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Saturday, March 7, 2015

Homer Simpson Figured Out Higgs Boson 14 Years Before Scientists

Homer Simpson Figured Out Higgs Boson 14 Years Before Scientists
Higgs boson, aka the "God particle," was allegedly confirmed to exist by CERN in 2013, but this complex idea -- an elementary particle that is key in explaining certain "mass" situations -- apparently was confirmed first by ... wait for it ... Homer Simpson?!
Yes, the same Homer Simpson you know and love from "The Simpsons."
In a 1998 episode of the long-running show, Homer draws an equation on the chalkboard that Dr. Simon Singh says "almost predicted the mass of the elementary particle," according to The Independent newspaper in Britain.
The episode is titled, "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," and features Homer taking on a new persona as an inventor. The Independent spoke to Singh about the crazy coincidence.
“That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson” he said. “If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is. It’s kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered.”
Singh said the crazy find might not actually be so crazy.
"A lot of the writers on 'The Simpsons' are mathematicians," he said. Singh even recently wrote a book, "'The Simpsons' and Their Mathematical Secrets."
Higgs was first predicted in the 1960s by Peter Higgs to explain how some particles get mass, but not confirmed until 50 years later, or maybe until Homer stopped eating donuts long enough to figure it out!

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