Large Hadron Collider

L

Longhorn_Fan68

1,000+ Posts
Should I be scared shitless? Of course, I'm not really scared of death... only a slow, painful death. Seems like if this does bring about some of the things some people think it could, at least it could be a quick end. Then again, I may be interpreting things incorrectly.

Some links:The LinkThe LinkThe LinkThe Link
 
I can't imagine why you would be scared... this is pretty much the coolest thing so far. Seriously, what troubles you?
 
Hmm this doesn't sit well with me. I don't know about micro black holes or strangelets, but if its possible I don't think we should be f'n around with it.
 
Of what exactly would you have to be afraid?
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Maybe the chances are astronaumical but still..
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"Concerns have been raised that performing collisions at previously unexplored energies might unleash new and disastrous phenomena. These include the production of micro black holes, and strangelets. Such issues were raised in connection with the RHIC accelerator, both in the media[15][16] and in the scientific community;[17] however, after detailed studies, scientists reached such conclusions as "beyond reasonable doubt, heavy-ion experiments at RHIC will not endanger our planet"[18] and that there is "powerful empirical evidence against the possibility of dangerous strangelet production."


Link
 
If a microblackhole is created it would be pretty irrelevant methinks, and even so would evaporate due to hawkings radiation.

A black hole is a black hole because it is superdense, but a black hole is dangerous only because it is supermassive, miniature black holes will probably not have the energy to absorb nearby matter. or crush it into super dense matter, we could very well have a black hole where the event horizon is inside an actual lump of matter.
 
But Hawking's radiation hasn't been proven (at least in practical terms) and I think creating black holes and dark matter is a exercise not left to chance. I just hope everyone carry's the 1 on these calculations.
 
when we set off the first atomic blast there were some of the same worries. some thought there was a chance the atmosphere would catch on fire.
 
The best argument against all this doomsday stuff is that particles with MUCH higher energy than anything that will be accelerated at the LHC have been bombarding the Earth and Moon for billions of years. So far we're doing OK. LHC energy is nothing like the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays that are coming at us all the time from outer space.

I work at RHIC, and let me tell you, safety is of the utmost importance. I'm glad they do these studies before turning the thing on, even though everybody knows nothing is really going to happen.
 
"If we knew anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, we would have hidden from it is terror." -Ming the Merciless

a wise man
 
If we are going to die, why not in a blaze of glory searching for the mysteries of the universe. Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.
 
Yeah, it seems like every time intelligent life pops up in the universe they probably just annihilate themselves with technology.
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Nope this is just flipping cool. The only sad thing is that it isn't on our soil and run by our scientists. As a nation we are signing away our future relevence by turning our back on big science.
 
So what happens if I touch a strangelet? What does it look like? A ball of fire or something? Would my face be melted like the dude on "Lost Ark" before I got within a hundred feet of it?

Would it feel like fire coating my body or what?
 
I'm still pretty pissed off about the cancellation of the SSC in Wacahachie, which was a higher energy accelerator (theoretically) than LHC. UT was leading the project. Then our slogan could be, "what starts here destroys the world".
 
The limiting factor on all of this is energy, right? No phenomenon that takes place at the collision site can have more energy than the two particles that collided. I would be shocked if the collision of two hadrons had the energy to do any significant damage to the complex, much less the world. Am I missing something?
 
The particles don't collide with eachother . Also their energy is greatly increased by the acceleration. Remember that as their speed increases so does their mass. But other than that, you are right the worst thing which could happen would be to damage a detector.
 
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