3293: Handedness
| Handedness |
 Title text: A 'left-handed specialist' is a physicist who studies the weak interaction. |
Explanation[edit]
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This is one of 46 incomplete explanations: |
The spin of a subatomic particle gives it handedness, so that it is not identical to its mirror image. Particles may thus be described as left- or right-handed.
In an entirely unrelated phenomenon, most humans have a preferred hand to use, also making them left- or right-handed. In baseball, pitchers throw with their preferred hand, and batters stand with the preferred hand away from the pitcher. Batters of the opposite handedness from the pitcher have a slight advantage in hitting, and managers will sometimes choose a substitute batter to send in based on this difference.
This comic makes a joke by mixing up particle handedness with baseball batting, pretending that a batter is going to be swinging at particles to try to hit them. This is not how particle colliders, or baseball, work.
Right-handed particles aren't affected by the weak nuclear force.
Transcript[edit]
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This is one of 31 incomplete transcripts: |
- [Ponytail and Cueball stand looking at a whiteboard on the wall which has some illegible text and a graph on it. Cueball has his hand on his chin.]
- Ponytail: The W bosons produced by the collider beam will mostly be left-handed.
- Cueball: So we should send in a right-handed batter.
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