High-energy theory
The same formula, applied to a heavier lepton
About 6 min if you have seen this material before, 25 min or so if it is new to you.
Background
Assumed background: the muon decays only weakly; The power of mass in which a quantity is measured once , fixed by requiring the action to be dimensionless..
A theory valid only below some energy scale, which can tell you from the inside where its own description stops working. gives the muon decay rate The fifth power is forced: , , and once is dropped the muon mass is the only scale left.
Every approximation has a range, though, and the useful question about a formula is where it stops working and what the failure measures.
A tau is a heavier copy of a muon, carrying the same weak coupling, so the same rate expression should apply to it with and lifetimes should scale as .
Data: s, MeV, MeV, and the measured fs.
Scale the muon lifetime to the tau with the law and compare with the measurement. The prediction comes out too long. The law is still right for each individual channel, so the mismatch counts channels: what fraction of tau decays go to ? Give a percentage.
Past 45 min on this? That usually means a missing prerequisite rather than a lack of effort — worth reading up before pushing further, starting with Tau lepton (Wikipedia).
Want to go deeper?