thinking about why is it

519
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 1: any way that the photon has no mass? And do

520
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 1: we actually know that the photon has no mass? What? Okay?

521
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,400
Speaker 1: First of all, most people think the photon or light

522
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:13,240
Speaker 1: has no mass. That's right, And in our current theory

523
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: it has no mass, like the standard model of particle

524
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,320
Speaker 1: physics assigns it to be exactly zero mass. But that's

525
00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: the theoretical description, right. You can also go out in

526
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 1: the universe and you can ask, well, can we measure

527
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: the mass of light? Can we do experiments to tell

528
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: us whether light has any mass? And you know, experiments

529
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:33,439
Speaker 1: are always a little bit fuzzy, and there's always statistical

530
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 1: fluctuations or a limit to your sensitivity and So a

531
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,040
Speaker 1: really fine question to ask is like, well, how do

532
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: we know that light has no mass? Interesting, nobody's trying

533
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 1: to weigh it, I guess, But isn't it impossible for

534
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: light to have mass? Like then it can go as

535
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,359
Speaker 1: fast as the speed of light. Right, then you would

536
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,640
Speaker 1: have to change the name of the speed of light. Yeah,

537
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: that's right. If light had mass, then it wouldn't act

538
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 1: the way we describe it. You know, all the properties

539
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,359
Speaker 1: we talk about for light, that it moves at the

540
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,879
Speaker 1: maximum speed of the universe, that it can't have a

541
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: rest frame. All of these things require it to not

542
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 1: have mass. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have mass, right,

543
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,360
Speaker 1: that's just like our description of the universe as light

544
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 1: with zero mass in it. You can also ask the

545
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 1: question like, does our description of the universe require light

546
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: to have zero mass? Could you have a universe where

547
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,479
Speaker 1: light does have mass? Is it necessary, as we were

548
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: talking about earlier, for light to have no mass or

549
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 1: why does our universe give mass? No light? But I

550
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: thought in our theories that if something had mass and

551
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: if it was going at the speed of light, it

552
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,119
Speaker 1: would need infinite energy. That's right, So if light has mass,

553
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,879
Speaker 1: then it wouldn't be moving at the maximum speed of

554
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 1: the universe, what we're currently calling the speed of light.

555
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: But you can devise theories of the universe where light

556
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:53,200
Speaker 1: does have mass and then doesn't move at that maximum speed. Oh,

557
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,400
Speaker 1: we could have a universe where there was a maximum speed,

558
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,960
Speaker 1: but light wouldn't move at that speed exactly like you

559
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: can just give mass to light and the universe would

560
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: still work. Yeah. In fact, we don't even really know

561
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: why our universe doesn't give any mass to light. You know,

562
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:10,919
Speaker 1: the mass of the other particles, like the W and

563
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 1: the Z. These come from the Higgs boson, But the

564
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,159
Speaker 1: W and the Z are really very very similar to

565
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: the photon, and in the very early universe they all

566
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: had no mass. And then the Higgs field settled into

567
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,679
Speaker 1: its weird value and it gave mass to the W

568
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,159
Speaker 1: and to the Z and zero to the photon. You

569
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,159
Speaker 1: might ask like, why zero. Well, the answer is, we

570
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: don't know. It's sort of unexplained. It could have given

571
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,199
Speaker 1: some mass to the photon, but it didn't, and if

572
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: it had, then our universe would be a little bit different.

573
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: But we don't know why the Higgs boson gives the

574
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 1: photon zero mass. It doesn't have to. It's like a parameter.

575
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 1: We seem to be at or very near zero for

576
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: the photons mass, but it could have been different. Is

577
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: it that the Higgs field just ignores the photon, like

578
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: it just doesn't interact with it, or it doesn't interact.

579
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,239
Speaker 1: It's just the signs of value of zero mass to it.

580
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: It definitely interacts with it. You know, the photon is

581
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:06,640
Speaker 1: part of the electroweak theory where you can bind electromagnetism

582
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: where the photon operates, and the weak force where you

583
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: have the WS and disease. So in the early universe,

584
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 1: the photon, the two WS, and disease, they're like a

585
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:16,959
Speaker 1: gang of four. They're all very related. They're part of

586
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 1: this larger group. And the Higgs comes along and it

587
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 1: picks three of the mountain says, you guys all get

588
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: a mass and photon you get none. And you're saying

589
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: that we don't actually know if light has zero math

590
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: like nobody has ever measured it. Where I guess we've

591
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: never measured that something can go faster than light. Would

592
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 1: that tell us that light has math? Like if we

593
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 1: ever measure something going faster than light, maybe that means

594
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 1: that the maximum of the universe is higher than the

595
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: speed of light, and light maybe has some mass exactly.

596
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 1: We have definitely tried to measure the mass of light,

597
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: and every experiment is consistent with light having no mass.

598
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 1: So you know, this is sort of a theoretical exercise.

599
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: The best description of the universe that we see around

600
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 1: us is one where light has no mass. Don't be

601
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: confused about that. We're not saying the light might have mass,

602
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 1: or we think it does have mass. We're just saying

603
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: there's not necessarily any a priori reason for it to

604
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 1: not have mass. But it's the best description of what

605
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: we see out there. And so we can do a

606
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 1: bunch of experiments to try to measure the mass of light.

607
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: And if light had a lot of mass, it would

608
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: be obvious, right, it would look very different, things would

609
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 1: travel faster than it. Right. The most sensitive experiment, the

610
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,719
Speaker 1: best way to see if light has even a tiny

611
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 1: little bit of mass, is to look at the Sun's

612
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: magnetic field and how the solar wind moves through it.

613
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 1: Because remember, photons are part of the electromagnetic field, and

614
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:34,959
Speaker 1: so if light had even a little bit of mass,

615
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:39,040
Speaker 1: it would change how electromagnetic fields propagate through the universe.

616
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: There would be a little bit weaker if light had

617
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 1: a little bit of mass. So the Sun's magnetic field

618
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: is like the biggest electromagnetic effect in our neighborhood, and

619
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: so it's the most sensitive test. So by looking at

620
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 1: the Sun's magnetic field, we can tell that light if

621
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 1: it has any mass, it's an incredibly small value. I see.

