1 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,000 Speaker 1: Hey, hey, you have strong opinions about naming things, didn't you. 2 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 1: I just don't like kids when things are named in 3 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: a very confusing way, or where the name actually confuses 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,120 Speaker 1: you instead of making things clear. All right, Well, then 5 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: I have a bit of a personal question. How did 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: you pick the names of your kids? Not through physics, 7 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: for sure, that's definitely did not. There's not one called strange, 8 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: one called charm. They're both strange and charming, for sure. 9 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 1: That's a linear superposition. There is physics there. They are 10 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: definitely quantum and delete for sure. Our son was named 11 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: my wife had had a dream, and that's how she 12 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,239 Speaker 1: came up with the name for our son. She just 13 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,760 Speaker 1: came up with the name in the dream. And my 14 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: daughter is named after a Jane Austen character. Wow. Alright, 15 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: so both bired by mental realms outside of the physical world. 16 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: I am more handmake cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics. 17 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 1: I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I'm a connoisseur 18 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,280 Speaker 1: of all jokes physicals ee, strong electric and even weak 19 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: ones and banana forces. Of course, that's right, And of 20 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: course the mysterious banana field that feels the universe and 21 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: it is mostly concentrated around Jorge's head, and together we 22 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 1: are co authors on books and other projects. But this 23 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: is our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explained the Universe, a 24 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio, in which we take you 25 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: on a tour of all the weird, crazy, amazing stuff 26 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: in the universe and try to explain it to you. 27 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 1: So you go away going, wow, that's kind of cool. 28 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: I never understood that before. All these strong and amazing 29 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: things and even the weak but significant things in the 30 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: universe that maybe every once you know about. That's right. 31 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: It's a forceful exposition of all the fascinating things about 32 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: the universe. Oh man, now you're just forcing it. I 33 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: think that's right. Well, you know, my my joke, force 34 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,480 Speaker 1: is pretty weak. But forces themselves are sort of a 35 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: weird thing. It's like, forces are something that physicists you've 36 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: even had a hard time grappling with over the centuries. Well, 37 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,360 Speaker 1: it's something that's really intuitive. I think. You know, as 38 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: a little kid, even as a baby, you sort of 39 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: get the idea of force, right, Thanks pushing you, thanks 40 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: pulling you, gravity, pushing you down. Yeah, but I think 41 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,520 Speaker 1: your intuition is misleading. I think most people think of 42 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: a force as something as a push, right, something that's 43 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: touching you. Somebody comes up to you, pushes you over, 44 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,359 Speaker 1: you fall over, you move your role or whatever. So 45 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,360 Speaker 1: I think most people think of forces as touching. The 46 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: really weird thing about forces is when they can act 47 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: without touching, right, When they can, like when you see 48 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: a mad levitating, it seems almost like magic, right, because 49 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:06,079 Speaker 1: this this, these two things are acting on each other 50 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,680 Speaker 1: without actually touching each other. Yeah, it's weird. And so 51 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,680 Speaker 1: today we'll be talking about one particular force out of 52 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 1: all the forces out there in the universe, one that 53 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 1: is maybe not the strongest one, but that led to 54 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: some amazing discoveries. Right, that's right. It's not the most 55 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: powerful force, but it did give us some amazing hints 56 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,320 Speaker 1: into the way the universe works. So it's weekly powered, 57 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: but plays a strong role in the sort of overarching 58 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: drama that is physics. Yep, it's a four sets inside everyone, right, 59 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:38,880 Speaker 1: it's inside of me, inside of you, inside of everyone 60 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: listening to this podcast. That's right. It's everywhere in the universe, 61 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: and it plays an important role in how we live 62 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: and how we die and how we power ourselves. So 63 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: to be on the podcast, we'll be talking about the 64 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 1: weak fours? Weak fours? Are you just trying to add 65 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: some drama to it because it needs some panash? It 66 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: was a little anti climatic. Did you say I thought 67 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: you might go with weak nuclear force because nuclear gives 68 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: it some sort of like edge of mysteriousness. Right, the 69 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:16,720 Speaker 1: weak quantum? No of the week? Black holes pilate on. 70 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: Let's just give him multiple hyvingated names the week, true, Guadalajara, 71 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: Montre exactly. Um, that would be a lot more fun. No, 72 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 1: the weak force is really amazing, it's fascinating. Yeah, it's 73 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:35,240 Speaker 1: one of the four fundamental forces in nature. Right, there's 74 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:37,840 Speaker 1: only four of them? Yeah, well, spoiler alert turns out 75 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:44,919 Speaker 1: there's three. You eliminated one like Pluto just got deep declassified. No. No, 76 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 1: that's the goal of physics, right, is to not have 77 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 1: four forces. We don't want to say, hey, here's how 78 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: the universe works. There are four totally weird, separate rules 79 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 1: about things, how things can push and pulling each other. 80 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: We we think, we hope, we want to explain the 81 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: universe in terms of one force. So the story of 82 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,880 Speaker 1: physics so far is look around you see all the 83 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: weird thing that's happening in the universe and try to 84 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: describe them all in terms of the smallest number of things, 85 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,599 Speaker 1: the smallest number of forces. So yeah, the goal is 86 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:14,760 Speaker 1: to sort of take things off the list and describe 87 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,560 Speaker 1: everything in terms of just one thing. So you're saying, 88 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: there used to be only four forces in the universe, 89 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: and then phasics killed one of them and or married 90 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 1: two of them, and now there are only three fundamental 91 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:30,560 Speaker 1: forces in the universe. Yeah, well, this the drama is 92 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,920 Speaker 1: even more because we suspect that in the first few 93 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: moments after the Big Bang there was just one force, 94 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:39,320 Speaker 1: but then as the universe cooled, we think they've broke 95 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: up into all these different forces. And what we're trying 96 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: to do now is sort of re run that backwards 97 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 1: and understand, like, can we bring these things together. Can 98 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: we understand these things in terms of one big picture? 99 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,039 Speaker 1: How do we bring marry these things back together? You know, 100 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,160 Speaker 1: it's like a it's like a universal divorce early on, 101 00:05:56,560 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: and we're trying to bring the couples back together and 102 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: show them how they can work together. You're trying to 103 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:04,159 Speaker 1: bring the band back together. Basically, it's like the Beatles 104 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,280 Speaker 1: broke up, and you know, we enjoyed their individual work. 105 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: But come on, guys, yeah, that's a great analogy. Wouldn't 106 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:13,360 Speaker 1: you like to just describe the Beatles instead of having 107 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: to describe all four members of the Beatles? Right, That's 108 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:18,479 Speaker 1: exactly what we're trying to do. We're trying to show 109 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:20,480 Speaker 1: you that, you know, the drums are not interesting on 110 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:22,840 Speaker 1: their own, They're just part of a larger harmony. Right. 