Homer Simpson solved the mass of the Higgs boson in 1998 | Geek.com | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it
Perhaps you’ve noticed that Homer Simpson has been getting dumber as The Simpsons continues its run as the longest-running animated sitcom ever, but like a wise idiot once told us, stupid is as stupid does.


Dr. Simon Singh wrote a book in 2013 called The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets that included a spotlight on the 1998 episode “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace.” In that episode, Homer becomes obsessed with Thomas Edison and decides to become an inventor. A scene in the script required a glasses-clad Homer to be placed in front of a chalkboard with complex mathematical equations. One of the writers on staff had a physicist friend who was researching the then-theoretical Higgs Boson particle and nabbed a scientifically accurate equation from him:

“That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson,” says Dr. Singh. “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.”...