622
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: I think you're saying that according to the state Rea's

623
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 1: light could have mass. But according to our measurements, we

624
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 1: think light has no mass exactly. There's a parameter in

625
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 1: the theory that could give mass to light. We set

626
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 1: that parameter to zero because that's the value that's most

627
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 1: consistent with all of the experiments. All of our descriptions

628
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: of the universe as we see today are consistent with

629
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 1: light having zero mass. All right, well, now let's get

630
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: to Ricky's question. How would the universe be different if

631
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: light had mass? So the universe would look pretty different,

632
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: But it depends on how much mass light had. You know,

633
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: if light had a lot of mass, then everything would

634
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: be very, very different because it would make the electromagnetic

635
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: force quite different. You know, the electromagnetic force is very powerful.

636
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 1: It is much more powerful than the weak force. But

637
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 1: that's because the photon has no mass and the weak

638
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: bosons do have mass. Wait, how does having mass make

639
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 1: the force weaker? Well, you know there's a connection between

640
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: these forces and the particles, right, So the electromagnetic force

641
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 1: comes from the photon. The photon is the thing that

642
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 1: does the job of the electromagnetic force. And so if

643
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: the photon was massive, it couldn't do his job as well.

644
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: It would move more slowly, it would cost more energy

645
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: to make it. This kind of stuff just like the

646
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: way the weak force does. Because the particles that transmit

647
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 1: the weak force, the W and Z particles, they're also heavy, right,

648
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: like when you get two magnets together, or like what

649
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: keeps your atoms together in your body is the electromagnetic force,

650
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: and so it's the photon is sort of like the

651
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: transmitter of that force, right, And so I guess if

652
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,880
Speaker 1: that transmitter had mass, it would just be sluggish, right,

653
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: or it would sort of disappear more easily. Yeah, it

654
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 1: would be like shorter range, you know, it wouldn't have

655
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: as far an impact. Like the weak force right now

656
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:43,440
Speaker 1: is basically like the electromagnetic force, but with heavy photons, right,

657
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: so what would happen if the photon had passed. Electromagnetism

658
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: would be a lot more like the weak force. It

659
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 1: would be much weaker, it would have shorter range. It's

660
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: like instead of email communications between people right now, we

661
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 1: would be back to like stone tablet kind of right,

662
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: like in the way that things communicate had a lot

663
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: of mass to them. Uh, you know, the society wouldn't

664
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: function as as quickly, right, Yeah, it would be very different.

665
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,479
Speaker 1: And also light wouldn't be as long lived. Right If

666
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: lighthead mass, he could decay into other particles. Right now,

667
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,480
Speaker 1: we're very privileged because the photon created billions of years

668
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 1: ago and super far away can travel through the universe

669
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: basically forever until it hits something like maybe it hits

670
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: the James web Space telescope and we get to see

671
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: a really old distant galaxy. That's because that photon is stable.

672
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: It's because the photon is massless. If the photon had mass,

673
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 1: then along the way he could like turn into other stuff.

674
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 1: It could decay into lighter particles depending on how much

675
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 1: mass it had, and so the universe wouldn't be as visible.

676
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: M Like if I sent you a stone tablet email

677
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,400
Speaker 1: it might break along the way, or most likely will

678
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 1: break along the way, right, almost certainly, Yeah, ZS and

679
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: w's created by distant galaxies don't get here. They turn

680
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 1: into other stuff and fizzle out, and so we don't

681
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: see them. We see photons from those galaxies because they're massless,

682
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: because they're stable, so they can fly forever. All right,

683
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:10,400
Speaker 1: I'll cancele my news startup idea stone mail. It's probably

684
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 1: very secure though, right do encrypted is in cuneiform, and

685
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 1: I think it probably doesn't rock alright. So then if

686
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 1: if the light had mass, then the electromagnetic force would

687
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:25,240
Speaker 1: be a lot weaker, shorter range. How would that affect

688
00:34:25,239 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 1: the universe? Well, first of all, you can do really

689
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,760
Speaker 1: fun experiments in that case, because you could like catch

690
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: up to photons. You could be in their reference frame.

691
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 1: You could have photons that are at rest. You could

692
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: like have a pile of photons. You know, we don't

693
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 1: know what a photon looks like right now. A photon

694
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 1: you only see it if it hits your eye. Photon

695
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 1: passing by you, you can't see, right, You can't ever

696
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 1: catch up to a photon. But if photons had mass,

697
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: then they could be at rest and so you could

698
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,360
Speaker 1: like hang out with a photon, So that would be

699
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,600
Speaker 1: pretty different. You know, nes like us who are curious

700
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,799
Speaker 1: about what particles are like quite differ. Well, although can

701
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: we do we know what an electron looks like? What

702
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: does an electron look like? What does an electron look like?

703
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:07,760
Speaker 1: You know, whatever it does to a photon that bounces

704
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,799
Speaker 1: off of it. So, yeah, you have to probe these

705
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: things with something. So what would you probe light with

706
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:15,279
Speaker 1: more light? You could probe it with electrons. You could

707
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 1: use a scanning electron microscope to look at photons at rest. Interesting,

708
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,719
Speaker 1: all right, so we could maybe get a closer look

709
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,240
Speaker 1: at light if it was moving slower because it had mass.