111 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: They make much more sense when you understand them in 112 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 1: terms of the guitar parts and the vocals which come 113 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,520 Speaker 1: together to make this amazing beautiful music. Right. Yeah, the 114 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: physics of the Beatles, that will be the next exactly. 115 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: So today we're gonna show you how Paul and John 116 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:42,720 Speaker 1: were actually the same person. Spoiler alert, they were the 117 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:46,520 Speaker 1: same person. That's right. And ringoes an alien. Everybody knows 118 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: ringos an alien, right, all right? So the week nuclear 119 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:54,240 Speaker 1: force and so that's uh, it's not the most popular force. 120 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: You know, most people know electromagnetism and gravity. Right. It 121 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: is part of the forces, isn't it. Yeah, maybe it is. 122 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: Maybe it's the ringo of forces. It's sort of overlooked, 123 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,240 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, dismissed, but in the end fundamentally 124 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: important to making things work. Just like Ringo, you kept 125 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: going to the harmony together exactly without the beats together, 126 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:19,640 Speaker 1: he wouldn't have a good song, That's right. Who ever 127 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:22,520 Speaker 1: heard a good pop song without without without a drum line, 128 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: without Ringo? All right? So we were wondering it is 129 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: kind of the lesser known maybe of the forces, and 130 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: so we were wondering how many people out there knew 131 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: what the weak force was. Yeah, and this is one 132 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: of the times when I really had no idea what 133 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: to expect. Had everybody heard of the weak force and 134 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: they We're going to spout off some interesting physics about it, 135 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 1: or are they going to get a bunch of blank stairs? 136 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 1: So I was pretty curious, and so as usual, Daniel 137 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: went out into the street and as random strangers if 138 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: they knew what the weak force was. And so before 139 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 1: you listen to these answers, think a little bit yourself. 140 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: If someone approached you on the street and wearing sandals 141 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: and supporting a beard, if they asked you randomly what 142 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,160 Speaker 1: the weak force, You're given away my disguise, man, and 143 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:08,160 Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to wear a completely different disguise when 144 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: they'll throw them off. They like, you can't be Daniel, 145 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: I can I can't seat your toes. So if you 146 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: were asked this question, you would you know the answer 147 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,080 Speaker 1: to it. Here's what people had to say. Yeah, has 148 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: kind of governs radioactive to ka most particle stuff. I 149 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,600 Speaker 1: guess I'm not heard of the weak nuclear force. Have 150 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,640 Speaker 1: you heard of the strong nuclear force, the medium nuclear force, 151 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:35,080 Speaker 1: the super weak nuclear force? I made most of those, 152 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,600 Speaker 1: though we nuclear force not as well, but I've heard 153 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: of it. I'm not sure. No, I've not heard of that. No, 154 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: the m R I am measures in a clear force, 155 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 1: and then you can know that's that's one of the 156 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 1: four main types of forces in physics, not just in physics, 157 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: in the universe right in the universe. Sure, it's kind 158 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: of it's a kind of part to strong nuclear force. 159 00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: Why do we have it? What is it important? Or 160 00:08:57,800 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: what does it do? Has something to do with how 161 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: adams are together? I don't know exactly alright, So not 162 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:05,959 Speaker 1: a lot of yeses. I got a lot of blank 163 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: looks on this one, that's for sure. Well, some people 164 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:11,360 Speaker 1: most people said no, they've never heard of it. But 165 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: somebody actually said that it's related to the radioactive radio 166 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:19,319 Speaker 1: activity radioactive decay, Yeah exactly, and somebody even understood it 167 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,520 Speaker 1: was like connected to particle physics experiments we do in Geneva. 168 00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: So a hundred bonus points to that because your office 169 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:30,640 Speaker 1: made another physics professor that was me with disguising my 170 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,920 Speaker 1: own voice, asking myself a questions. Spoiler alert. They're all 171 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 1: you always every episode. I'm just amazing and impressions right now, 172 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:43,280 Speaker 1: you know what one of my UM career goals is, please, 173 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: speaking of which is um? Do you ever read The Onion? 174 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,120 Speaker 1: They have this fantastic people in the street section with 175 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:52,800 Speaker 1: ask people ridiculous questions and every week they have the 176 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:55,679 Speaker 1: same four pictures and they just give them made up 177 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: names and jobs, you know, bone crusher or like you 178 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,120 Speaker 1: keyboard tester or something. My career goal is to get 179 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:05,000 Speaker 1: my face is used on the Onion. Is one of 180 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: those people on the street saying something dumb. But I've 181 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: actually written to the Onions several times volunteering, but never 182 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:15,120 Speaker 1: heard back. Please use my picture exactly, please make fun 183 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 1: of me. Every week? Do they write back or they 184 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 1: just ignored it? No? No, Unlike other Internet celebrities, they 185 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 1: did not respond to my cold call. We'll keep trying, Daniel, 186 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:29,199 Speaker 1: there's always hope, all right, I will. So, yeah, somebody, 187 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:32,079 Speaker 1: most people didn't know what it was, and so it 188 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:34,600 Speaker 1: would Did that surprised you. I mean, it's not something 189 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: that is usually covered in you know, high school physics. 190 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,240 Speaker 1: Even it didn't surprise me because it is a bit esoteric. 191 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,320 Speaker 1: And also it's not something people experience. You know, people 192 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 1: experience gravity, they all know what it is. They have 193 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: to understand it, they have an intuitive sense of it. 194 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:53,119 Speaker 1: People experience electricity, right, We've all been shocked by static electricity. 195 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:57,360 Speaker 1: People experience magnets, right. But people don't interact with the 196 00:10:57,360 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 1: weak nuclear force very much. You don't really see its 197 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,880 Speaker 1: conto quince is directly. You can't tell the difference between 198 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:04,320 Speaker 1: it and something else the way you can tell the 199 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,559 Speaker 1: difference between gravity and magnetism. Right. Yeah, Well, there's very 200 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: a couple of things about it. First of all, it's 201 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:15,079 Speaker 1: a force, and second it's weak. That's right, It's really 202 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:19,439 Speaker 1: really weak, like compared to electromagnetism and the strong nuclear force, 203 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,559 Speaker 1: it just is not very effective. And and one way 204 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:26,000 Speaker 1: to understand that is to think about how particles interact, right, 205 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 1: like when you touch something or when you bounce against something, 206 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,719 Speaker 1: that's all done with particles. That's particles pushing against each 207 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: other or interacting with each other. I mean, the particles 208 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,960 Speaker 1: in my finger are interacting with the particles in the 209 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 1: table and so that and they're pushing against each other, 210 00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:43,920 Speaker 1: that's right. And that's mostly using electromagnetism because it has 211 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:46,320 Speaker 1: to do with the bonds and the electrons holding the 212 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:49,360 Speaker 1: atoms tightly together and making this like you know, chain 213 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,880 Speaker 1: link fence of atoms that your finger can't pass through. 