This explained things a little better or at least the Black Hole bit. Still not overly interested in being sucked into a hole 9mm wide at the same time as the rest of the Earth.
This explained things a little better or at least the Black Hole bit. Still not overly interested in being sucked into a hole 9mm wide at the same time as the rest of the Earth.
This article made me feel even better. If we do somehow create mini black holes, they might take hundreds of thousands of years to build up to the point where they could suddenly destroy the Earth.
Since it somehow has escaped mention so far, I feel compelled to point out that particle collisions far, far more energetic than this happen every day as cosmic rays impact our atmosphere. So, anything bad that the LHC is going to do has already occurred millions of times throughout the history of this world.
But hey, continue being afraid if it suits you.
CycloneRanger on
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MackenzierGold Star Police NinjaLurking... less than usual.Registered Userregular
In the coming months the most complex scientific instrument ever built will be switched on. The Large Hadron Collider promises to recreate the conditions right after the Big Bang. By revisiting the beginning of time, scientists hope to unravel some of the deepest secrets of our Universe.
Within these first few moments the building blocks of the Universe were created. The search for these fundamental particles has occupied scientists for decades but there remains one particle that has stubbornly refused to appear in any experiment. The Higgs Boson is so crucial to our understanding of the Universe that it has been dubbed the God particle. It explains how fundamental particles acquire mass, or as one scientist plainly states: "It is what makes stuff stuff..."
Krona must be stopped at all costs.
Seriously though, this is a vaguely interesting read. I remember hearing a little bit about this during the early stages of construction.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
Didn't they also come up with the possibility that setting off an atomic/other bomb could ignite all the oxygen in earth's atmosphere? Or is that an old wives' tale?
Didn't they also come up with the possibility that setting off an atomic/other bomb could ignite all the oxygen in earth's atmosphere? Or is that an old wives' tale?
Thankfully, the atomic bomb proved to be relatively harmless despite such predictions.
Didn't they also come up with the possibility that setting off an atomic/other bomb could ignite all the oxygen in earth's atmosphere? Or is that an old wives' tale?
Thankfully, the atomic bomb proved to be relatively harmless despite such predictions.
Since it somehow has escaped mention so far, I feel compelled to point out that particle collisions far, far more energetic than this happen every day as cosmic rays impact our atmosphere. So, anything bad that the LHC is going to do has already occurred millions of times throughout the history of this world.
But hey, continue being afraid if it suits you.
Actually scientists like telling this fib to shut people up, as cosmic ray collisions and those at the LHC are somewhat different.
"Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, about 9% are helium nuclei (alpha particles) and about 1% are electrons. Note that the term "ray" is a misnomer, as cosmic ray particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of particles....Cosmic rays can have energies of over 10^20 eV, far higher than the 10^12 to 10^13 eV that man-made particle accelerators can produce."
People have done a lot of work with protons, helium, and electrons. We've moved on to bigger and better, nowadays we smash together anything we can get ahold of, like heavy nuclei and antiparticles. Also the volume of particles interacting per area per unit time is much much larger in labs like the LHC.
Think of it this way:
At the 7-Eleven, you take a penny from the tray, right? The pennies for everybody. We're basically doing the same thing only we take it from a much bigger tray and we do it a couple of million times.
Didn't they also come up with the possibility that setting off an atomic/other bomb could ignite all the oxygen in earth's atmosphere? Or is that an old wives' tale?
"The bomb will not start a chain reaction in the water, converting it all to gas and letting all the ships on all the oceans drop down to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water run down the hole. It will not destroy gravity. I am not an atomic playboy!"
-- Vice Admiral William P. Blandy
...and from that I got my domain name, atomicplayboy.net.
Echo on
0
ElJeffeRoaming the streets, waving his mod gun around.Moderator, ClubPAMod Emeritus
People have done a lot of work with protons, helium, and electrons. We've moved on to bigger and better, nowadays we smash together anything we can get ahold of, like heavy nuclei and antiparticles.
In this way, scientists are not unlike 3 year olds.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
People have done a lot of work with protons, helium, and electrons. We've moved on to bigger and better, nowadays we smash together anything we can get ahold of, like heavy nuclei and antiparticles.
In this way, scientists are not unlike 3 year olds.
Awwww, has Maddie built her first nuclear fission reactor? That's so adorable.
Didn't they also come up with the possibility that setting off an atomic/other bomb could ignite all the oxygen in earth's atmosphere? Or is that an old wives' tale?