710
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:27,400
Speaker 1: How else would things to be different? What Ricky was

711
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: also asking about how it would affect the evolution of

712
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 1: the universe. You know, we know that very early on

713
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,480
Speaker 1: in the universe there was this plasma of all sorts

714
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: of crazy goop. There were photons, there are particles, there

715
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 1: was dark matter and all it was sort of oscillating

716
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,359
Speaker 1: back and forth and slashing in and out and made

717
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: all of these acoustic ripples. And the rate of those

718
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: ripples and how things were slashing back and forth depend

719
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: on the fraction of dark matter and normal matter and photons,

720
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 1: and so that would all be different if photons had mass,

721
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: because it would affect the gravity of that situation, and

722
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 1: so it would affect how those things are slashing. And

723
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,360
Speaker 1: that slashing is very important because it ends up controlling

724
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: where the dark matter pooled together, which turns out to

725
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,319
Speaker 1: influence how galaxies form. So the whole structure of the

726
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 1: universe could be very different if you tweak those initial

727
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,799
Speaker 1: ingredients even a little bit. Well, how would the start

728
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:19,720
Speaker 1: to be different, Like would we be more dark matter

729
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:24,280
Speaker 1: ish or would mass? Would we have black holes earlier?

730
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 1: You know what would be different about how it looks.

731
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: So part of this slashing has to do with dark

732
00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: matter pulling things in and then photons pushing things back out.

733
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 1: That's why we get these like ripples, these oscillations, and

734
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 1: so photons aren't as powerful if they have mass. If

735
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,480
Speaker 1: they contribute to pulling things in rather than pushing things out,

736
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: then things would oscillate differently. And those oscillations are were

737
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,200
Speaker 1: caused sort of the pattern of galaxies that we see today,

738
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,919
Speaker 1: And so we'd have galaxies that like different distances from

739
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,760
Speaker 1: each other right now, because those oscillations are were caused

740
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: galaxies to form like here and not there, and so

741
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: the overall large structure of the galaxies would definitely be different.

742
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,960
Speaker 1: You might also get different size pools of dark matter,

743
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 1: which would make different size galaxies. But I have to

744
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 1: like run a bunch of really complicated stimulations to know

745
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:14,000
Speaker 1: for sure. I see, like maybe the universe would be

746
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,040
Speaker 1: good clustered together more, or maybe it might be sparser

747
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:21,400
Speaker 1: or something like that. It's all very very delicate recipe,

748
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 1: you know, sort of like a souffle. You change the

749
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 1: ingredients a very small amount and it can come out

750
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 1: quite different. That's why I don't like baking or cooking,

751
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:33,360
Speaker 1: just stressful. Well, I'm glad you weren't in charge of

752
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,680
Speaker 1: baking the universe. Yeah, you don't want to be in

753
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:41,359
Speaker 1: charge of baking anything much less everything everything. But I guess,

754
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:43,239
Speaker 1: you know, being selfish, how would it affect me of

755
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,719
Speaker 1: lighthead mass? Right? Because I think the electromagnetic force really

756
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 1: basically controls everything about me, right, Like, it's not just

757
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: magnets and light, it's also like chemical bonds, and why

758
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 1: even the electrons sticks to the nucleus of an atom,

759
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 1: and why atoms stick together. All. It's all because of photons, right,

760
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: and the electromagnetic force. Chemistry is basically just the dance

761
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:08,320
Speaker 1: of electrons and photons, right as those charges make atoms stable,

762
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:11,080
Speaker 1: and then those atoms formed together to make molecules and

763
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 1: all sorts of chemistry of life. And so you're really

764
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:16,640
Speaker 1: changing the very basic rules of those structures. You know,

765
00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:19,200
Speaker 1: It's like you're taking away some of the crucial lego

766
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 1: pieces for building things and you're replacing them with something else,

767
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 1: something much much weaker. And so it might be that,

768
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 1: you know, you just can't get atoms as stable with energy.

769
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: Levels of atoms would definitely be different, which would lead

770
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: to totally different chemistry, and it might also be interesting,

771
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 1: It might also be delicious, but it would definitely be

772
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:41,399
Speaker 1: unrecognizable from our world. Well, I think maybe a cool

773
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: question to ask is, like, what if I had to

774
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:45,319
Speaker 1: switch in front of me that had like, uh, the

775
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 1: mass with the photon, and I just said, hey, don't

776
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: touch it, don't touch it. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like,

777
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: what if suddenly we had the world we have right now,

778
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden the photon had masks, but

779
00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:00,080
Speaker 1: we all just kind of like dissolve explode, you know,

780
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,319
Speaker 1: trying too much. What do you think? I think we

781
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 1: were probably just sort of like drift off into a gas.

782
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:06,320
Speaker 1: You know. I think that a lot of our bodily

783
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 1: consistency depends on all these bonds holding themselves together, and

784
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 1: those bonds suddenly get weaker by a significant amount than Yeah,

785
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 1: you basically just like sublimate into a gas. You mean,

786
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,080
Speaker 1: like in the Avengers and Finny War, like, we just

787
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:23,879
Speaker 1: all turned to ash. Yes, maybe that's how Fanas did it. Yeah,

788
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,400
Speaker 1: maybe that's how it did it. Yeah, that's how he

789
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:30,680
Speaker 1: did it. Oh, man, you knew he was a particle physicist, right,

790
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 1: he had that evil gleam in his eye. That's right,

791
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,160
Speaker 1: that's how it works. You snapped your fingers and you

792
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,319
Speaker 1: can change the universe. That's that's what physics gives you

793
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,440
Speaker 1: the power to do. Yeah. And so we think that

794
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 1: our photons probably have zero mass. If they do have mass,

795
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 1: it's something smaller than ten to the twenty six of

796
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 1: the mass of the electron. Right, So it's a very

797
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: very very small value. But we can't actually say for

798
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 1: sure it's zero, and the theory would allow for it

799
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: to be non zero. Interesting, but I guess if it

800
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 1: did have a little bit of man as, everything might

801
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: be okay because we're still here. Yeah, you could have

802
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 1: like almost zero, very very close to zero, like zero

803
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 1: point zero, and then a hundred zeros and then a one,

804
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: and the universe wouldn't be very different. We wouldn't be

805
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 1: able to tell the difference. All right, Well, I think

806
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 1: that answer is Ricky's question. The universe would be pretty

807
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 1: different depending on how much mass the photon would have

808
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:23,760
Speaker 1: in this scenario. If we had a lot of mass

809
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 1: um this would be super duper different and not the same.

