Higgs for Everybody
The theoretical explanation of the Higgs-Mechanism was too abstract for British science minister Lord William Arthur Waldegrave. In 1993, he challenged the physicists to explain it in a popular and graphic way. This competition was won by physicist David Miller. His award-winning comic is presented here, in a slightly modified version.
- 1. The universe with its Higgs field corresponds to a room full of physicists
- 2. Now Albert Einstein enters the room (as elementary particle) and attracts a couple of admirers as he crosses the room.
- 3. Thereby he experiences a resistance in his movement that can be interpreted as inertia - in other words, he acquires mass. In a similar way an elementary particle acquires mass as it passes through the Higgs field.
- 4. But it could happen as well that a rumour is spread in the room.
- 5. As the rumour moves through the room, a group of physicists clumps together - this group corresponds to a Higgs particle.