Mostly old wives tale. It was brought up as a possibility before the first bomb test, some physicists worked out some numbers, decided it wasn't a threat. They were right, obviously.
Since it somehow has escaped mention so far, I feel compelled to point out that particle collisions far, far more energetic than this happen every day as cosmic rays impact our atmosphere. So, anything bad that the LHC is going to do has already occurred millions of times throughout the history of this world.
But hey, continue being afraid if it suits you.
Actually scientists like telling this fib to shut people up, as cosmic ray collisions and those at the LHC are somewhat different.
"Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, about 9% are helium nuclei (alpha particles) and about 1% are electrons. Note that the term "ray" is a misnomer, as cosmic ray particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of particles....Cosmic rays can have energies of over 10^20 eV, far higher than the 10^12 to 10^13 eV that man-made particle accelerators can produce."
People have done a lot of work with protons, helium, and electrons. We've moved on to bigger and better, nowadays we smash together anything we can get a hold of, like heavy nuclei and antiparticles. Also the volume of particles interacting per area per unit time is much much larger in labs like the LHC.
It's not a "fib." We're talking about the difference between tera-electronvolts and... what, zeta-electronvolts? They're not even comparable. Either the collisions can cause a stable black hole that will destroy the earth, or they can't. If they can, the cosmic rays bombarding the earth easily would have created one by now - they're at extremely high energy levels. We haven't even approached them yet.
The kind of things we're colliding is more or less irrelevant in this discussion. I don't know what makes you think an ion is more likely to destroy the world than a proton - particularly when the ions will be at lower energies due to greater mass - or why antiparticles are somehow special here. They're not. They have the same mass and will reach the same maximum energy in the LHC as "normal" particles.
And what would happen if a stable black hole was generated? The damn thing would be traveling so fast that it would escape the earth's gravity entirely and fly off into space. And because of its tiny size it would take it hundreds of hours just to grab another particle. The risk of it hurting us in any way is about as near-zero as we could hope for. The LHC and its experiments are a hell of a lot safer for mankind than the pollution created as a result of generating the electricity needed to run it.
It's not a "fib." We're talking about the difference between tera-electronvolts and... what, zeta-electronvolts? They're not even comparable. Either the collisions can cause a stable black hole that will destroy the earth, or they can't. If they can, the cosmic rays bombarding the earth easily would have created one by now - they're at extremely high energy levels. We haven't even approached them yet.
The kind of things we're colliding is more or less irrelevant in this discussion. I don't know what makes you think an ion is more likely to destroy the world than a proton - particularly when the ions will be at lower energies due to greater mass - or why antiparticles are somehow special here. They're not. They have the same mass and will reach the same maximum energy in the LHC as "normal" particles.
And what would happen if a stable black hole was generated? The damn thing would be traveling so fast that it would escape the earth's gravity entirely and fly off into space. And because of its tiny size it would take it hundreds of hours just to grab another particle. The risk of it hurting us in any way is about as near-zero as we could hope for. The LHC and its experiments are a hell of a lot safer for mankind than the pollution created as a result of generating the electricity needed to run it.
If all this is true, then what's the point of building a nifty new accelerator at all? If these things are happening at ridiculously high energy levels millions of times per day in the upper atmosphere, why not just build something to observe the collisions that are already occuring, rather than spending billions to create sad imitations thereof?
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
ElJeffeRoaming the streets, waving his mod gun around.Moderator, ClubPAMod Emeritus
edited May 2007
I'd think that the pros of being able to observe thousands of these interactions every day would mitigate the lack of control.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
Agem, I agree with the sentiment that the experiment is harmless. Back when the fundamentalists were protesting RHIC being built for the same reasons, I checked the stuff out.
However, despite the higher energies in isolated cosmic ray collisions, they intend to get results in the lab these collisions won't produce.
RHIC and LHC are both trying to produce copious quark-gluon plasmas that don't occur in our atmosphere. Nor do cosmic rays cause particles to condense from the Higgs field (if it exists/ possible/ whatever).
Agem, I agree with the sentiment that the experiment is harmless. Back when the fundamentalists were protesting RHIC being built for the same reasons, I checked the stuff out.
Phew, thanks for checking it out for us. What are these fundamentalists you speak of fundamentalist.. in?
Agem, I agree with the sentiment that the experiment is harmless. Back when the fundamentalists were protesting RHIC being built for the same reasons, I checked the stuff out.