810
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:29,800
Speaker 1: But maybe it has a little bit of mass, it

811
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:31,919
Speaker 1: would still be okay and we would still be here.

812
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,280
Speaker 1: And so Ricky, please don't build a device that gives

813
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:37,880
Speaker 1: photons in the universe mass, or if you do, don't

814
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:39,840
Speaker 1: press the button. That's right, dude, don't put on the

815
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:42,960
Speaker 1: Infinity Gauntlet. Leave it where it is, or at least

816
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 1: take out the physics stone, because that's the that's the

817
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:47,719
Speaker 1: one that causes all the trouble. All right, Well, let's

818
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:51,760
Speaker 1: get to our last question about virtual particles. But first

819
00:40:51,840 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: let's take another quick break. All right, we're taking listener

820
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:11,840
Speaker 1: questions about particles in this episode, and our last question

821
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 1: comes from Anthony, who is a question about virtual particles. Hello,

822
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,799
Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge. Ever since I heard your episode on

823
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: virtual particles recorded back in I've had a question in

824
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,720
Speaker 1: the back of my mind from your explanations on the subject.

825
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 1: I've understood that virtual particles are ephemeral and they don't

826
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: last long, and that their mass may fluctuate. But that

827
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,799
Speaker 1: still means that at any given point in time there

828
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 1: must be myriad virtual particles in the universe. Someone must

829
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,879
Speaker 1: have surely estimated their combined mass. What does it add

830
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,760
Speaker 1: up to. Does the mass of all the virtual particles

831
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:48,799
Speaker 1: in the universe get counted as ordinary matter? And if not,

832
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 1: could it account for the elusive dark matter or some

833
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:57,720
Speaker 1: portion thereof Thank you alright, awesome question from Anthony about

834
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:01,879
Speaker 1: virtual particles and possibly as an explanation of dark matter.

835
00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 1: Do you think he's cracked the big mystery? No, you

836
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 1: could have been a little genter there. Sometimes you just

837
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,680
Speaker 1: got to give a clear and chris answer. Oh man,

838
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 1: I don't think that dark matter has made out a

839
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: virtual part of Well, I'm still reading for your Anthony.

840
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: Need to worry. We'll try to make it work here

841
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: on the podcast. You know, you gotta understand how often

842
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: people write to me and say, oh, by the way,

843
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 1: I don't really understand ABC, and could that be the

844
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: dark matter? It's just basically like the end of almost

845
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:35,839
Speaker 1: every question we get, really, well, maybe one of them

846
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 1: might be true one day, Yeah, they might. Absolutely, isn't

847
00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:40,879
Speaker 1: that possible? Absolutely, And encourage people to keep thinking about

848
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,320
Speaker 1: it because someday somebody will figure it out. Hey, Daniel,

849
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:46,359
Speaker 1: I don't understand pink hamsters. Could that be the cost

850
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 1: of dark matter in the universe? No, man, you're like

851
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:56,879
Speaker 1: the Simon Cowell here of physics today. Harsh, harsh, people

852
00:42:56,880 --> 00:42:59,760
Speaker 1: want answers. All right, So the question was about virtual

853
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 1: part articles and whether maybe physicists have forgotten to take

854
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,040
Speaker 1: into account their mass and their effect in the universe.

855
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: So step us through what is a virtual particle? First

856
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:13,200
Speaker 1: of all, so a virtual particle is shocker, sort of

857
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 1: badly named. It's not really a particle in the way

858
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 1: that we are thinking about particles. You know, what is

859
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,840
Speaker 1: a particle? A particle is like a wiggle in a field.

860
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,200
Speaker 1: So the electron, for example, is a wiggle in the

861
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,799
Speaker 1: electron field is a field for every particle that's out there.

862
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,880
Speaker 1: The electron field, the upcork field, the down cork field,

863
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 1: the electromagnetic field. All these things are fields, and they

864
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: can wiggle in this interesting and particular way. We have

865
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 1: like a little packet of energy which is self sustaining

866
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 1: and moves through the field the way you can take,

867
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:47,839
Speaker 1: for example, a rope and you can tweak it so

868
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,280
Speaker 1: that you have like a standing way which moves down

869
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,440
Speaker 1: the rope. Right. So particles are these sort of special

870
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 1: oscillations of these fields in a way that lets them

871
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: like move through the field. So that's what a particle is.

872
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,320
Speaker 1: I see, there's sort of like a wiggle that doesn't

873
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:06,480
Speaker 1: just dissipate in the in a quantum field in the universe.

874
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,239
Speaker 1: Do we know why some wiggles stay around and some

875
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: wiggles don't. So we have this whole episode recently about

876
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: what is a particle and it gets kind of philosophical

877
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: and of some folks think that particles are just these

878
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,719
Speaker 1: wiggles in fields, and the ones we define to be

879
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: particles are the ones that do stay around, right, that

880
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:27,320
Speaker 1: they have this capacity for the energy to slide around

881
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,240
Speaker 1: in this particular way. So the way the energy moves

882
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 1: through these fields is governed by the wave equation, just

883
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,200
Speaker 1: like with any other kind of wave, right like in

884
00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:39,600
Speaker 1: the water or on a string. This is mathematical equation

885
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:42,879
Speaker 1: that tells you what are the possible solutions. And there

886
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 1: are some solutions to those equations that are self sustaining,

887
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: you know that where the energy just flows in this

888
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 1: particular way so it maintains itself, it doesn't spread out, right,

889
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:54,360
Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe like the if you think about a

890
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 1: field a quantum fields, like a big sheet that you have,

891
00:44:57,760 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 1: maybe and if you have it out there in the

892
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 1: win and kind of holding it up, the wind will

893
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 1: make it kind of ripple all over the place. But

894
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:06,400
Speaker 1: every once in a while you might see like a

895
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,880
Speaker 1: little like a bump in that sheet that tend to

896
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 1: forms and then can move it across the sheet. That's

897
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:14,920
Speaker 1: kind of what a particle is, right m And so

898
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 1: any situation where you have a self sustaining wave that

899
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 1: moves across and sort of keeps its coherence, that's what

900
00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:24,120
Speaker 1: you call a particle. And if it does that, then

901
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 1: it has special properties, like you can talk about it

902
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:29,520
Speaker 1: having a certain mass because it has motion, and you

903
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:32,000
Speaker 1: can describe the motion, you know, in terms of like

904
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:35,000
Speaker 1: a force having been applied and getting acceleration, and so

905
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:37,880
Speaker 1: there's a concept of mass of this particle has all

906
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:40,160
Speaker 1: sorts of properties that we tend to attribute to the

907
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:43,840
Speaker 1: kind of stuff we find. Familiar things around us have mass,

908
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 1: So these ripples in these fields have these properties, like

909
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:49,800
Speaker 1: a specific mass which is related to their energy, etcetera, etcetera,

910
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 1: all the things we tend to think of as particles.

