Mass of the Higgs boson particle? D'oh!

03 March 2015 - 02:01 By ©The Daily Telegraph
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
The Simpsons. File photo.
The Simpsons. File photo.

Homer Simpson predicted the mass of the Higgs boson in a 1998 episode of The Simpsons, according to a science writer.

In The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace episode, Homer is shown in front of a blackboard working on an equation.

Fourteen years later, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider discovered the Higgs boson.

Simon Singh, author of The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, said "The Simpsons is the most mathematical TV show on prime-time television."

"That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson. 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."

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now