214 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 1: But there are other particles, right, And that's because all 215 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:57,559 Speaker 1: the particles in your finger and all the particles in 216 00:11:57,559 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: the table feel electromagnetism, but they're our particles that don't 217 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 1: feel electromagnetism, like this mysterious particle called the neutrino. The 218 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:09,200 Speaker 1: neutrino doesn't feel electromagnetism, and it doesn't feel a strong force, 219 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 1: and it has almost no mass or it hardly feels 220 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:14,959 Speaker 1: any gravity. The only way it interacts is through the 221 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 1: weak force, and so it's a good lens for figuring 222 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 1: out like how weak is the weak force? Yeah, we 223 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,840 Speaker 1: had a whole podcast episode about neutrinos. And we sort 224 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:27,079 Speaker 1: of talked about how, you know, the forces are sort 225 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:30,200 Speaker 1: of like social media channels. You know, there's Twitter, there's Facebook, 226 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 1: there's Instagram that you can interact with people, but some 227 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,600 Speaker 1: people don't use some of the don't use Instagram, where 228 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:38,840 Speaker 1: they only use Twitter, or they only or they or 229 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: they use all three. And neutrinos are like that, they 230 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:45,160 Speaker 1: only subscribe to this one very lightly used social media 231 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:47,199 Speaker 1: channel and so they hardly interact with the friends that 232 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:51,320 Speaker 1: it's the friends store of media channel, the original And 233 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,000 Speaker 1: so that's why neutrino can pass right through you, and 234 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 1: a neutrino can pass right through the Earth right. We 235 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,600 Speaker 1: do these experiments where we look at neutrinos from the 236 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,920 Speaker 1: Sun and we use the entire Earth as an instrument 237 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:05,200 Speaker 1: to try to get the neutrinos to interact, but most 238 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,920 Speaker 1: of them fly right through the entire Earth without interacting. 239 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:10,680 Speaker 1: And if you had to say, like how thick a 240 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,280 Speaker 1: wall would I have to build to block neutrinos, Well, 241 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:17,760 Speaker 1: neutrinos can fly through a light year of lead and 242 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:21,360 Speaker 1: have a fifty percent chance I'm getting through. So I 243 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:23,640 Speaker 1: mean it's it's hard to even fathom, like how big 244 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: a wall you would have to build to effectively block neutrinos. 245 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:29,120 Speaker 1: And the reason is that the weak force is so 246 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,000 Speaker 1: weak that every time the neutrino near something, it rolls 247 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,160 Speaker 1: a die and the dye has to come up just 248 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: right for it to interact. Most of the time it 249 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:41,800 Speaker 1: just ignores it. Oh wait, so all right, so we're 250 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:43,959 Speaker 1: getting into what is the weak force, and you're saying 251 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:46,720 Speaker 1: that it is super weak, and you're saying that it's weak, 252 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:49,880 Speaker 1: not because it's just the weak force, but it's it's 253 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: just less likely to interact with you. That's exactly what 254 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:56,560 Speaker 1: weak means, right, that it has a smaller chance to interact. 255 00:13:57,120 --> 00:13:59,800 Speaker 1: Right that you shoot these two things against each other 256 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: and will less often have an interaction. But when they 257 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:04,920 Speaker 1: do interact, the force that you actually feel is also 258 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,079 Speaker 1: weak or not. Oh, I see what you mean. No, 259 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: the magnitude of the force is not effected. It's how 260 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,079 Speaker 1: often it happens. It's how likely it is to happen 261 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:16,400 Speaker 1: when it interacts with the nucleus. For example, it bounces 262 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:18,160 Speaker 1: off and goes in the other direction. It's not like 263 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,520 Speaker 1: just slightly deflected. It's just that it doesn't happen very often. 264 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: It passes right through most of the nuclei without doing 265 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:27,760 Speaker 1: anything and just ignores the last. But in terms of magnitude, 266 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: like when it does interact, it is as strong as 267 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: the other forces. Yeah, that's a really good question. I 268 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:34,440 Speaker 1: never really thought about it that way. It's just a 269 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,600 Speaker 1: question of whether it interacts. The strength of the force 270 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,640 Speaker 1: reheally determines whether it's interacting, and so for example, you know, 271 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 1: the strong force is really really strong. There's a lot 272 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: of energy in that interaction, and so it's going to 273 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,160 Speaker 1: interact with everything else that feels it. Electromagnetism is a 274 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 1: powerful force, and that means that it's going to interact 275 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,560 Speaker 1: almost all the time, and so you get lots of 276 00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 1: particles contributing. But if you're like going to measure it 277 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,360 Speaker 1: per particle, I think I think it's just another way 278 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:04,200 Speaker 1: of saying the same thing. I think. Um, you know, 279 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: the strength of the force between them is another way 280 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,360 Speaker 1: of saying how likely are they to interact or not 281 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: the other Fascinating about the weak force. One another reason 282 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 1: to think about why it's weak is that it doesn't 283 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 1: interact over a very long range, like electromagnetism to electrons 284 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 1: that are like a thousand miles away from each other, 285 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,480 Speaker 1: they can feel each other and they feel each other's 286 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: electric fields. Right that electromagnetism extends infinitely far the weak force. 287 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: Another way to think about why it's weak is that 288 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: it only interacts with things very very near it, right, 289 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: Like you have to be really close to the neutrino 290 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 1: to interact with it. Is that true? Like to electrons, 291 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 1: even though even if there are millions of light years apart, 292 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: they'll still feel each other. Absolutely, You feel the electric 293 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: field from electrons in Alpha Centauri or the Andromeda galaxy 294 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:55,120 Speaker 1: or halfway across the universe. Absolutely? Is that why I 295 00:15:55,160 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: feel like I'm being pulled apart? No, that it's like 296 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:04,320 Speaker 1: maybe the only scientific connection between astronomy and astrology, Like, 297 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:09,760 Speaker 1: are you affected by the movements of the planets? Well, maybe, 298 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: but it's really negligible. And I also remember that it's 299 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:14,720 Speaker 1: time delayed. You know, if you if there are electrons 300 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:17,800 Speaker 1: and Alpha Centauri and somebody wiggles them, you don't see 301 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: those wiggles until until the information comes here, which takes 302 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:23,480 Speaker 1: you know, which travels at the speed of light, so 303 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: it takes a long time. But you're saying the weak 304 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:29,200 Speaker 1: Newark force doesn't have that long range, like at some 305 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:33,320 Speaker 1: point two particles that feel it don't affect each other 306 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: with the weak force. That's right. The range of the 307 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: force is really tiny. It's like the diameter of a proton, right, 308 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:42,480 Speaker 1: So these particles have to be really close together. It's 309 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:44,720 Speaker 1: just another way of thinking about whether these two things 310 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:47,520 Speaker 1: will interact. I think about it's sort of like, you know, 311 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:51,240 Speaker 1: imagine you're throwing two baseballs at each other, right, They're 312 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 1: less likely to interact than if you're throwing two basketballs 313 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: at each other, or two um or some really enormous ball, 314 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,440 Speaker 1: some like enormous yoga bouncy yoga ball at each other, right, 315 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,200 Speaker 1: And so the side this is what we call cross 316 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:06,439 Speaker 1: section in physics, because the cross section of those balls 317 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:08,400 Speaker 1: tells you how likely they are to hit each other. 