Video Image

Video URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfALJzn1hE8

Video Description

Elementary particle physics is one of humanity's greatest achievements. Our description of the fundamental structure of the universe is often described as "beautiful," but the mathematics of differential geometry, representation theory, and quantum field theory needed to see that beauty is inaccessible to most people. Must we resort to using bad analogies? Or is it possible to describe the geometry of particle physics, including the Higgs mechanism, faithfully and accurately but without equations, using only some graphics, an arrow, and some pool floaties... in twelve minutes?

Video Co-Creator(s)

Katie McMillan, TEDxMauiSara Tekula, TEDxMaui

Video Creator Bio

Garrett Lisi is a theoretical physicist who escaped academia and obtained a FQXi grant in 2006 to pursue a novel approach towards unifying General Relativity and particle physics. Katie McMillan, founder of TEDxMaui, works to amplify the voice of innovative people and companies in Hawai'i. Sara Tekula is a producer, digital marketing and communications consultant, and college professor living on Maui. With over 15 years' experience working in film and television, she brings a love of storytelling into everything she does.

14 days later

Your ideas using group theory have been a large part of giving me this weird idea that the universe is structured like Pascal's triangle, with the universe starting off at the top, as a single unitary "everything" and then, though a continuing pattern (as in cellular automata) of simple rules of division and recombination (with the neighbor division), creating an ever expanding universe of complexity and detail and diversity. Pascal's triangle describes all the possible combinations of fractions of things (a.k.a, all the different symmetries of reality), and if the universe is expanding, then we will continue to see more and more details, which is what we do seem to be doing (the elements, atomic particles, quarks, Higgs particles, etc.).

It's too simple of a pattern for most folks to believe, but why do we think that the laws of physics need to be complex? Why can't they be simple, at the very core?

3 months later

Garrett,

Thank you for commenting and rating part 1 of my trilogy of videos "This Is Physics". You asked for feedback on the way you presented the geometry of particle physics to a popular audience in your video, and I am happy to provide some.

There are many strong points to your video: the use of props (the arrow, the inflatable ball and torus), the description of research on the Higgs at the LHC... Moreover, many of your expressions are memorable: I liked the way you explained that the extra dimensions "inner space" is not IN our universe, but instead ATTACHED to it, and I particularly liked the way you described Earth's gravity, as a "bending of the flow of time" towards the center of the Earth!

Of course, what you are trying to explain is very advanced, and many of the concepts that you mention without defining them (like weak charge and hypercharge) are completely unknown of the general public... so I suspect a lot of people will be fairly lost. The first slide that you show to illustrate symmetry breaking (with the "sombrero" and the Feynman diagrams) is very intimidating for someone who has no idea what it is supposed to represent, so it might have been better to bring the arrow or the blue ball right away the first time you mention symmetry breaking. I am afraid that the joke about the hyperbolic torus taking forever to inflate was also way over the head of almost everyone in the audience (but I found it quite funny!).

The rating I gave you reflects my personal appreciation of your video, but it may not reflect that of the typical member of a popular audience... not that you need ratings anyway, since as a FQXi member you will get to the finals as soon as you have commented and rated 5 essays.

Speaking of which... parts 2 and 3 of my trilogy are desperately in need of a few votes so they can get to the 10-votes thresold needed to be even considered for the finals... so if you have the time to look at them and rate them, it would be quite appreciated. By the way, part 3 ("Physics Into Darkness") deals with more modern subjects (like the Higgs boson), so you might find it particularly interesting!

Good luck in the finals!

Marc

    Well done Garrett!

    I think you were indeed successful at showing how symmetry breaking in Physics can be derived from Geometry, without getting complicated or technical. The most innovative use of pool toys I've ever seen! As it turns out; I get to mention your work in my video on the Mandelbrot Set. My research explores the relationship between symmetry and symmetry breaking via that object, and the possible applications to Physics. Of course; a lot of the Physics relevance is because the trends I explore extend into octonionic space, but I have yet to publish that work. Good luck in the contest!

    Regards,

    Jonathan

      Thanks for this review, Marc! I think you're right about the sombrero and Feynman diagrams. I included them as background images for Higgs history because they're so well known to physicists, but you're right that these are too scary to hit people with.

      Very happy you liked all those points -- I put a lot of effort into it.

      I'll have a look at your other videos.

      Hi,

      You told me many things I didn't know and very much want to find out more about. I think that your talk was well-delivered, accessible, and inspiring. Thanks for the chance to see it.

      James

      I always enjoy hearing you speak, whether it's at a TED Talk or the Science Channel -- thank you so much! Great shirt, by the way.

      If you can please vote on our 2 short videos, we would be most grateful:

      http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2167

      http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2230

      Have a great day,

      Schatzie Dudee and kids

      Hi garett

      First let me take this opportunity to express my honour of writing to a Physics GREAT like you .Very Wonderful physics from you,ive come across E8 theory on TED talks earlier on,i have worked on m-theory,I agree that all reality commutes to maths and geometry.I love your idea about the science hostel.i adopted it and have wholly worked on the immense theory at home.I publish on viXra.org.i too have a simple video - http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2223,On the geometry of the fundamental physics of the universe on a notebook .Kindly vote for me i think its in the red,meanwhile i vote for yours.

      14 days later
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