Protons have become 4% smaller! Is our reality shifting?

[sentinel69]

This is so interesting if true...

http://digitalearthworm.blogspot.ca/2013/04/protons-have-become-4-smaller-is-our.html

{A}

[GuyFox]

"That number changed in 2009 when scientists used a new method and found that the measurement reduced to 0.84087, which is approximately a difference in radius of 4 percent.
The previous research had used electrons, which are essentially negatively charged particles that orbit the nucleus, to determine the radius of a proton."

Sounds like a measurement problem - not a genuine change in Size.

[Dorjezigzag]

As this is research from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics I think a quote from the Max is appropriate.

“An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer.”
― Max Planck

[Karma Ninja]

The comments on the webpage from the above link are so obviously a canned, computer generated bunch of gobbledy-gook. It's pretty comical to read them and notice how they all almost have nothing to do with the article itself. Lol! I wonder why they are added.

The article itself is also pretty vague and silly too. Was there really a news conference to announce that measurements on the size of protons has been in question for the past 4+ years? There is no new research or findings to announce and apparently none for the next year or two. So nothing new and nothing imminent. It's like a "non-news" conference. :blabla:

[aranuk]

If the story is true, then it seems that the physicists have forgotten the double slit experiment. When a particle is measured it knows this is being done and "misbehaves".
In the description in the article it states that they measure the diameter and weight of the mass of the particle as if it was a solid thing, do they not?
Saying things like a muon is 200 times heavier than an electron. Weight is to do with mass is it not? Size has to do with mass is it not? Therein lies a problem that I can see, I know I'm no quantum physicist, only a retired building contractor and Astrologer.


Stan

[Fellow Aspirant]

Here's a link to one of the articles from four years ago:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100707-science-proton-smaller-standard-model-quantum-physics/

I guess it takes awhile to reconfigure such basic measurements. :cool:

B.