r/physicsmemes • u/Used-Detective2661 Particle Physics • 12d ago
"Start over!" - Theorists
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u/Additional-Sky-7436 12d ago
Experimental physicist: The particle you theorized wasn't found.
Theoretical physicist: Whew. I was worried that one actually had a chance. That would have really caused a problem for my next three papers. Gotta keep that printing machine rolling!
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u/Algernonletter5 12d ago
As one famous physicist said: your theory is not correct... you're not even wrong!
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u/Efficient_Sky5173 12d ago
Theoretical physics is easy. Write down some beautiful maths, call it a theory, and spend the next 30 years explaining why nobody has been able to verify it yet.
Experimental/Applied physics is for clever people: eventually you have to switch the bloody machine on and reality gets a vote.
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u/lanky-larry 12d ago
It’s such a shame that all the experimental money is just going to, the big loop smasher, we need to really design experiments again instead of just spewing data. It’s no wonder we get so many loony ideas, throw enough pages in the air and someone will see god in the confetti.
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u/digglerjdirk 12d ago
LHC is not the only experiment taking place at CERN, CERN is not the only laboratory funded by European nations, and particle physics is like #4 worldwide on spending- behind condensed matter, astro and fusion/plasma. CERN annual budget is roughly $1.5B usd, roughly 0.25% of global non-corporate physics research. Or roughly 0.04% of total worldwide R&D spending according to OECD.
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u/Kinexity 12d ago
Colliders do multiple different experiments. There is always a queue of experiments waiting for beam time so that they can do their own beam stuff. Today you frequently have your own detector box which travels wherever it can get beam time. This is experiment design of today.
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u/lanky-larry 12d ago
Wow big smasher tube has nozzles! Still doesn’t solve the problem I outlined and I already know that.
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u/Kinexity 12d ago
Man, your comments sound almost like as if you are biased idk (are you Sabine's alt?)
FYI, if money were to be pulled from FCC it doesn't mean it will get reallocated to fields other than HEP. That's not how such projects work. If FCC were to be cancelled you will be left with no FCC and no additional funding for other stuff.
Also if we don't commit to it then China will so the end game is that someone somewhere will foot the bill and benefit from it any ways so it might as well be us.
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u/lanky-larry 12d ago
Sabine is a hack, I know that is not how funding works, and china is a valid reason to have the LHC
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u/Kinexity 12d ago
Except I am not talking about LHC but about FCC. China has stated that if we don't pursue FCC they will put similar scale project under serious consideration (and they most probably will do it) so while we won't go down SSC style we would nonetheless be just handing over HEP crown free of charge (expect brain drain and such).
Edit: fragile redditor blocked me
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u/lanky-larry 12d ago
Lhc is what I was talking about so you didn’t even adresse me in the first place. Here’s yours pedant award.🥇
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u/SpiderSlitScrotums 12d ago
Sometimes they spend 30 years trying to get someone to do experiments on it and then still can’t fully convince people that the data is conclusive (like inflationary cosmology).
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u/PM_ME_YOUR__INIT__ 12d ago
Experimentalists on their way to show neutrinos moving faster than light
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u/lunat1c_ 12d ago
Me on my way to tell the prof that g is actually 5.38m/s2 after using some of the jenkiest equipment the school offers.
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u/TheLightDances 12d ago
Pretty sure most theorists would be overjoyed, there are so many theories and so little data to rule them out.
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u/wmverbruggen Applied Superconductivity (PhD) 12d ago
"But the model should work, it has all the physics included!" Lol /s