318 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:11,399 Speaker 1: Balls with a really small cross section, like if you're throwing, 319 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,040 Speaker 1: you know, pebbles at each other, it's much harder for 320 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,679 Speaker 1: them to hit. And so the range of this force 321 00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: tells you basically the cross section of their interaction. And 322 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:22,360 Speaker 1: so the weak force is a really small range, which 323 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:25,040 Speaker 1: makes it less likely to interact. When they interact that 324 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:27,160 Speaker 1: you know, they still bounce off each other, like anything else, 325 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:30,080 Speaker 1: just less likely to happen. So what happens when you 326 00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:33,600 Speaker 1: get further away? Does the force just drops off? Or 327 00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:37,359 Speaker 1: you know, like I've heard that at some point the 328 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:41,399 Speaker 1: weak force doesn't travel far because the particles decay or 329 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:45,200 Speaker 1: they don't last far far out enough. Yeah, that's a 330 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:47,399 Speaker 1: really fascinating way to think about it. Um. Yeah, the 331 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,000 Speaker 1: weak force, it just is negligible beyond a certain distance, 332 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,359 Speaker 1: like you know, it's basically zero. And another way to 333 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:55,720 Speaker 1: answer the question why is the weak force weak? I 334 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:57,280 Speaker 1: mean one way to say, as well, it just has 335 00:17:57,280 --> 00:17:59,720 Speaker 1: a number associated with it, and that number is smaller 336 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,760 Speaker 1: than the number associated with electromagnetism or you know, the 337 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:05,760 Speaker 1: strong force, And then of course you can ask why. 338 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: But one way to explain that is to think about 339 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:12,040 Speaker 1: it in terms of the particles that transmit these forces. Right, 340 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:14,560 Speaker 1: we think about like the photon. The photon is the 341 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 1: thing that transmits electromagnetism. Right, what do we mean by that, Well, 342 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: we have this sort of picture that like two electrons 343 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:23,840 Speaker 1: coming near each other, one of them can shoot off 344 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,040 Speaker 1: a photon to hit the other electron and push it away, 345 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:31,160 Speaker 1: And that's like how electrons repel via a photon, and 346 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,480 Speaker 1: we we use that same sort of picture for all 347 00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:36,679 Speaker 1: the forces. Actually, but the particles that are associated with 348 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,800 Speaker 1: the weak force, they are not massless like the photon. 349 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:44,119 Speaker 1: Is the reason electromagnetism extends so far is because the 350 00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:46,440 Speaker 1: photon is massless. It zooms away the speed of light 351 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:49,879 Speaker 1: and it doesn't decay. Right, Photons can go forever, But 352 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 1: the weak force has these really heavy particles. They're really 353 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,040 Speaker 1: really heavy, and so they don't go very far before 354 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:58,480 Speaker 1: they basically decays. Like if I was trying to hit 355 00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:03,240 Speaker 1: you with a bowling ball and my range would be limited. Yeah, 356 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:05,320 Speaker 1: Or if you, like you know, had taped a bunch 357 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:07,920 Speaker 1: of stuff together very loosely and then try to throw 358 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: it at me and it exploded in mid air before 359 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,399 Speaker 1: it got to me, like throwing the sandball. At some 360 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:17,399 Speaker 1: point it might break up a standball exactly. It's like 361 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,560 Speaker 1: throwing a sandball. You know, you're not really getting get 362 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:21,440 Speaker 1: hit by the full force of the sandball unless you're 363 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:25,720 Speaker 1: really close. And that's that's fascinating. Like these particles, these 364 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 1: particles that mediate the weak force bosons, why are they 365 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,520 Speaker 1: so heavy and the and the photon is masseless. That's 366 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,480 Speaker 1: like one of the deep questions in physics over the 367 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:37,239 Speaker 1: last few decades. And that's why the photon can go 368 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 1: to infinity because it's massless and it just keeps going 369 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:43,640 Speaker 1: right exactly. That's why electromagnetism is powerful, and that's why 370 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: it's range is infinite, and the weak force is very 371 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,680 Speaker 1: weak because the things that carry it are very fat 372 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 1: and slow. You know. It's like, you know, if you 373 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 1: wanted to send letters ups drivers are super super faster 374 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,720 Speaker 1: driving Lamborghinis, right, and uh, instead you sent it via 375 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,240 Speaker 1: I don't know, um u s mail and they're driving, 376 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: you know, a big, heavy slow bus or something. Um 377 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:07,639 Speaker 1: your letters is not going to get there is fast 378 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:09,560 Speaker 1: or might not even get there. So the thing that 379 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:13,399 Speaker 1: carries the messages, the information of the weak force, is 380 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,720 Speaker 1: big and heavy weeks and that that's what makes the 381 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:22,800 Speaker 1: blame the messenger. And the fascinating thing is that that's 382 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,160 Speaker 1: really only relevant um sort of late in the universe. 383 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,359 Speaker 1: That's relevant when everyone there isn't a whole lot of energy, 384 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:33,199 Speaker 1: because the mass these particles makes a difference when everything 385 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:35,320 Speaker 1: doesn't have a lot of energy. But if everything was 386 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,560 Speaker 1: really hot and dense and and zooming around, then it 387 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: wouldn't really matter what the mass of these particles was, right, 388 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:43,639 Speaker 1: they have a little bit of mass or not they 389 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,080 Speaker 1: had a lot of energy, wouldn't make any difference. And 390 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:48,840 Speaker 1: that's why we think back from the beginning of the universe, 391 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: electromagnetism and the weak force had the same strength because 392 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:57,120 Speaker 1: everything we're just closer together and interacting the same way. Yeah, 393 00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: and those particles, the ones that carry the weak force, 394 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:01,840 Speaker 1: just had enough energy to get further. The fact that 395 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: they had mass didn't really matter because they had so 396 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: much energy it was negligible. All right, So that's the 397 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,119 Speaker 1: weak force. Now we know it's a force, and we 398 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,919 Speaker 1: know why it's weak, and so let's get into what's 399 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,000 Speaker 1: interesting about the weak force? Why is it weak? Um? 400 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:17,000 Speaker 1: What's weird about it? Why do we have it? And 401 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,399 Speaker 1: how did it help us discover the Higgs Boson? But 402 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break. All right, Hey, Daniel, 403 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,160 Speaker 1: do you think the weak force knows that it's called 404 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,119 Speaker 1: the weak force? You know what? I think its agents 405 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:43,720 Speaker 1: have been working for quite a while to get a 406 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: name change. Yeah, I think it needs a pr overhaul 407 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:48,960 Speaker 1: for sure. Should be called Would you like to be 408 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,600 Speaker 1: called doctor Week or Daniel weak or I don't think 409 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:56,879 Speaker 1: anyone Master of the Week Fource experts still worked out 410 00:21:56,880 --> 00:22:05,879 Speaker 1: for John Week that franchise exactly force then exactly Well, 411 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: you know, what would you have called the weak