I don't understand how physicists cannot see the obvious: the size of a proton appears not to have a fixed/natural value. It seems to depend on the quantum state of their system, energy levels, and the coupling partner's quantum state, energy levels and mass. "Physicists finally nail..." sounds like a part of a joke: "Physicists finally nail the coffin with the research funds shut"
Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly
111–115 of 115 posts
Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
> One of the biggest problems in physics right now is that there are no experiments (except possibly this one) whose results are at odds with the Standard Model. If we say that new physics comes from inconsistencies (either between theory and experiment, or simply within a theory), then there is plenty of new physics to be done, for example the pretense that an electron is a fundamental particle results in the incons…
I assume that your solution is too big to fit in the margin of a Web page?
Hah! Fermat's comment indicated a willingness but lack of space.
My comment indicates unwillingness because I think I can deduce more from the insight. (resolving the infinite mass inconsistency was not in the original scope of my attempt, it just happened to roll out while trying to deduce the dimensionless ratio)
Anyway, the main point I was making was that there is plenty of work to be done, because theres plenty of unresolved problems left.
The usual deadlock picture (that theorists can't proceed if experimentalists don't bring new data, and experimentalists can't proceed if theorists don't bring good discriminative tests) hides either laziness or ignorance.
Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
More or less. We can hope that something more clever would be possible, like in the novel Schild's Ladder... Though we'd have to hope that, unlike that novel, we don't accidentally set off a vacuum collapse. That would be unfortunate.
It will also be a civilization-scale experiment on quantum immortality, where we can't get negative result.
You'll excuse me for not wanting to test that.
Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is an excellent question! The definition is somewhat arbitrary, but still has some real physical significance. In actual fact, a proton is a field, so it doesn't have sharp boundaries. But the amplitude of the field still dies off very rapidly with distance from the center, so you can pick some arbitrary small value and say "the point at which the amplitude becomes less than this value is the radius of the proto…
except for an explanation of 96% of the universe's mass
That's a sign of incompleteness, not of incorrectness.
Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the time! People propose hypotheses, supported by some preliminary data, and then they need to be tested. Some problems are easy, some take years or decades to be overturned. It's messy sometimes, but that's how science is supposed to work!
I think the parent was being sarcastic, hence the ;P emoji at the end of the post. However, I wanted to commend your reply. It seeks to educate without judgement. Cheers.
op here, i was sarcastic. the whole of science is based on best hypothesis is accepted as the ruling one. not as a fact of nature or reality ,but the best hypothesis. people take it often as fact though ,which led me to post a sarcastic comment just to point that out. sorry if it confused or offended someone :')