Physics is just mindblowing. When I think deeply about the fact that things that are moving will keep on moving forever unless a force acts on them, and the fact that no one knows why it's true (and that the question may not even have any meaning), and that my body is nothing more than a very advanced method of propagating genetics, then... well, it's just a lot of fun to think about!
The fact that there are mysteries that no life will ever have answers to is quite humbling.
If you find physics interesting, then you'll love these Feynman lectures. Feynman is so good at explaining these concepts that you don't even need any formal training to understand them.
One of my most rewording experience in high-school physics was tracing the history of our understanding the speed of light. Specifically, the series of experiments and explanations we went through to arrive at the conclusion that it is constant relative to the observer.
I wont recount the specifics for fear of making a mistake, but the big takeaway was that the process was not one of finding the correct answer nearly as much as it was finding that our (then) current answer was incorrect. All this tells us of our current understanding is that it hasn't been disproven yet.
I'm confused. Neutrino oscillation has already been confirmed in 1998 IIRC. What is the novelty in this specific result? Not that confirmation isn't important at all, it's just the wording suggests a new result rather than a confirmation of a known result.
Presumably it's that a known muon-neutrino flux produced a higher than expected e-neutrino detection.
Given the difficulty with detecting weakly interacting particles that flavour shift I'd have thought far more data would need gathering to demonstrate "subtle differences".
I'm confused too. If I understand correctly it's the first time that the neutrino oscillation is measured in a muon-neutrino ray. As far as I know it's a difficult task, but the result is totally expected. The "new physics" claim looks like a link-bait.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 14.9 ms ] threadThe fact that there are mysteries that no life will ever have answers to is quite humbling.
If you find physics interesting, then you'll love these Feynman lectures. Feynman is so good at explaining these concepts that you don't even need any formal training to understand them.
Lecture 1: The Law of Gravitation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mhkYbznBk&list=PL8976CAAD2A...
Lecture 2: The Relation of Mathematics to Physics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0xTfdt6qw&list=UUR3AOHJ5xJv...
Lecture 3: The Great Conservation Principles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_IfV9fkBhk&list=UUR3AOHJ5xJv...
Lecture 4: Symmetry in Physical Law http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6o1cDxV7o&list=UUR3AOHJ5xJv...
Lecture 5: The Distinction of Past and Future http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6o1cDxV7o&list=UUR3AOHJ5xJv...
Lecture 6: Probability and Uncertainty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja0HSFj8Imc
Lecture 7: Seeking New Laws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIN_-Flswy0
I wont recount the specifics for fear of making a mistake, but the big takeaway was that the process was not one of finding the correct answer nearly as much as it was finding that our (then) current answer was incorrect. All this tells us of our current understanding is that it hasn't been disproven yet.
Lecture 5: The Distinction of Past and Future http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozjb6kQvBpc
And thanks to fjarlk for pointing out that I accidentally omitted Part 7!
Lecture 7: Seeking New Laws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIN_-Flswy0
Presumably it's that a known muon-neutrino flux produced a higher than expected e-neutrino detection.
Given the difficulty with detecting weakly interacting particles that flavour shift I'd have thought far more data would need gathering to demonstrate "subtle differences".