force? Well, 412 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,600 Speaker 1: I don't know anything about it. Much about it. You 413 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: should listen to this podcast to explain it to you. 414 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 1: It's really good. Well, all I know is that it's 415 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,439 Speaker 1: weak and that it's a force. But you know, is 416 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:20,480 Speaker 1: there what do we know about it that might give 417 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:23,040 Speaker 1: it some identity? Like what's special about? What are you 418 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:25,440 Speaker 1: special about it? It's pretty weird. It can do some 419 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,840 Speaker 1: things that other forces can't do. It's sort of like 420 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,240 Speaker 1: messes with your mind. A lot of the things that 421 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 1: we thought we knew about the universe, that we just 422 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,160 Speaker 1: assumed were fundamentally true about the universe, the weak force 423 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:37,600 Speaker 1: just sort of breaks those rules and shrugs and moves on. 424 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:40,639 Speaker 1: And so it's a great window into like what is 425 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:43,040 Speaker 1: the sort of the limitation? What can forces do in 426 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 1: the universe. It turns out they can do a lot 427 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:46,359 Speaker 1: of things that we thought were impossible. And that's what 428 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,360 Speaker 1: the weak force can do. Yeah, that's what the weak 429 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 1: force can do. For example, the weak force can change 430 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,040 Speaker 1: cork flavors. We had a whole podcast episode about cork flavors. 431 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,080 Speaker 1: And for those of you are thinking, what what's the 432 00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: cork and how does it have flavors? We're not talking 433 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:04,000 Speaker 1: about European yogurt snacks. There are flavors snacks called cork. 434 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,679 Speaker 1: We're talking about fundamental particles. Yeah, and so this the 435 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:11,680 Speaker 1: weak force can change the flavor of a cork, yeah, exactly. 436 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: Electromagnetism can't do that, right, you have you have a 437 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,960 Speaker 1: charm cork. It can't give off a photon and then 438 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:22,040 Speaker 1: become an up cork. That doesn't happen, right, But if 439 00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:24,720 Speaker 1: the charm interacts using the weak force, you can give 440 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,200 Speaker 1: off one of the particles that it transmits, and if 441 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 1: it can become for example, a down cork or a 442 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,840 Speaker 1: strange cork can become an up cork, right, or top 443 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,360 Speaker 1: cork can become a bottom cork or a down cork, right, 444 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:38,720 Speaker 1: And so it can actually change these flavors, and other 445 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,199 Speaker 1: other forces are not allowed to do that well. And 446 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,960 Speaker 1: that's kind of a big deal because if I change 447 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,560 Speaker 1: all the flavors in the courts inside of your atoms, 448 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,560 Speaker 1: you'd be in trouble. Right, Well, I think I'd be 449 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 1: even tasting charming and strange, but uh or more charming 450 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: and more strangers. Yeah, well, you know this. You think 451 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 1: of its sort of like a ladder. There's the lowest 452 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,000 Speaker 1: energy ones, the lowest mass ones. Those are the upcork 453 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:06,679 Speaker 1: and the down cork, and if you have the heavier corks, 454 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 1: then that they tend to decay down the ladder. Things 455 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:11,800 Speaker 1: in the universe tend to be the lowest energy state, 456 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,560 Speaker 1: the lowest mass particles. So if you have the heavier 457 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 1: particles like the top, then it uses the weak force 458 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:19,080 Speaker 1: to sort of step down that ladder, down to the 459 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,680 Speaker 1: up and the down and I and you and banana 460 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:24,879 Speaker 1: you've ever eaten are made up of just upcorks and 461 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 1: down corks and of course electronics. But it also changes. 462 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:30,800 Speaker 1: It can change the upquorks and down corks back into 463 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,080 Speaker 1: each other. And that's actually what we call radioactive beta decay. 464 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,159 Speaker 1: That's how you change, for example, a neutron into a 465 00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: proton is by changing is by going back and forth 466 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,440 Speaker 1: between upquorks and down corks, because that's the difference between 467 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: neutrons and protons. It's just one up versus one down. 468 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,199 Speaker 1: So it's weird because it can really mess with the 469 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 1: identity of matter. Right Like, if if all my quorks 470 00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: change identities, I would probably blow up, right, I wouldn't 471 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,960 Speaker 1: be able to stay together, right Like, if all my 472 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,880 Speaker 1: protons turned into neutrons, you know, goodbye hore. Yeah, well, 473 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,520 Speaker 1: protons don't turn into neutrons, right. Protons are stable, which 474 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:07,400 Speaker 1: is a whole other fascinating thing, like can protons live 475 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:09,239 Speaker 1: for the whole life of the universe or do they 476 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,439 Speaker 1: eventually decay? Currently we think that protons live for like 477 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,880 Speaker 1: zillions of years, but neutrons don't. Neutrons will eventually turn 478 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: into protons, and that's fascinating. And that's what the that's 479 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:20,760 Speaker 1: what the weak nuclear force does, and only the weak 480 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:25,320 Speaker 1: force can do that. Okay, that's weird. Um, so maybe 481 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:26,960 Speaker 1: I would call it a weird force. I don't know. 482 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:35,320 Speaker 1: The flavor force A force seems a little the tasty force. 483 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,159 Speaker 1: You know. The particles that it uses are also weird. 484 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:41,439 Speaker 1: Like we said, the electromagnetism has the photon, right, and 485 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: that's how it transmits information. And the weak force is 486 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:49,159 Speaker 1: more complicated. It has three particles that transmit its forces. 487 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:52,000 Speaker 1: Has this particle we call the z boson and then 488 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,600 Speaker 1: it has the W plus and the W minus and 489 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,440 Speaker 1: we call them plus and minus because those particles themselves 490 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,719 Speaker 1: have electric charge. So it's the particles of one force 491 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:08,639 Speaker 1: feel the forces of another force. So affect the weak 492 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,440 Speaker 1: force using a magnet is kind of what you're saying, yeah, exactly. 493 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,119 Speaker 1: Or the particles that transmit the weak force can shoot 494 00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,920 Speaker 1: off photons, right, they interact with each other using electromagnetism. Yeah, 495 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:22,640 Speaker 1: and that was a big clue. We'll talk about that later, 496 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,200 Speaker 1: that there's a deep, deep connection between the weak force 497 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,280 Speaker 1: and electromagnetism. It's kind of like it would be cool, 498 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,840 Speaker 1: like if, for example, you can affect gravity using electromagnetism, right, 499 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,560 Speaker 1: Like that would be crazy. Then you can yeah, right exactly, 500 00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,680 Speaker 1: you could like make a magnet which turned off gravity 501 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:41,119 Speaker 1: or so that would be cool. And you know, we 502 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: hope one day in the far future to have a 503 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,880 Speaker 1: unified understanding of all the forces, take gravity, turn into 504 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,080 Speaker 1: a quantum mechanical theory, which we haven't done yet and 505 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,399 Speaker 1: have no clue how to do, and then somehow unify 506 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,199 Speaker 1: it with the other forces and show that show that 507 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,720 Speaker 1: there's they're all just part of the same larger force. 