911
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,759
Speaker 1: So that's what a particle is. A virtual particle is

912
00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:58,799
Speaker 1: something different. A virtual particle is like a different kind

913
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 1: of wiggle in this field. It's one that's not self sustaining.

914
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:06,960
Speaker 1: It's usually caused by the presence of other particles. For example,

915
00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:10,640
Speaker 1: an electron is a self sustaining wiggle in the electron field,

916
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 1: but it creates wiggles in the electromagnetic field, right because

917
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 1: electrons have charge, and that's what it means to have charge,

918
00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 1: is that you create wiggles in the electromagnetic field. So

919
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 1: an electron whizzing around the universe is making ripples in

920
00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:29,240
Speaker 1: the electromagnetic fields around us, which means in some sense,

921
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 1: it's making virtual particles in that field, which we call

922
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:38,520
Speaker 1: virtual photons. So virtual particles are like non self sustaining

923
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,560
Speaker 1: ripples in a field mostly caused by the presence of

924
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:46,520
Speaker 1: other particles. Wait what Okay, First of all, you're saying

925
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: that an electron can cause a ripple in the photon

926
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:54,040
Speaker 1: field that is not a photon, but it does create photons, right,

927
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 1: like the presence of an electron talking to maybe another

928
00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 1: electron does create ripples in the electromagnetic field, which we

929
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:04,880
Speaker 1: call photons. But you're saying you can also make ripples

930
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:07,200
Speaker 1: that are not photons. You can make ripples that are

931
00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:10,839
Speaker 1: real photons, Like an electron can radiate a photon which

932
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: you could hit your eyeball and you can see it.

933
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 1: It's a real photon, propagates through the universe with what

934
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,040
Speaker 1: we think is zero mass and follows all those rules.

935
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:21,239
Speaker 1: Electrons can also create all sorts of other ripples in

936
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 1: the electromagnetic field, you know, just sort of like sloshy,

937
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,720
Speaker 1: messy ripples that don't coalesce to be a self sustaining packet.

938
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: And we call all those ripples virtual particles. It would

939
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:33,239
Speaker 1: have been better if we've given them a different name,

940
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:35,839
Speaker 1: because there really are sort of different category of thing,

941
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 1: but some people think of them as all part of

942
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:41,520
Speaker 1: a larger spectrum of phenomenon. So they call these real

943
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: particles versus virtual particles. I see, and I guess the

944
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:48,640
Speaker 1: big difference is that virtual particles don't last or something. Right,

945
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:51,920
Speaker 1: They're not sort of cohesive packages like the regular particles

946
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: they are. They are ripples in the quantum fields. But

947
00:47:54,719 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: maybe there are sort of like like messy ripples, like

948
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:01,880
Speaker 1: just the little tiny random fluctuations. Yeah, they don't last.

949
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:04,400
Speaker 1: They dissipate, They tend to spread out, and if the

950
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:07,319
Speaker 1: source of them disappears, then they disappear. But doesn't take

951
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 1: energy to make them. It does take energy absolutely, and

952
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,560
Speaker 1: so the source of them is putting some energy from

953
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:15,920
Speaker 1: its field into the target field. So, for example, electrons

954
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 1: do give up energy into virtual photons, right, Those virtual

955
00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:22,799
Speaker 1: photons capture some of that energy, right, But then they

956
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:25,840
Speaker 1: turn into other stuff. Those virtual photons turned into other fields.

957
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: So just slashes through the universe. It's not in a coherent,

958
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:32,160
Speaker 1: self sustaining packet. Wait what so then an electron flying

959
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:35,280
Speaker 1: through the universe will eventually slow down. Well, an electron

960
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:37,799
Speaker 1: to transmit any energy into the photon field, it has

961
00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:41,279
Speaker 1: to decelerate or accelerate as to change its energy, so

962
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:44,280
Speaker 1: it would slow down. But electron just flying constant velocity

963
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:47,640
Speaker 1: doesn't slow down and doesn't create any virtual photons. Only

964
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:51,520
Speaker 1: when it accelerates does it create any real or virtual photons.

965
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: That's when it changes the electromagnetic field. Flying with constant

966
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,000
Speaker 1: velocity doesn't change in the field. But I guess maybe

967
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:00,759
Speaker 1: they take away talking about these pacific is that a

968
00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:03,360
Speaker 1: virtual particle is just like the random wiggle in the

969
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:06,520
Speaker 1: quantum fields. Right, well, it's a little bit different than

970
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 1: maybe I wonder if Anthony is maybe thinking of maybe

971
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 1: a different kind of virtual particle. Like they say that

972
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 1: when a particles sort of exist, there's also like other

973
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:19,480
Speaker 1: particles popping in and out around it, right, isn't it.

974
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: Isn't that something they also call virtual particles, Like when

975
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,240
Speaker 1: you calculate the massive a particle, you have to calculate

976
00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:27,799
Speaker 1: all of the possible particles and maybe popping in and

977
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:30,799
Speaker 1: out of existence around it too. Yeah. Yeah, And so

978
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:33,719
Speaker 1: you could ignore virtual particles completely and you could say, look,

979
00:49:33,880 --> 00:49:37,080
Speaker 1: it's just particles and there are fields, and instead of

980
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:39,360
Speaker 1: thinking about virtual particles, you just think about the fields.

