Before it was discovered in 2012, scientists spent decades searching for the elusive Higgs boson particle, which helps explain how everything in the universe has mass. But according to one author, someone else predicted the mass of the Higgs boson particle years before physicists identified it: Homer Simpson.
Yes, the doltish patriarch of the country’s best-known animated family, came awfully close to stumbling upon one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of recent years—so says Simon Singh, the author of the 2013 book The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets.
In the 1998 episode “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace,” Homer decides to become an inventor and is pictured in front of a blackboard with a complex equation in one scene. “That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson,” Singh told the Independent. “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.”
But Singh isn’t totally surprised by the show’s affinity for math and scientist: “The Simpsons is the most mathematical TV show on prime-time television in history,” he said. “A lot of the writers on The Simpsons are mathematicians.”
- How an Alleged Spy Balloon Derailed an Important U.S.-China Meeting
- Effective Altruism Has a Toxic Culture of Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Women Say
- Inside Bolsonaro's Surreal New Life as a Florida Man—and MAGA Darling
- 'Return to Office' Plans Spell Trouble for Working Moms
- 8 Ways to Read More Books—and Why You Should
- Why Aren't Movies Sexy Anymore?
- Column: Elon Musk Should Not Be in Charge of the Night Sky
- How Logan Paul's Crypto Empire Fell Apart
- 80 for Brady May Not Be a Masterpiece. But the World Needs More Movies Like This