508 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,159 Speaker 1: In that case, then maybe you could do what you 509 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,639 Speaker 1: just said is use one part of the force to 510 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,480 Speaker 1: balance another part of the force and affected. So yeah, 511 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,600 Speaker 1: I think you just invented an anti gravity machine right here, right, 512 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,080 Speaker 1: A should kick one what one half of a Nobel 513 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:15,439 Speaker 1: prize then, or let's go with were equal. That's probably 514 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: the chances that I will get one. Um, I think 515 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:26,720 Speaker 1: that's probably accurate. Yeah, alright, so well let's get into 516 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,080 Speaker 1: Now we know what it is, we know what it's 517 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,520 Speaker 1: kind of weird. Wait, but wait, there's more. There's even 518 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:33,359 Speaker 1: a weirder thing about that. I thought it was weak, 519 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:37,040 Speaker 1: but there's more. All right, it's weak, but it's got 520 00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: a long backstory. Right. It's one of these superhero characters 521 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,080 Speaker 1: with like a really deep interesting connection. It was affected 522 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,440 Speaker 1: in its childhood and it's carrying all that back. Black 523 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,679 Speaker 1: Widow's not a lot of superpowers, but you're like, what 524 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:52,680 Speaker 1: is going on with her? Oh? You mean Black Wood 525 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,920 Speaker 1: of the superhero not the actual Spider. Yeah exactly. She 526 00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,400 Speaker 1: she looks good in leather and she can really kick. Yeah, 527 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 1: but she has all the this mysterious Russian spy backstory. 528 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,480 Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. She's intimidating. Now the one of the weirdest things. 529 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 1: But the weak force is that it breaks what we 530 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,919 Speaker 1: thought was a fundamental symmetry in the universe, and that 531 00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 1: is that we we think that it shouldn't make a 532 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,399 Speaker 1: difference sort of how you draw your X, Y and 533 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,240 Speaker 1: Z axes. Like, if you have to draw, you draw 534 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:22,960 Speaker 1: an X axis and Y axis, you put them in 535 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,960 Speaker 1: ninety degrees with each other. Right, then you're gonna draw 536 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:27,800 Speaker 1: Z access you want to put it in ninety degrees. 537 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:29,240 Speaker 1: But then there's a question do you draw it like 538 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,160 Speaker 1: sort of up above the X Y axis or down 539 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:36,000 Speaker 1: below right? And the difference is what we call handedness. 540 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:38,520 Speaker 1: Is it a left handed system or a right handed system. 541 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,240 Speaker 1: It's really just arbitrary, and so because most of us 542 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 1: are right handed, we tend to draw those things the 543 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,160 Speaker 1: way you would have the first three fingers on your 544 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,760 Speaker 1: right hand point, so we call them right handed coordinates. 545 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 1: It's kind of related to mirrors, right like you think 546 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,000 Speaker 1: that physics should work the same on one side of 547 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,560 Speaker 1: the mirror or in the reflection of the mirror exactly, 548 00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:58,480 Speaker 1: because if you take a right handed coordinate system and 549 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,400 Speaker 1: you look in the mirror, then it looks left handed, 550 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: and so for a long time people thought, well, that's 551 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: just a thing we made up. It's just like human 552 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,240 Speaker 1: it's not fundamental or physical, right, And so they said, well, 553 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,480 Speaker 1: physics shouldn't matter. They should the physics shouldn't depend on 554 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 1: whether things are right handed or left handed. So they 555 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,240 Speaker 1: made this assumption. They said, well, we assume that any 556 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: experiment you do, if you watch the experiment in the mirror, 557 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: you should also be able to do that mirror experiment, right, 558 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: that the laws of physics should work the same here 559 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: as they do in in the mirror. Right, So, like 560 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 1: you do some experiment you watch in the mirror, you 561 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: should you should be able to do that same experiment, 562 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,600 Speaker 1: or our laws of physics should still govern what's happening 563 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,880 Speaker 1: in the mirror. But you're saying the week four is 564 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:41,800 Speaker 1: totally doesn't care. Yeah, And this is one of the 565 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,959 Speaker 1: great stories of physics is that nobody checked for a 566 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,959 Speaker 1: long long time, Like they checked the electromagnetism be up, 567 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,720 Speaker 1: it's true. They checked the strong force e up, it's true. 568 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,800 Speaker 1: And they thought, well, this is just so fundamental and obvious, 569 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,400 Speaker 1: like we don't need to check it. You know. It's 570 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: like you know, do you check that the sun doesn't 571 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 1: like come out and middle of the night. No, you 572 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:02,600 Speaker 1: just they don't get up in the middle of the 573 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 1: night and check if the sun is sneaking sneaking around, right? 574 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:07,160 Speaker 1: You just you checked at at sunset, you check at 575 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:10,040 Speaker 1: its sun at sunrise, and you assume what else is happening? Right? 576 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: So people thought, well, the weak force is really hard 577 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,680 Speaker 1: to test, so we'll just assume that it also respects 578 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 1: the symmetry called parody. And then in the fifties some 579 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 1: theorists realized nobody has actually ever checked this, so maybe 580 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,240 Speaker 1: somebody should. And this is a great story about a 581 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 1: physicist at Columbia. She was planning to go on vacation 582 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,280 Speaker 1: with her husband for Christmas, and she said, you know what, 583 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:33,560 Speaker 1: I can't go on vacation. I can't relax without knowing 584 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:38,520 Speaker 1: the answer to this deep question. Sounds like a physicist exactly. 585 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: So her husband went on vacation by himself and she 586 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,920 Speaker 1: stayed back and she did these experiments where she demonstrated. 587 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,360 Speaker 1: She asked the question, would the weak force look the 588 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:48,880 Speaker 1: same in the mirror? And she said, up, this really 589 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,520 Speaker 1: complicated but but very clever experiment. And it's difficult to 590 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,560 Speaker 1: describe with the audio, so I encourage everybody to check 591 00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,200 Speaker 1: out or hey, your video on on this experiment, which 592 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,600 Speaker 1: you can find by googling at the short version together 593 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,680 Speaker 1: Daniel don't remember we made it with the Derek Mueller 594 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,680 Speaker 1: of veritassium. If you look up. Yeah, it's a great video. 595 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: It's a great video. It's called do particles respect time symmetry? 596 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,160 Speaker 1: Or do particles go backwards in time? In that video 597 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: you can see that the weak force doesn't work the 598 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:19,160 Speaker 1: same in the mirror. In fact, in the mirror it 599 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,239 Speaker 1: works exactly the opposite. So not only does it not 600 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,240 Speaker 1: like respect this basic symmetry we assume was a true 601 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:29,840 Speaker 1: thing about the universe, it violates it almost. So it's weak, 602 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,880 Speaker 1: but it's like the rebel force, yeah, which means that 603 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,840 Speaker 1: like our universe is, you know, has a handedness. It's 604 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,320 Speaker 1: not like it could have been this or it could 605 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:41,160 Speaker 1: have been that. It is one way right. And anytime 606 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:42,560 Speaker 1: you see a kind of thing like that in physics, 607 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 1: where it's like an arbitrary choice between two things you 608 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 1: expected to be balanced or even or symmetric, and then 609 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,719 Speaker 1: it's not, that's a clue that tells you something happened 610 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:53,760 Speaker 1: when the universe was being cooked up, that it went 611 00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: this way and not that way. What is that? Yeah? 612 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: It makes you realize that the universe maybe it doesn't 613 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,320 Speaker 1: have laws, or the laws you thought real to universe 614 