Yes, you read the title correctly. It's a rap. And it's about the LHC.
I've often thought that physicists should rap more. OK, that's a lie, I've never thought that. But after seeing the brilliant LHC rap, by science writer Katie McAlpine based at CERN, I've changed my mind. A small amount of digging reveals she's not the only one to combine physics and rap.
Even FQXi director Max Tegmark had an April-Foolish go at immortalizing Einstein's relativity in song, to the tune of The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine," earlier this year. Sadly it was eclipsed by Mariah Carey's chart-topping homage to Einstein also released that month. Bad timing.
Maybe physics really does need more music. After all, Boston University's Kaca Bradonjic reckons physicists could put on the best concerts. In a recent paper in the American Journal of Physics, she suggested exploiting the Doppler effect to change the mood of the music heard by the listener. Sending the listener speeding off relative to the source of the music could shift a happy sounding major chord to a sad sounding minor chord, depending on the observer's velocity.
So, will "Physics: The Musical," an interactive extravaganza with the audience whizzing around the room to particle-physics raps and modified Beatles' songs, all sung by Mariah Carey, soon hit Broadway?
(Image: CERN)