SYO = Seven-Year-Old.
SYO: “What is a Higgs Boson?”
Me: “Well, you see, everything in the Universe is made of atoms.
Me, you, this chair, that window, the air, an iPhone, and even water. Right?”
SYO: “Atoms are small.”
Me: “Yes very small. Smaller than your IQ! Anyways those
atoms are made of even smaller things! We call them Elementary Particles! They
are the smallest things in the whole entire Universe! They are the things that
makeup even Atoms themselves!”
SYO: “Really?! I always wondered what Atoms are made of!”
Me: “Well there are many elementary particles we have
discovered. 38 to be exact. And one of these 38 elementary particles is called
the Higgs Boson.”
SYO: “So, elementary particles are the smallest thing and
they make up atoms. And one of them is the Higgs Boson?”
Me: “Yes!”
SYO: “So how do these elementary particles make up atoms?
What does the Higgs Boson do?”
Me: “Well the Higgs Boson is what gives things mass. This is
a little complicated for you, but the mass is like weight. Its what gives things weight.”
SYO: “What is the difference between mass and weight then?”
Me: “See this plastic water bottle and this glass bottle.
They’re the same size yet this one is heavier than this one. That’s because
there are more atoms in the glass than the plastic.”
SYO: “So what gives the atoms their mass?”
Me: “The atoms are made of a cloud of electrons, an
elementary particle, and a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons. The
protons and neutrons are not elementary but they’re made of three elementary particles
each. Called Quarks. The majority of the mass of the atom comes from the
Protons and Neutrons so we don’t need to worry about the electrons right now.
But the Protons and neutrons get their mass from their quarks.”
Me: “You see, the proton and neutrons are made of 3 quarks.”
SYO: “Okay.”
Me: “The quarks get their mass from how they move through
the Higgs field.”
SYO: “What the frick is the Higgs field?”
Me: “You remember how I said there were 38 elementary
particles? Well, each of them has a field associated with them.”
SYO: “What does that mean?”
Me: “Do you know what a violin is?”
SYO: “I placed 1st in the nation for violinists.”
Me: “Wow okay. Imagine that the strings on the violin are 4
different fields. When you do nothing the fields are at rest, there is nothing
happening to the strings. When pluck one string, it begins vibrating, that
vibration on its string is like a particle in its field. A particle can be
viewed as a vibration in its particle field. So those quarks in the photo, they
are vibrations in the quark field. This applies to all elementary particles. The
electrons? They’re just vibrations in the electron field.”
SYO: “Okay so what does this have to do with mass?”
Me: “Oh right! Well the Higgs Boson is a vibration in the
Higgs Boson Field. And this field is what gives Quarks mass. Making this glass
bottle have more mass and weight than this plastic bottle?”
SYO: “But like how?”
Me: “Have you ever been swimming?”
SYO: “Yes.”
Me: “You know how it's hard to move fast because of the water
drags you and if you try moving fast it's very difficult?”
SYO: “Yes.”
Me: “That’s kind of how the Higgs field is with giving things
mass. Picture yourself moving as fast as you can underwater. The water around
you is like the Higgs field and you are like an elementary particle. The water
is thick and stops you from moving normally like you would above water. That is
kind of how the Higgs field gives mass to particles. The water is dense and it
requires more energy to move through. The Higgs field is like the water and the
particle has to work hard to move through it.”
SYO: “I think I get it now.”
Me: “Good. So to recap. Everything is made from atoms and
atoms are made of elementary particles. The mass of an atom comes from the
Protons and Neutrons. Those two are made of three elementary particles each
called quarks. Those quarks get their mass from the Higgs field because they
are like swimmers trying to move through the thick water.”
SYO: “I’m gonna go play Fortnite.”
Sidenote: I understand that the majority of the mass in the
atom actually comes from the strong force interactions (gluons) inside each
proton and neutron in the nucleus. But this is a seven-year-old and I wanted to
keep it simple. He’ll learn anyways when he’s older.
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