Editing 2364: Parity Conservation
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by a BLOODY MARY RESEARCHING PARITY CONSERVATION. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
− | {{w|Bloody Mary (folklore)|Bloody Mary}} is a legend of a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. This is why Cueball says he said her name three times. This is her second | + | {{w|Bloody Mary (folklore)|Bloody Mary}} is a legend of a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. This is why Cueball says he said her name three times. This is her second apperance in xkcd, the first being [[555: Two Mirrors]]. |
− | The remark on | + | The remark on parity conservation and Cobalt-60 is almost surely a reference to the {{w|Wu experiment}}. In 1956, physicist {{w|Chien-Shiung Wu}} found that the {{w|weak interaction}} breaks parity: gamma rays leave the decaying nucleus in the opposite direction compared to nuclear spin. |
− | One of the results of this is that it becomes possible to differentiate between the concepts of left and right on a purely technical level, even if the person (or distant alien) you're talking to can't see you. When we say that "parity is not conserved, | + | One of the results of this is that it becomes possible to differentiate between the concepts of left and right on a purely technical level, even if the person (or distant alien) you're talking to can't see you. When we say that "parity is not conserved", we mean that the concepts of "left" and "right" are not purely symmetrical across all areas of physics. As Richard Feynman put it, this means that "nature's laws are different for the right hand and the left hand, that there's a way to define the right hand by physical phenomena." |
− | + | Because Bloody Mary "lives" in mirrors, her world is implicitly a mirror of ours. This would allow her to conduct mirror physics experiments, such as whether or not the gamma rays leave the cobalt-60 in the same direction as they do in our universe. | |
− | The title text references {{w|antimatter}}. In physics, antimatter is like a mirrored version of matter | + | The title text references {{w|antimatter}}. In physics, antimatter is like a mirrored version of matter —mirrored in in charge, parity and time— composed of antiparticles rather than particles. Antimatter and matter spontaneously {{w|Annihilation|annihilate}} each other when they meet; an entire antimatter ''person'' (such as, say, "[https://telescoper.wordpress.com/tag/edward-teller/ Dr. Edward Anti-Teller]") would annihilate a person made of normal matter if they touch. (Bloody Mary would also be annihilated in such an interaction; the fact that she keeps coming back may be attributable to her being a ghost.) |
− | + | It seems as if Cueball is trying to mirror what is inside the mirror to make it real. Since Bloody Mary only exists inside mirrors, if Cueball's experiment was possible, he would create a real Bloody Mary on his side of the mirror. | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |