Nobel prize in physics 2013

François Englert and Peter W. Higgs

François Englert and Peter W. Higgs were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 for the theory of how particles acquire mass. In 1964, they proposed the theory independently of each other. In 2012, their ideas were confirmed by the discovery of the Higgs particle at the CERN laboratory outside Geneva in Switzerland.

After almost 50 years of looking for the subatomic particle that could validate our standard model of physics, two teams working at the Large Hedron Collider (LHC) have both concluded the existance of the particle. Familiarize your students with the incredible size of the LHC, the requirements of science to show proof with two different and independant experiments, let them begin to understand standard deviation and appreciate the immensity of the Higgs field proof. Below is a great Nova video that introduces the notion of the Higgs field and the experiments that have been ongoing to trace it’s existance.

For Adventurer members we have an editable Word doc and solutions.