My AP Physics B class continues to review events from CMS in hopes of determining the mass of the Z and Higgs bosons. This is a great exercise for students to experience uncertainty. One students asked today if particle physicists have more sophisticated tools to make them more confident in their characterization of events. While they do, the question created the opportunity to discuss how through many, many events that comprise the mass plot, we can build our confidence in our conclusions despite our uncertainty about any particular event.
For these two students, one or even two laptops were insufficient for their event analysis. They used two school laptops and their personal laptops!
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