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,600 Speaker 1: are not always true exactly. It makes you wonder is 615 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,160 Speaker 1: there a deeper understanding in which it had to be 616 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 1: this way? Right? Is it just arbitrary and random and 617 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,200 Speaker 1: we live in a multiverse and it's one of a 618 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,560 Speaker 1: bazillion and there's no reason for it. I don't like 619 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,280 Speaker 1: that idea. I think it's a clue that there's something 620 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: deeper going on. There's another way to think about the 621 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,320 Speaker 1: way the universe works that requires it to be this 622 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,920 Speaker 1: this thing that's weird to us. And and those are 623 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,400 Speaker 1: the moments of insight. That's when when your intuition is 624 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,160 Speaker 1: confronted by reality and you realize, here's a clue that 625 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:36,400 Speaker 1: reality is quite different from my intuition. Those are learning moments, right, No, definitely, 626 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,320 Speaker 1: I have a lot more respect now for the week 627 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,000 Speaker 1: for us. I mean, it's so weird and breaks all 628 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 1: these laws. I feel like you just upgraded it from 629 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:47,600 Speaker 1: Ringo to George Harrison, you know what I mean? Like 630 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:49,880 Speaker 1: there you go. So, now we should be called the 631 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 1: well respected, well respected will light interesting, you should speak 632 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,200 Speaker 1: with a stuffy British accent. Well, let's get into now 633 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: whether we even need the weak force or why is 634 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:17,680 Speaker 1: it important? But first let's take a quick break. All right, 635 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:21,080 Speaker 1: let's get into why we need the weak fource? Do 636 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:23,360 Speaker 1: we even need it? Like, well, there's two questions, I 637 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: think practically, So practically, first of all, what would happen 638 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,720 Speaker 1: if we didn't have the weak fource? We still be here? 639 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:33,120 Speaker 1: And the second why is it important to physics? Yeah, 640 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,480 Speaker 1: so that's a fun hypothetical question, like if you deleted 641 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,760 Speaker 1: a law of physics, what would happen? Right? Well, obviously 642 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,360 Speaker 1: everything would be different. Um you know, yeah, well you 643 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,040 Speaker 1: wouldn't have radioactive decay, right For example, you wouldn't have 644 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 1: beta decay. The weak force is important to making things 645 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: happen in the center of suns and the structure of 646 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,080 Speaker 1: the atom is partially controlled by the weak force, and 647 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,480 Speaker 1: so everything would be different if we took it out. 648 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: If we eliminated Ringo Star from the Beatles, what would 649 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,520 Speaker 1: happen to my atoms? Like would I just dissolve? Would 650 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,760 Speaker 1: I explode? Would I feel just a little heavier or 651 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 1: what would happen, Well, it depends. Are you talking about 652 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,840 Speaker 1: starting from the beginning of the universe never having the 653 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,239 Speaker 1: weak force, or having the current universe and then just 654 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:16,919 Speaker 1: turning it off. Let's do the second one first, So 655 00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:20,120 Speaker 1: clip the switch, the weak force just quit goes away. 656 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,319 Speaker 1: What happens the first caveat is it's impossible. It doesn't 657 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,400 Speaker 1: make any sense for reasons we'll talk about in a minute. 658 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:27,360 Speaker 1: Because it turns out the weak force is just entangled 659 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 1: with everything else and you can't get rid of it 660 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,720 Speaker 1: right the way. You can't just fire your drummer, um, 661 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: and the universe wouldn't make any sense if you did that. 662 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,719 Speaker 1: But say you just turn that off somehow, somehow you're 663 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,520 Speaker 1: able to get to the control penalty universe and turn 664 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 1: off the weak force. What would happen. I don't think 665 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,000 Speaker 1: you would feel it immediately? Um. I think we would 666 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,439 Speaker 1: never interact with new trinos again. Right, New trinos would 667 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 1: just become invisible, becoming decoupled with them. But yeah, no 668 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,200 Speaker 1: big laws whenever they feeling. New trinos would be harder 669 00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,600 Speaker 1: to run nuclear reactors right, and fission wouldn't work the 670 00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:01,960 Speaker 1: same way, So we'd have to re engineer all of that. 671 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: But again, you know, um, not everybody is a big 672 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:06,680 Speaker 1: fan of nuclear power. The structure the atom would be 673 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:09,000 Speaker 1: a little bit different, right, I mean, it certainly plays 674 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,719 Speaker 1: a role in how the nucleus is held together and 675 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:14,200 Speaker 1: how it gets broken up. So that's a good deep question. 676 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:16,440 Speaker 1: I'm not sure the answer of how it changes structure 677 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:18,560 Speaker 1: the atom, but mostly I think you could just totally 678 00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:23,080 Speaker 1: ignore the neutrinos that were already mostly ignoring all right, So, um, 679 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: so then what's the other answer that if we started 680 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,359 Speaker 1: off the universe without the weak force, would we end 681 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,320 Speaker 1: up in the same spot. Yeah, that's a great question. 682 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,279 Speaker 1: I think I have to deflect that question because I 683 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 1: don't think the universe makes any sense without the weak force. 684 00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,239 Speaker 1: And the reason is that it turns out the weak 685 00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,760 Speaker 1: force is not its own thing. It's not like a 686 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,359 Speaker 1: completely separate thing that we're like right now, we don't 687 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,160 Speaker 1: understand any connection between gravity and electromagnetism. They seem like 688 00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:53,080 Speaker 1: totally different phenomena with no relationship. Turns out the weak 689 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 1: force is not its own thing. It's actually part of electromagnetism, 690 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,839 Speaker 1: or said more correctly, the weak force and ectro magnetism 691 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,920 Speaker 1: are part of one larger force. I've heard that before, 692 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,840 Speaker 1: that the weak force and the electromagnetic force are actually 693 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: just one. What does that mean, Like they're they're actually 694 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:13,720 Speaker 1: the same particles, but they behave differently or they're all 695 00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,799 Speaker 1: like different flavors of the same particles. What does that mean? 696 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:19,319 Speaker 1: It means that they're all different parts of the same thing. 697 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:21,439 Speaker 1: They're they're all like different sides of the same coin. 698 00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:23,759 Speaker 1: And I think a more intuitive analogy to help you 699 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,680 Speaker 1: get there is to think about electricity and magnetism. Like 700 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:30,799 Speaker 1: and fifty years ago, people thought electricity, Oh, that's the 701 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,799 Speaker 1: thing that zaps you. Magnetism that's the thing that lets 702 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 1: magnets fly or magnets work, right, And I thought they 703 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:40,200 Speaker 1: were totally separate. And it wasn't until Maxwell wrote down 704 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,240 Speaker 1: Maxwell's equations and he realized, Hold on a second, the 705 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,239 Speaker 1: laws that government electricity and the laws that governed magnetism 706 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,880 Speaker 1: are basically the same thing when you write them down mathematically. 707 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:54,080 Speaker 1: And you know, magnets can create currents and currents can 708 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: create magnets. So it turns out that there's just one force, electromagnetism. 709 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,160 Speaker 1: And we had artificially set operated into two. We were 710 00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,839 Speaker 1: just categorizing the different parts of it separately and had 711 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,000 Speaker 1: recognized that it makes much more sense when they're connected. 