Phew, thanks for checking it out for us. What are these fundamentalists you speak of fundamentalist.. in?
Posts
OSHI
I can't see that reference without thinking of that Orbital song that samples that quote.
Sadly, as soon as I posted that, I opened up that track in media player.
You have to love that comic strip.
That guy has a warped mind
Where are these from? I saw the WWII movie one in another thread...
Good to see I'm not alone here. I was afraid to post about it, because maybe no one would know what I meant.
I tell you what this image blows my mind
This article made me feel even better. If we do somehow create mini black holes, they might take hundreds of thousands of years to build up to the point where they could suddenly destroy the Earth.
PBF manages to capture the entire width and breadth of life on earth in two panels. Good show.
But hey, continue being afraid if it suits you.
Krona must be stopped at all costs.
Seriously though, this is a vaguely interesting read. I remember hearing a little bit about this during the early stages of construction.
FFRK: 9rRG
Also, we can bet on luminosity just because I like hearing "inverse picobarns".
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
Incidentally, I have to restrain myself from quoting General Turgidson about "doomsday gaps" and the like.
- John Stuart Mill
Thankfully, the atomic bomb proved to be relatively harmless despite such predictions.
Or WAS it? (now I'm just being silly)
I kind of want the universe to end while I'm in my quantum mechanics class.
Just for the irony.
Actually scientists like telling this fib to shut people up, as cosmic ray collisions and those at the LHC are somewhat different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray
"Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, about 9% are helium nuclei (alpha particles) and about 1% are electrons. Note that the term "ray" is a misnomer, as cosmic ray particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of particles....Cosmic rays can have energies of over 10^20 eV, far higher than the 10^12 to 10^13 eV that man-made particle accelerators can produce."
People have done a lot of work with protons, helium, and electrons. We've moved on to bigger and better, nowadays we smash together anything we can get ahold of, like heavy nuclei and antiparticles. Also the volume of particles interacting per area per unit time is much much larger in labs like the LHC.
Think of it this way:
At the 7-Eleven, you take a penny from the tray, right? The pennies for everybody. We're basically doing the same thing only we take it from a much bigger tray and we do it a couple of million times.
And figure out a way to have that black hold fight an anaconda. I hear Rosario Dawson is set to star.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Get a dictionary! I don't want you to die not knowing the definition of irony!
He probably meant Morisettian irony.
"The bomb will not start a chain reaction in the water, converting it all to gas and letting all the ships on all the oceans drop down to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water run down the hole. It will not destroy gravity. I am not an atomic playboy!"
-- Vice Admiral William P. Blandy
...and from that I got my domain name, atomicplayboy.net.
In this way, scientists are not unlike 3 year olds.
Mostly old wives tale. It was brought up as a possibility before the first bomb test, some physicists worked out some numbers, decided it wasn't a threat. They were right, obviously.
The kind of things we're colliding is more or less irrelevant in this discussion. I don't know what makes you think an ion is more likely to destroy the world than a proton - particularly when the ions will be at lower energies due to greater mass - or why antiparticles are somehow special here. They're not. They have the same mass and will reach the same maximum energy in the LHC as "normal" particles.
And what would happen if a stable black hole was generated? The damn thing would be traveling so fast that it would escape the earth's gravity entirely and fly off into space. And because of its tiny size it would take it hundreds of hours just to grab another particle. The risk of it hurting us in any way is about as near-zero as we could hope for. The LHC and its experiments are a hell of a lot safer for mankind than the pollution created as a result of generating the electricity needed to run it.
Is that the failure to be ironic or the meta-irony created by the failed attempt?
If all this is true, then what's the point of building a nifty new accelerator at all? If these things are happening at ridiculously high energy levels millions of times per day in the upper atmosphere, why not just build something to observe the collisions that are already occuring, rather than spending billions to create sad imitations thereof?
ironic
3. coincidental; unexpected
It would have been unexpected, and a coincedence, to me at least.
However, despite the higher energies in isolated cosmic ray collisions, they intend to get results in the lab these collisions won't produce.
RHIC and LHC are both trying to produce copious quark-gluon plasmas that don't occur in our atmosphere. Nor do cosmic rays cause particles to condense from the Higgs field (if it exists/ possible/ whatever).
But it doesn't mitigate the lack of a giant underground particle accelerator. Scientists have mortgages too.
Phew, thanks for checking it out for us. What are these fundamentalists you speak of fundamentalist.. in?
Mainly they specialise in fear and bullshit.