Physics Question Regarding Higgs Boson

[Cpu46]

Let me put it like this:
You've been assembling a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces up 'till now fit together, and the image they compose makes sense.
However, there's a gap there. You're missing one piece. You can see from the gap what the piece must be shaped like, and you have a pretty good idea what the illustration on top of it would have to look like.
You can't find it though.
What, then, is the most reasonable course of action?
A) Searching for it more closely, going through your house with a vacuum cleaner with a stocking over the nozzle?
Or B) Declaring that the piece doesn't exist, and that you've been assembling the puzzle in the wrong way from the beginning, forcing yourself to tear the puzzle apart and start over?

Certainly, at some point, it will be correct to take the second route, option B, but we're not at that point yet.
We still haven't examined our "house" as closely as we could. The missing puzzle piece might just be stuck under the sofa.
So we build a giant particle accelerator and try to poke it out from under the sofa.

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I have to say this is one of the best explanations I have ever heard to explain the Higgs and really the Scientific Method in general. I shall have to remember this for later discussions I have with people.

Thanks.
Sorry, I don't really know how to respond to compliments on forums (Well, I suck at that in real life as well, but whatever).
I feel like I come off as a self-aggrandizing asshat if I respond, but I also feel ignoring a reply is rude.
:/

Don't worry I usually come across the same way.

 

[Vivi22]

Let me put it like this:
You've been assembling a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces up 'till now fit together, and the image they compose makes sense.
However, there's a gap there. You're missing one piece. You can see from the gap what the piece must be shaped like, and you have a pretty good idea what the illustration on top of it would have to look like.
You can't find it though.
What, then, is the most reasonable course of action?
A) Searching for it more closely, going through your house with a vacuum cleaner with a stocking over the nozzle?
Or B) Declaring that the piece doesn't exist, and that you've been assembling the puzzle in the wrong way from the beginning, forcing yourself to tear the puzzle apart and start over?

Certainly, at some point, it will be correct to take the second route, option B, but we're not at that point yet.
We still haven't examined our "house" as closely as we could. The missing puzzle piece might just be stuck under the sofa.
So we build a giant particle accelerator and try to poke it out from under the sofa.

ClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClap

I have to say this is one of the best explanations I have ever heard to explain the Higgs and really the Scientific Method in general. I shall have to remember this for later discussions I have with people.

Have to agree, that was an excellent explanation.

Science is not merely about observing something then trying to explain it. In the case of the Higgs Boson, we know that a lot of what we've theorized and tested in Quantum Physics works quite well to explain aspects of how our Universe functions, but there are gaps we've yet to fill in. Now we don't have to just sit around twiddling our thumbs until we happen to stub our metaphorical toes on something we've never seen before that explains those gaps. We are fully capable of taking what we know, and hypothesizing about what could possibly exist to fill them. Perhaps even more importantly, we almost have to come up with these hypothetical explanations for gaps in present theories because without them, it would be next to impossible for us to design an experiment to test for a particle that may or may not exist because we don't even have a hypothetical description of how it may behave.

Reasoning out and explaining the hypothetical particle helps us determine what we need to look for to find it if it does exist. If it doesn't, then it still helps because by finding nothing matching our present hypothesis, we can determine with reasonable certainty that we should go back to the drawing board. As important as finding the Higgs Boson would be, not finding it would be just as important a discovery.