712 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:11,960 Speaker 1: So we said, okay, let's just call this one force electromagnetism. Right, 713 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,840 Speaker 1: So it's like the same force. It just sometimes acts 714 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:19,760 Speaker 1: to create currents inside of wires and sometimes it acts 715 00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:23,040 Speaker 1: to repel magnets apart, but it's the same thing. You're 716 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:26,480 Speaker 1: just one guy. Sometimes you're happy, sometimes you're grumpy, right, Like, 717 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:28,840 Speaker 1: are you a different person when you're grumpy? I mean, 718 00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,080 Speaker 1: some people might say so, but I know deep down 719 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: you're you're really the same person. And so it makes 720 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:35,720 Speaker 1: much more sense to say, oh, this is different sides 721 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,759 Speaker 1: of somebody's personality. This is two different aspects of the 722 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 1: same thing sometimes like different feelings of it or different 723 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: behaviors of it. Yeah, exactly. And what we've discovered is 724 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,720 Speaker 1: that the photon and the w and the z bosons 725 00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:53,120 Speaker 1: are all just parts of one force that we called 726 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:55,920 Speaker 1: the electroweak force. And you notice what happened there is 727 00:37:55,920 --> 00:38:00,040 Speaker 1: that we merged electricity and magnetism into electromagnetism than we 728 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,520 Speaker 1: added the weak force, and like magnetism just kind of 729 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,560 Speaker 1: got squeezed out. It should have been called like electromagnetic 730 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,840 Speaker 1: weak force or something like your weak magnetic force or 731 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,719 Speaker 1: magneto weak force, right, electricity, electromagnetic That's how I would 732 00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:16,800 Speaker 1: have maybe count it. But so you're saying then that 733 00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:21,080 Speaker 1: electrons and W, the W and the z bosons, they're 734 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 1: all those are different, but they're all carriers of the 735 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,480 Speaker 1: same force. Yeah, there's one larger, more complex force, and 736 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:32,280 Speaker 1: we call it electroweak. And it has four carriers, the photon, 737 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,760 Speaker 1: the two ws, and the z and has four carriers 738 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,000 Speaker 1: to it. Does the weak force have like charge, you 739 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:41,719 Speaker 1: know how we talked about electromagnetism has charge, and the 740 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,920 Speaker 1: strong force has color color, and and the weak force 741 00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:49,239 Speaker 1: has its own thing. It's called weak hypercharge, which is 742 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:56,040 Speaker 1: like a contradictory branding a great name, I know, super awesome, 743 00:38:56,080 --> 00:39:01,560 Speaker 1: not that awesome charge, it's kind of confusing. Has weak hypercharge. 744 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:06,719 Speaker 1: And then together the combined electroweak force has something called 745 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,840 Speaker 1: weak isospin, which is not has nothing to do with spin. 746 00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: So it's a big mess, and it comes from a 747 00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,879 Speaker 1: historical naming accident. Really, the main lesson is just that 748 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:18,840 Speaker 1: they can be described by sort of the same what 749 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,239 Speaker 1: is it terms and the equations of the universe kind 750 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,520 Speaker 1: of yeah, exactly, they have. The mathematics is very similar, 751 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,000 Speaker 1: and in fact um when people were looking at that, 752 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,560 Speaker 1: they noticed, like, these things are so similar, But why 753 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,160 Speaker 1: is the photon have no mass and these other particles 754 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:36,400 Speaker 1: have a lot of mass? Right, Like, that's why electricity 755 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,240 Speaker 1: and magnetisms seem so different from the rest of the force, 756 00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,960 Speaker 1: because this one particle, the photon, has no mass, but 757 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:44,880 Speaker 1: the other ones have a lot of mass. So that 758 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,960 Speaker 1: was a big puzzle like fifty years ago, and that's 759 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,320 Speaker 1: the puzzle that inspired Higgs himself to think up the 760 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:55,399 Speaker 1: Higgs boson. Said well, maybe there's this other particle out there, 761 00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,560 Speaker 1: this other field, and it's interacting with these bosons and 762 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:00,759 Speaker 1: it's giving them mass. He came up with a really 763 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,880 Speaker 1: clever mathematical way to make that happen, to give mass 764 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:06,279 Speaker 1: to just these particles and not to the photon. So 765 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,120 Speaker 1: I think the conclusion of all it is then, is 766 00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:13,040 Speaker 1: that the weak force. It's there. It's kind of like 767 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,759 Speaker 1: the conjoint twin of electromagnetism, right, it's not its own thing, 768 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:21,400 Speaker 1: that's right, Yeah, exactly, And it's not very consequential in 769 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:23,520 Speaker 1: the universe, meaning that you can take it away, but 770 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,319 Speaker 1: we wouldn't instantly feel it. But it's sort of necessary, right, 771 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:29,319 Speaker 1: It's part of the universe, and in fact, it kind 772 00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,000 Speaker 1: of gave us a lot of clues about the universe, 773 00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:34,399 Speaker 1: including the Higgs boson. That's right, and you can sort 774 00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:36,520 Speaker 1: of blame it on the Higgs, right. The Higgs is 775 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:38,279 Speaker 1: the reason that the W and di z have so 776 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:40,960 Speaker 1: much mass, and that's why it's so weak. So if 777 00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:43,080 Speaker 1: it wasn't for the Higgs holding it down, the weak 778 00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,759 Speaker 1: force would have had a much different career arc. Maybe 779 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:50,320 Speaker 1: we should call it the I hate the Higgs force exactly. 780 00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:55,479 Speaker 1: Probably it's a mental state than the weak force. Yeah, 781 00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:58,759 Speaker 1: but it's like, you know, many Nobel prizes have been 782 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:03,200 Speaker 1: won along the route to understanding this, Understanding that electricity 783 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:06,759 Speaker 1: and magnetism are together with the weak force, understanding the 784 00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:09,520 Speaker 1: Higgs mechanism, all this stuff. These are a lot of 785 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:13,759 Speaker 1: really important ideas, were all really complex. Mathematical machinery was 786 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:17,200 Speaker 1: developed just to understand this, and it's really beautiful when 787 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,880 Speaker 1: you learn that because it shows you how the structure 788 00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:24,080 Speaker 1: these theories really are deeply mathematical. Now, how much mathematics 789 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,600 Speaker 1: really reveals the way the universe works. All right, something 790 00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:31,319 Speaker 1: on a note of beauty. That's pretty cool. Yeah, So 791 00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:33,279 Speaker 1: for those of you interested in learning more about it, 792 00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:35,040 Speaker 1: or encourage you to get a little bit into the 793 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:37,840 Speaker 1: group theory because it connects for you the symmetry of 794 00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,160 Speaker 1: these things with the idea of particles carrying these forces 795 00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,200 Speaker 1: and why it has to be that way. It's really 796 00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:45,279 Speaker 1: deep and fascinating and we should dive into it on 797 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:47,840 Speaker 1: another podcast episode. All right, Thanks for joining us. I 798 00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:50,520 Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed that. We'll see you next time. Thanks 799 00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:52,600 Speaker 1: for tuning in, and I hope it wasn't a weak episode. 800 00:41:52,800 --> 00:42:02,959 Speaker 1: I had a forceful impact on you. If you still 801 00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,000 Speaker 1: have a question after listening to all these explanations, please 802 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:08,600 Speaker 1: drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. 803 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:11,440 Speaker 1: You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at 804 00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:14,919 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge that's one word, or email us at 805 00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,880 Speaker 1: Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, 806 00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,600 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is 807 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,160 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio from more podcast from 808 00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:28,920 Speaker 1: my Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 809 00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:31,400 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,