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Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

sciencemag.org

261–270 of 301 posts

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the theoretical prediction can't be calculated until the experiment is done that motivates the choices of what and what not to approximate, is it really a prediction?

Sometimes it's like unit tests, where you might get the test itself wrong at first, but that still helps you get closer and write better tests.

I have never thought of science as writing unit tests for the universe before, but I really like this analogy.

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#262
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it's like unit tests, where you might get the test itself wrong at first, but that still helps you get closer and write better tests.

I have never thought of science as writing unit tests for the universe before, but I really like this analogy.

I'm fond of using this analogy in the other direction: "tests are experiments, types are proofs".

(To be more precise, static types are propositions that the type checker tries to prove, but that's not as catchy.)

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#263
post #38

There was a nice explanation of the finding in comic format from APS & PhD Comics: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/47

Also concisely covered in Fermilab's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnK5exNhZ0

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me say that this is the best thing that I ever saw in science: people using art to explain extremely complex findings that might change the future in a bit. I laughed a bit on 'I don't know you anymore'. When I was younger, I remember to read cyberpunk comics quite a lot. They explain a vision of the future that is improbable, but in many ways it get stuff right. Imagine aligning this with real word science. Imag…

Which cyberpunk comics? Give us some recommendations please. :)

not op but I recommend the Nikopol trilogy by Enki Bilal

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#265
Knowledge - expands, Space exploration knowledge - expands, Sub atomic exploration - expands, (muon and we may even find its sub atomic particles as well) Space - expands, Number series - expands, Fibonacci - expands.

Be warned when something expands, you can never reach.

Its not the destination, its the journey :D

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#266
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a theory about how well educated the mass of humans are, could be and should be. Bear with me. Roughly 2000 years ago, the number of people who could do arithmetic and writing was Now it is 95% of the world population, and 99.9% of 'Western' world. Lets say that Alexey Petrov is about as highly educated and trained as any human so far. (A Physics PhD represents pretty much 25 years of full-time full-on educati…

Most people demonstrate pretty clearly that they don’t have the aptitude for serious physics. A substantial number of people can’t get passed freshman classes and that’s true even for the top few% of high school students.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the content is the problem. 200 years ago you could probably say the same thing about "basic algebra" instead of "serious physics".

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#267
post #260
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old calculation relies on older experimental results that have been verified by multiple experiments - so if the older value is wrong, it means either the calculation was done wrong (possible), or the experiments all have had a significant correlated systematic error that has never been caught (also possible). However, I’d say both of those things are relatively unlikely, when compared to the probability of some…

I'm a lattice QCD practitioner. What I'll say is that the BMW collaboration isn't named that by coincidence---they're a resource-rich, extremely knowledgeable, cutting-edge group that is the envy of many others. They're also cut-throat competitive, which is very divisive. Grad students and postdocs are forced to sign NDAs to work on the hot stuff. That's insane. What's worse, from my point of view (as an actual LQCD…

> OK, so they don't want to share their source code; that's fine.

No, it is not. It is the exact reason why rheir results are not trust worthy.

Publish the code, let it be checked by the peers.

Closed source code has no place in science and most journals now rightly demand open code for the publications.

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#268
post #40

Nature seems to have this interesting property of always increasing in perceived complexity.

Just my mind voice,

Knowledge - expands, Space exploration knowledge - expands, Sub atomic exploration - expands, (muon and we may even find its sub atomic particles as well) Space - expands, Number series - expands, Fibonacci - expands.

Be warned when something expands, it's a trap.

Science expands external knowledge and shrinks self-knowledge, Spirituality shrinks external-knowledge and expands self-knowledge.

Be warned when something expands. Be warned when something shrinks.

E=mc^2

where c is not just the speed of light, c is the speed of space expansion as well.

Mass expands to form energy (star)

Energy shrinks to form mass (black hole)

Re: Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted

#270

Science is a never ending series of incorrect observations, each disqualifying the penultimate while asserting the ultimate is axiomatic. When you're young you get excited each time a new breakthrough is happening. If you manage to grow up, you get tired of the pattern, and the signal to noise ratio starts to look like a good statistical P value.

That is very true.

Knowledge – expands,

Space exploration knowledge – expands,

Sub atomic exploration – expands, (muon and we may even find its sub atomic particles as well)

Space – expands,

Number series – expands,

Fibonacci – expands.

Science expands external knowledge and shrinks self-knowledge, Spirituality shrinks external-knowledge and expands self-knowledge.

Be warned when something expands. Be warned when something shrinks.

E=mc^2

where c is not just the speed of light, c is the speed of space expansion as well.

Mass expands to form energy (science)

Energy shrinks to form mass (spirituality)

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