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Looking for the Bacon Boson

By drorzel on February 23, 2012.

I'm grading exam papers at the dining room table when Emmy trots in. "Hey, dude," she says. "Where do we keep the superconducting wire?"

I'm not really paying attention, so I start to answer before I understand the question. "Hmm? Wire is in the basement, next to the--wait, what?"

"The superconducting wire. Where do we keep it?"

"We don't have any superconducting wire. And you're a dog. What do you need superconducting wire for, anyway?"

"I'm building a particle collider! I need superconducting wire for the beam-steering magnets."

How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog goes on sale next Tuesday, wherever you buy books. The above video is a dramatic reading of the dog dialogue that opens Chapter 8: Looking for the Bacon Boson; E = mc2 and Particle Physics. If you enjoy that, there are 11 more such conversations in the book, along with longer, more detailed explanations of the relevant physics.

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Not for another 3 weeks or so over on this side of the pond, it seems...

By Andrew G. (not verified) on 23 Feb 2012 #permalink

Has Emmy thought about the cost of digging the tunnel? That's going to be way more than the kibble. As much as I like the idea of a bacon boson or a steak quark, I don't think the experiment is practical.

By Eric Lund (not verified) on 23 Feb 2012 #permalink

Any plans to do an audiobook version? Having a dramatic reading of all the dog dialogues would be great.

We sold audio rights to the first one, but I don't think they ever did anything. Probably because it has pictures in the explanations.

This one has even more illustrations, to the point where I had trouble finding a good section to read at Boskone.

Has Emmy thought about the cost of digging the tunnel?

She's very good at digging, when she wants to. I think she planned to do it herself for cheap.

Looking forward to the new book, but to combine this and a previous post on language and statistics, when describing a future day shouldn't "next" only be used when it is more than seven days away? That is when you scan a calendar, the first Tuesday you run across is referred to as Tuesday, then Next Tuesday is the week after that.

Good Luck