981
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,279
Speaker 1: Like when the electron moves through the universe, it's interacting

982
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:44,239
Speaker 1: with the photon field, and don't try to call those

983
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:46,880
Speaker 1: things particles. Just think about them as fields. And so

984
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:48,960
Speaker 1: what you were just talking about is how particles interact

985
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,600
Speaker 1: with the fields that are around them. Like we were

986
00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:54,480
Speaker 1: saying earlier, the fact that the top corks can exist

987
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:57,719
Speaker 1: changes how Higgs bosons moved through the universe because they

988
00:49:57,719 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 1: talked to virtual top corks. Or another way to say

989
00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 1: that is that they interact with the top cork field

990
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: that is out there in the universe, even if there

991
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:09,839
Speaker 1: are no real top corks existing in the universe. So

992
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 1: every bit of space is filled with these quantum fields,

993
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 1: and those fields the top cork field. The field is

994
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:18,399
Speaker 1: there even if there are no top corks in it, right,

995
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,000
Speaker 1: And so the electron field is there even if there

996
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: are no electrons in it. So the universe is filled

997
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 1: with these fields, which you could also call virtual particles, right.

998
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 1: You could think of these fields is just like a

999
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,600
Speaker 1: swarm of very low energy virtual particles. It's sort of

1000
00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:35,440
Speaker 1: mathematically equivalent, whether you think about them in terms of

1001
00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:39,280
Speaker 1: the fields or some over lots and lots of virtual particles. Okay,

1002
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 1: but I think that maybe the takeaway is that we

1003
00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 1: have quantum fields out there and they do wiggle maybe

1004
00:50:44,719 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 1: and sometimes not in super permanent particle ways. They do

1005
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,520
Speaker 1: sort of wiggle which maybe have energy in their wiggles.

1006
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:54,800
Speaker 1: And so I think maybe Anthony is asking, like, you know,

1007
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 1: there are all these fields out there, they're wiggling and

1008
00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 1: have energy, um doesn't maybe add mass to the universe

1009
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 1: because energy in a field is sort of like having

1010
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,240
Speaker 1: mass and the universes, and like, what's the relationship between

1011
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:12,040
Speaker 1: these wiggles and do they actually have mass? It's a

1012
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:14,720
Speaker 1: great question, right, And so you can think about empty

1013
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:16,799
Speaker 1: space and what's going on there, and there are these

1014
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 1: fields which you can all think about. Is like particles. Now,

1015
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:23,319
Speaker 1: do virtual particles have mass? You know, particles themselves have

1016
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:25,719
Speaker 1: a specific mass because of the way they move through

1017
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,520
Speaker 1: the universe. Virtual particles don't really have a well defined mass,

1018
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:31,359
Speaker 1: But do they have mass? If you want to think

1019
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:33,879
Speaker 1: about them in terms of the particle framework, then they

1020
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:36,360
Speaker 1: can have mass, and those masses can be any value.

1021
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,319
Speaker 1: You know, you can have virtual photons that have a

1022
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 1: huge amount of mass. You can have virtual topquorks with

1023
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:44,839
Speaker 1: a very tiny amount of mass, but those only really

1024
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:47,719
Speaker 1: exist in our calculations. Virtual particles are not things you

1025
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:50,919
Speaker 1: can ever see or observe they're only like the way

1026
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:53,400
Speaker 1: other particles talk to each other, which I think is

1027
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:55,640
Speaker 1: why it's maybe more natural to think about them instead.

1028
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:57,960
Speaker 1: And just in terms of fields, they're just really the

1029
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:01,560
Speaker 1: way that two particles talk to each other. But technically, mathematically,

1030
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 1: these particles do have mass, but you can never observe

1031
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:06,319
Speaker 1: these particles. You can never interact with them. You can

1032
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 1: only interact with real particles, not with virtual particles. But

1033
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:13,880
Speaker 1: isn't But I guess we were calling virtual particles wiggles

1034
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,720
Speaker 1: in these these fields, right, So the universe has fields,

1035
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 1: there are random non particle wiggles in them, and so

1036
00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:23,720
Speaker 1: maybe Anthony's wondering, like, do these random wiggles have mass,

1037
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 1: and could that mass maybe account for dark matter? These

1038
00:52:26,239 --> 00:52:28,840
Speaker 1: random wiggles do have energy, right, And all the fields

1039
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:30,759
Speaker 1: that are out there in the universe have energy because

1040
00:52:30,840 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 1: quantum fields can never be at zero. That's why we

1041
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: talk of sometimes about virtual particles popping out of the vacuum,

1042
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:39,959
Speaker 1: because there isn't really zero energy vacuum out there. There's

1043
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:43,440
Speaker 1: energy out there, but mostly it's potential energy. These fields

1044
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:47,160
Speaker 1: have non zero potential energy, and potential energy actually has

1045
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:51,040
Speaker 1: the opposite effect of mass. Potential energy can create a

1046
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:55,319
Speaker 1: repulsive force in the universe. It contributes, for example, potentially

1047
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:59,040
Speaker 1: to the dark energy of the universe. So Anthony's onto something.

