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Thousands sign up for Higgs course at Edinburgh University

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    Thousands sign up for Higgs course at Edinburgh University

    Now's your chance to learn about GOD.

    Thousands sign up for Higgs course

    10 February 2014 Last updated at 10:30 GMT
    Professor Peter HiggsProfessor Peter Higgs was at Edinburgh University when he developed the boson theory
    More than 10,000 people have signed up for an online course to study the work of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Peter Higgs.

    The free seven-week course run by Edinburgh University, The Discovery of the Higgs boson, begins this week.

    Prof Higgs theorised that particles acquire mass by interacting with a field spread throughout the universe.

    His concept sparked a 40-year hunt for the Higgs "boson" particle needed to carry and transmit the field's effect.

    Online students
    The search for the so-called "God particle" culminated in July 2012 when a team from the European nuclear research facility at Cern in Geneva announced the detection of a particle that fitted the description of the elusive Higgs.

    “Start Quote
    Professor Higgs' research has provided us with profound insight into the building blocks of the universe”
    Prof Arthur Trew Edinburgh University
    Scientists used the world's biggest atom-smashing machine, the £2.6bn Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border, to track down the missing particle.

    Edinburgh University said online students will explore the scientific breakthroughs that led to the building of the Large Hadron Collider and to the detection of the boson.

    The course features interviews with Prof Higgs and filmed lectures with physicists from the Higgs Centre at the university.

    Students will be encouraged to debate what they have seen using online forums and social media.

    Professor Arthur Trew, head of the school of physics and astronomy at Edinburgh University, said: "Professor Higgs' research has provided us with profound insight into the building blocks of the universe and this course will allow anyone with a computer and access to the web to take part in the exciting and revolutionary times that we live in."

    The online course is being run on the FutureLearn platform, a partnership of 23 universities, as well as the British Museum, British Council and British Library, that offers learners the opportunity to access high-quality courses for free.
    "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

    #2
    I wonder how much of the maths it will actually attempt to explain?
    While you're waiting, read the free novel we sent you. It's a Spanish story about a guy named 'Manual.'

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by doodab View Post
      I wonder how much of the maths it will actually attempt to explain?
      Quantum cosmology is no biggy.
      "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by doodab View Post
        I wonder how much of the maths it will actually attempt to explain?
        Yeah. I did a degree in physics (mostly) and it was pretty maths-heavy but didn't exactly go very far. We did relativity and quantum mechanics and a hydrogen atom from first principles and I know the masters people did general relativity. But stuff like the standard model were just taught, let alone Feynman diagrams... no hint of how they were formulated. And string theory, etc were just footnotes.

        Reading popular science books that eschew maths in favour of readability, there is a massive gulf. I always wondered, the people that came up with these ideas would have been taught even less than I was... nevermind figuring out the maths, where did they even get the thread to start from?!
        Originally posted by MaryPoppins
        I'd still not breastfeed a nazi
        Originally posted by vetran
        Urine is quite nourishing

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by d000hg View Post
          Yeah. I did a degree in physics (mostly) and it was pretty maths-heavy but didn't exactly go very far. We did relativity and quantum mechanics and a hydrogen atom from first principles and I know the masters people did general relativity. But stuff like the standard model were just taught, let alone Feynman diagrams... no hint of how they were formulated. And string theory, etc were just footnotes.
          Depends on the University.
          Manchester Uni (where I did physics) was very Maths orientated. A couple of guys on the course quit and switch to the Maths course at Manchester and found that easier!

          The hardest aspects of the mathematics was field and wave theory. This was covered in detail from first principles right up to having to perform differential calculus on complex wave/field functions. I can barely remember the theory but images like this and this haunt me to this day.

          We covered General Relativity at under graduate level.
          Coffee's for closers

          Comment


            #6
            Studied my masters in operational research, heavy on statistics & stochastic process. Can't say I liked it, but it's providing a living now.

            A mathematician's apology by G. H. Hardy is worth a read. I don't think any of the great thinkers started out by conjuring coefficients out of thin air but as Hardy suggests or rather focuses on, the study of patterns.
            "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

            Comment


              #7
              I have to say I do find the maths of advanced physics a bit harder than all the logic, set theory, abstract nonsense stuff I studied as a Maths undergrad. Perhaps it's because I'm older now, or perhaps it's because I don't do the exercises now I don't have to.
              While you're waiting, read the free novel we sent you. It's a Spanish story about a guy named 'Manual.'

              Comment

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