Skip to content
HHackerTube.videoSurprise me

Your Mass is NOT From the Higgs Boson

Your Mass is NOT From the Higgs Boson on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2015–2023.

Veritasium

explainer · evergreen

Open on YouTube

Veritasium explains that the Higgs boson accounts for only a small fraction of everyday mass. Most of a proton's mass comes from the energy of the gluon field binding its quarks.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended as a clear explanation of where mass actually comes from.

people recommended it
4
separate months
4
strong recommendations
1
discussed on HN
2015–2023
“This video explains where the mass of a proton comes from”
— vecter, Jan 2020, in “Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant structures (2019)”

What HN commenters said

4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

cyberfartNov 2017Strongly recommends

Veritasium had a video explaining this a few years back, it's one of the videos responsible for sparking my interest in physics and cosmology. ▶ this video

in “Physics Has Demoted Mass” · View on HN

zackmorrisJun 2023Recommends

This video might help understand where mass comes from and how to potentially modulate it, because mass can be thought of as bound energy creating voids in the gluon field: ▶ this video The Higgs mechanism affects electrons, not quarks, and is only responsible for about 1% of matter's mass. Most mass comes from the binding energy between quarks, which creates flux tubes between quark-antiquark pairs. If we add more energy to pull quarks apart, eventually the total energy added exceeds the mass-energy equivalence of another quark-antiquark pair, so a new pair gets created from the vacuum. I believe this is related to the Casimir effect, but IANAP (physicist). Keep in mind that the mass-energy equivalence also applies to time. So like in the movie Interstellar, when they go down to the water planet, gravity is so high that time passes slower for them than the guy in the orbiting ship. In other words, the ship sees the landing craft move slower and slower as it approaches the surface. This difference in the speed of time near a gravity well is what slows the inner edge of a satellite slightly more than the outer, curving it along the path of the orbit, which from the satellite's perspective feels like a straight line at that velocity, because it's weightless and feels no other acceleration other than tidal force. So if someone could move large amounts of energy into a confined space with some kind of flux capacitor (is this a pun? I don't even know anymore), they could slow time ther

in “Monster gravitational waves spotted for first time” · View on HN

vecterJan 2020Recommends

This video explains where the mass of a proton comes from: ▶ this video Based on your comments above, though, I don't think watching this would change your opinion about anything. People have been more than polite in trying to help you fix your misunderstandings, but you refuse to absorb any new information or change your views when presented with new data.

in “Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant structures (2019)” · View on HN

yincrashDec 2015Recommends

A recent attempt by a physicist that makes science education videos to explain how mass exists (through different fields): ▶ this video

in “Physicists believe they can create matter from colliding photons” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Quantum physicsScientific method & science communicationhiggs bosonquarksgluonsproton massparticle physics