1048
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:02,520
Speaker 1: He's just maybe the wrong dark gossip here. Is that

1049
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:05,319
Speaker 1: what you're saying, Yeah, and we know the universe is accelerating,

1050
00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:08,359
Speaker 1: and one way to describe that acceleration is to say,

1051
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 1: maybe the universe is filled with a bunch of potential

1052
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 1: energy that's causing that. Because in general relativity, if your

1053
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:17,960
Speaker 1: space is filled with a field with potential energy that

1054
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 1: can cause repulsion, might explain inflation the early universe, It

1055
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 1: might explain dark energy. Problem is that if we look

1056
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,360
Speaker 1: out into the universe and measure the potential energy of

1057
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:29,840
Speaker 1: all the fields we think are out there, it doesn't

1058
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:33,239
Speaker 1: explain the dark energy that we see. So we have

1059
00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:36,200
Speaker 1: accounted for the potential energy of the fields that we see,

1060
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:38,799
Speaker 1: but it doesn't explain the acceleration. It's off by a

1061
00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:42,760
Speaker 1: factor of like ten to the one hundred. I see

1062
00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: a little bit off, a little bit off. What about

1063
00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 1: Anthony's question here where he asked, what is the combined

1064
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:50,960
Speaker 1: mass of virtual particles in the universe? I would say

1065
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:53,760
Speaker 1: that doesn't really have a solid answer. You know, because

1066
00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:56,560
Speaker 1: the virtual particles don't really have a well defined mass,

1067
00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:59,840
Speaker 1: so it really could be anything at any moment. Oh interesting,

1068
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 1: but in a particular spot, maybe you know, a virtual

1069
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:06,600
Speaker 1: particle could have any mass. But maybe he's wondering if

1070
00:54:06,719 --> 00:54:09,440
Speaker 1: overall in the universe, as an average, if you take

1071
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 1: the average of all virtual particles everywhere, or at least

1072
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:14,320
Speaker 1: in like a giant space, the size of a galaxy,

1073
00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:17,719
Speaker 1: is that also fluctuating or do you think it has

1074
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:20,560
Speaker 1: some sort of like standing mass to that average. You know,

1075
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:23,719
Speaker 1: ripples and and wiggles in the fields. The way I

1076
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:26,120
Speaker 1: think about it is that that's just the potential energy

1077
00:54:26,239 --> 00:54:29,960
Speaker 1: of those fields, right. Sometimes that potential energy gets momentarily

1078
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,200
Speaker 1: converted into virtual particles, But it's really just another way

1079
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:36,440
Speaker 1: of thinking about the field as having potential energy is

1080
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:40,160
Speaker 1: having capacity to interact with the stuff around it. So

1081
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:43,239
Speaker 1: I don't really think about as having like real actual mass.

1082
00:54:43,239 --> 00:54:45,799
Speaker 1: But you just said that that that virtual particles are

1083
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 1: sort of created and popped into existence. But those virtual

1084
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:52,560
Speaker 1: particles don't have mass, Well, they don't have mass in

1085
00:54:52,600 --> 00:54:54,719
Speaker 1: the same way that real particles do. Like, what does

1086
00:54:54,800 --> 00:54:57,920
Speaker 1: mass mean? It means how particles propagate through the universe,

1087
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:00,319
Speaker 1: and virtual particles don't propagate through the universe the same

1088
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:03,440
Speaker 1: way real ones do. Also, Remember, and now we're talking

1089
00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:07,040
Speaker 1: about like the mass from particles. We don't even understand

1090
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:10,480
Speaker 1: how gravity works when it comes to particles. So if

1091
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 1: you're talking about like the gravitational impact of individual quantum particles,

1092
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,919
Speaker 1: that's a question for quantum gravity anyway. All right, well,

1093
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:20,319
Speaker 1: then I guess how would you summarize his question? The

1094
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:23,000
Speaker 1: answer to his question like, do virtual particles have mass

1095
00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,319
Speaker 1: and can they add up to something? Or? I mean,

1096
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:27,799
Speaker 1: I feel like your answer is very kind of theoretical,

1097
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:29,799
Speaker 1: and it seems to be depending on how you look

1098
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:31,680
Speaker 1: at things in the universe. What would be a more

1099
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:34,280
Speaker 1: direct answer for Anthony? I think maybe the Christmas answer

1100
00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 1: is no, no, that virtual particles don't have mass. No,

1101
00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:40,239
Speaker 1: the virtual particles aren't the dark matter. They're are contributing

1102
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:42,920
Speaker 1: to the mass of the universe. I think the clearest

1103
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,239
Speaker 1: way to think about it is the virtual particles are

1104
00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:48,360
Speaker 1: not particles the way you are thinking about tiny little

1105
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:50,920
Speaker 1: bits of stuff. Instead, just think about them as fields

1106
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:53,719
Speaker 1: filling the universe. There are these quantum fields out there

1107
00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:57,200
Speaker 1: capable of doing stuff, and they are affecting the overall

1108
00:55:57,320 --> 00:55:59,640
Speaker 1: flow in shape of the universe, but in the opposite

1109
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 1: way of mass. We think they're probably contributing to the

1110
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:05,600
Speaker 1: expansion of the universe rather than pulling stuff together. Mm

1111
00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:08,160
Speaker 1: I see, okay, I think maybe then what you're saying

1112
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:12,080
Speaker 1: is that virtual particles maybe even have not only do

1113
00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 1: they not have mass in the same way that particles do,

1114
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:17,759
Speaker 1: but maybe they have kind of negative matter, or they

1115
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:20,719
Speaker 1: contribute negative mass to the universe, as maybe you can tell.

1116
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:23,360
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of the picture of virtual particles.

1117
00:56:23,400 --> 00:56:26,160
Speaker 1: I prefer to think about fields as ways to interact

1118
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:29,959
Speaker 1: between particles rather than virtual particles. But you know, mathematically

1119
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:32,319
Speaker 1: they are equivalent. But I think they raise a whole

1120
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:35,080
Speaker 1: bunch of questions that you can't really answer because particles

1121
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:37,439
Speaker 1: is sort of the wrong word to describe them. I see.

1122
00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:40,359
Speaker 1: So we'll just tell Anthony to rephrase this question in

1123
00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:43,640
Speaker 1: terms of quantum fields, and maybe you'll be in a

1124
00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:49,920
Speaker 1: better mode to answer this one. Quantum fields don't contribute

1125
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:52,600
Speaker 1: to the dark matter, Anthony. We think they might contribute

1126
00:56:52,600 --> 00:56:55,719
Speaker 1: to dark energy, but we don't really understand by how much.

1127
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:57,960
Speaker 1: But it is interesting. I mean, I can see how

1128
00:56:58,000 --> 00:57:00,200
Speaker 1: I think it could have reached that conclusion. Right. You

1129
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:02,200
Speaker 1: learn about one thing and then you learn about something

1130
00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 1: else and you're like, oh, wow, that makes sense to me.

