Quote ="davet"My understanding (I read a few articles a while back so I may miss some details) is that the 'Higgs field' permeates all space and interacts with some particles whilst others pass through without any interaction taking place. Particles without mass are massless because they don't interact with the Higgs. Particles with mass have it because they do interact and in effect are slowed down by the Higgs field, its this slowing down that gives the mass to the particle (am I right in thinking that massless particles travel at light speed by definition?). Maybe a good analogy is a massless particle whizzing along at the speed of light, then interacting with the Higgs and it being like a treacle that has the effect of slowing down the particle.
There are a few things that don't quite fit in my mind, but thats probably down to me not having a full understanding, in fact I suppose nobody really understands fully, so I don't feel too bad. The Higgs must have appeared at the same point as the big bang or very very soon afterwards, otherwise surely the particles it gives mass too would be too far away for it to interact, they'd be 182,000 or so miles away in a second if they move at light speed. I think im going to confuse myself soon so ill stop typing now.'"
By your figures it might be 4,000 miles ahead waiting in ambush at the end of that second.