1131
00:57:04,680 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 1: They're related. I wonder if they are, right, Like, it's

1132
00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: all right to wonder these things, right, Oh? Absolutely. And

1133
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:14,480
Speaker 1: sometimes two big mysteries are the answers to each other, right,

1134
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:16,480
Speaker 1: like why does this happen over there? Why does that

1135
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:18,680
Speaker 1: happen over there? Oh? It turns out you were thinking

1136
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:21,040
Speaker 1: about these things as disconnected, but there are actually two

1137
00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 1: parts of the same coin. So I absolutely encourage people

1138
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 1: to think about how part of one mystery might be

1139
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,160
Speaker 1: the answer to another. And also don't insult physicist by

1140
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:32,880
Speaker 1: asking if maybe they miss something. That's one lesson we've

1141
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:36,680
Speaker 1: learned today. No, I don't feel insulted at all. And

1142
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:38,840
Speaker 1: I love all of the questions, and I encourage people

1143
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:42,200
Speaker 1: to think broadly and write every question they have. Please

1144
00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:45,320
Speaker 1: send us your questions two questions at Daniel and Jorge

1145
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 1: dot com. Great, well, those are our three questions about

1146
00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:51,800
Speaker 1: particle physics and Daniel as a particle physicists. UM must

1147
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:54,040
Speaker 1: be pretty exciting to have people ask you questions about

1148
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 1: the field you're study. It's super fun. I love thinking

1149
00:57:56,840 --> 00:57:59,480
Speaker 1: about this stuff, and I love that other folks, not

1150
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:02,480
Speaker 1: just article physicists, are interested in these questions. You know,

1151
00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:04,240
Speaker 1: it's easy to look up at the night sky and

1152
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:07,440
Speaker 1: think about astronomy and ask questions about stars and galaxies.

1153
00:58:07,840 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 1: But it's also possible to look just down at your

1154
00:58:09,960 --> 00:58:12,240
Speaker 1: hand and the ground below your feet and all of

1155
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,760
Speaker 1: the matter that's around us and wonder like, what makes

1156
00:58:14,800 --> 00:58:17,040
Speaker 1: that up? What are the rules of it. That's what

1157
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 1: got me into particle physics, and I think that's pretty accessible. Yeah,

1158
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:21,680
Speaker 1: and it's pretty amazing to think that. You know, we

1159
00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:24,520
Speaker 1: have this intuitive view of our our intuitive sense of

1160
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 1: the universe as being these kind of you know, giant

1161
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:29,880
Speaker 1: pool table with builder balls bouncing around. But as you

1162
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:32,720
Speaker 1: drill down into these small sizes, Uh, there's all kinds

1163
00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:36,320
Speaker 1: of weird things happening. Absolutely, And sometimes we understand that

1164
00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:40,000
Speaker 1: only in terms of the mathematical description, which amazingly works

1165
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:42,800
Speaker 1: so well and predicts the results of our experiments. We

1166
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 1: don't always have a deep intuitive understanding of it. And

1167
00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:49,320
Speaker 1: that's because things at the smallest level really are very

1168
00:58:49,400 --> 00:58:52,959
Speaker 1: different from our intuition. To build an intuitive understanding usually

1169
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 1: means explaining the unknown in terms of the known. But

1170
00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:59,040
Speaker 1: here the unknown is so radically different than the known

1171
00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:02,080
Speaker 1: that it's really hard and sometimes to describe it in

1172
00:59:02,200 --> 00:59:05,120
Speaker 1: terms of familiar concepts. So if you hear me struggling

1173
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:07,640
Speaker 1: and you hear Jorge persisting and asking the same question

1174
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:09,880
Speaker 1: until we get an answer that you guys can understand,

1175
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:12,960
Speaker 1: that's because sometimes it's just hard to translate these ideas

1176
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:15,919
Speaker 1: from mathematics to intuition. Right right, we need to spend

1177
00:59:15,920 --> 00:59:18,480
Speaker 1: a summer in front of a computer coding so that

1178
00:59:18,520 --> 00:59:23,920
Speaker 1: we can beam the best right into our listeners paint

1179
00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:26,320
Speaker 1: that picture in their brain. I've had many moments in

1180
00:59:26,360 --> 00:59:28,640
Speaker 1: science where I said, I don't understand this, but I'm

1181
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:30,960
Speaker 1: just going to follow the math because the math works.

1182
00:59:31,240 --> 00:59:32,680
Speaker 1: It will give me a prediction. It gives me the

1183
00:59:32,680 --> 00:59:36,000
Speaker 1: answer I need. I don't really intuiteally understand it, Daniel,

1184
00:59:36,040 --> 00:59:37,640
Speaker 1: the mass is telling me that you send me a

1185
00:59:37,720 --> 00:59:41,680
Speaker 1: check for a hundred thousand dollars. Uh. And sometimes being

1186
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:43,520
Speaker 1: asked to explain it, to really to teach it in

1187
00:59:43,560 --> 00:59:46,080
Speaker 1: a class or to talk about in a podcast, forces

1188
00:59:46,120 --> 00:59:48,360
Speaker 1: me to think about it again and dive deeper for

1189
00:59:48,360 --> 00:59:51,560
Speaker 1: an intuitive explanation which helps me understand it. Better cool. Well.

1190
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:54,360
Speaker 1: Thank you to all the people who send these questions.

1191
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:57,480
Speaker 1: We love to answer them here on the podcast, and

1192
00:59:57,520 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 1: we hope that all of you out there enjoyed us

1193
00:59:59,520 --> 01:00:02,520
Speaker 1: talking about at these questions and maybe or maybe not

1194
01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:05,960
Speaker 1: answering them, certainly doing our best. We hope you enjoyed that.

1195
01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:16,960
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, See you next time. Thanks for listening,

1196
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:19,720
Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is

1197
01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:23,240
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from

1198
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:27,000
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

1199
01:00:27,160 --> 01:00:31,440
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H