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CERN set to launch LHC tomorrow, begin atom smashing.

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Landlord Landry, Sep 9, 2008.

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  1. Landlord Landry

    Landlord Landry Member

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    Scientists at Cern have set the date for the switch-on of the world’s largest scientific instrument, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

    The first beams will be fired from the device on September 10 and its massive data grid will begin collecting data and analysing particles formed as the beams smash together.

    Over the last few months, most of time has been spent cooling the 27km ring that makes up the LHC down to 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). Now a quick series of tests will be made on beam synchronisation before firing commences.

    "We’re finishing a marathon with a sprint," said LHC project leader Lyn Evans. "It’s been a long haul and we’re all eager to get the LHC research programme underway."

    However, some are nervous about the use of the device. In Hawaii a lawsuit was filed by a former nuclear safety officer who believed that the LHC would create a mini-black hole, which would then sink to the centre of the planet and consume the world.

    The suit was dismissed after Cern put together a panel of independent experts to examine the claims and ruled that there was no conceivable danger.

    Meanwhile two Russian scientists have claimed that there may be another threat from the LHC. In a paper they pointed out that theoretically the LHC could enable time travel by opening wormholes into the future, although they would only be atom-sized.

    http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2223537/date-set-large-hadron-collider

    WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

    Russian scientists have claimed that time travel could take place this year as an inadvertent by-product of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) run by Cern.

    Mathematicians Irina Aref'eva and Igor Volovich said that when the LHC begins to smash atoms into each other the conditions will be perfect to open a wormhole into the distant future.

    "Proton-proton collisions at the LHC could lead to the formation of time machines (space-time regions with closed time-like curves) which violate causality," said the scientists in a research paper.

    "One model for the time machine is a traversable wormhole. We argue that the traversable wormhole production cross section at the LHC is of the same order as the cross section for black hole production."

    The other possibility, according to the mathematicians, is that miniature black holes will be formed under the French and Swiss countryside.

    However, if the time machine hypothesis is correct we will not be seeing visitors from the future because the wormholes will be barely larger than atoms.

    The LHC is the world's largest scientific instrument, consisting of a 27km loop 100 metres under the French and Swiss countryside. It is due to go live later this year.


    http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2209280/travel-possible-months
     
    #1 Landlord Landry, Sep 9, 2008
  2. oomp

    oomp Member

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    I was just watching something about this on the news. The scientists working on it have been recieving death threats over this. Crazy.

    Stats from the BBC

    LHC by the numbers
    The largest particle accelerator in the world, which will feel its first full proton beams tomorrow, just oozes numerical hyperbole.

    Geoff Brumfiel

    As the world's biggest particle accelerator prepares to crank up its proton beams, Nature rounds up the big numbers behind the mother of all atom smashers.


    •27 kilometres = circumference of the LHC.

    •50 kilometres per hour = speed limit for physicists on site.

    •32 minutes = time taken by a law-abiding physicist to circle the ring.

    •~1 billion kilometres per hour (99.9999991% the speed of light) = maximum proton speed around the ring.

    •One ten-thousandth of a second = time taken by proton to circle the ring.

    •0.00000000047 grams = total mass of protons circulating in the LHC at any time.

    •362 megajoules = collective energy of LHC's protons at top speed.

    •88,000 tonnes = total weight of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

    •361 megajoules = energy of the USS Ronald Regan when cruising at 5.6 knots.

    •US$4.1 billion = cost of building the LHC.

    •US$4.5 billion = cost of the USS Ronald Regan.

    •~9,000 cubic metres = total volume of the LHC's major vacuum systems.

    •4,650 cubic metres = interior volume of the Big Ben clock tower at Westminster.

    •14 years = time taken to build LHC.

    •13 years = time taken to build Big Ben.

    •~6 million = number of DVDs needed to hold all of the data generated by the LHC.

    •6.9 kilometres = height of 4 million DVDs stacked on top of each other.

    •4.8 kilometres = height of Mount Blanc.

    •0.75 grams = amount of hydrogen needed to fill a party balloon.

    •0.000000002 grams = amount of hydrogen consumed each day by the LHC.

    •~1 million years = time needed for the LHC to use one party balloon's worth of hydrogen.

    •10-13 atmospheres = vacuum of the LHC's beamline.

    •10-12 atmospheres = atmospheric pressure on the Moon.

    •8.3 tesla = top field strength of each of the LHC's 1232 superconducting dipole magnets.

    •1 tesla = strength of a typical scrapyard electromagnet.
     
    #2 oomp, Sep 9, 2008
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2008
  3. saviorlh

    saviorlh Member

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    the end is near.....ha!
     
    #3 saviorlh, Sep 9, 2008
  4. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    Roughly 3 years and 3 months away. At least that's what the Mayans told me.
     
    #4 MadMax, Sep 9, 2008
  5. dback816

    dback816 Member

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    ......what?
     
    #5 dback816, Sep 9, 2008
  6. pugsly8422

    pugsly8422 Member

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    I really don't completely understand what this thing does. Can someone explain it so it can actually be understood by an average guy like me?

    Pugs
     
    #6 pugsly8422, Sep 9, 2008
  7. tulexan

    tulexan Member

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    From what I understand, they are smashing particles into each other at the speed of light to recreate a big bang type event which created subparticles. Many people are terrified that this will create a black hole which will destroy the earth.
     
    #7 tulexan, Sep 9, 2008
  8. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Member

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    Ummmmm what?
     
    #8 rhadamanthus, Sep 9, 2008
  9. Apollo Creed

    Apollo Creed Contributing Member

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    Dude...why the heck are we doing this then?!?!

    That sounds turrible.
     
    #9 Apollo Creed, Sep 9, 2008
  10. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    Because we can. We're also going to create dinosaurs out of those new cells we're making...we're gonna watch them fight the black holes in big stadiums constructed with toothpicks and Play-Doh by MacGruber.
     
    #10 MadMax, Sep 9, 2008
  11. oomp

    oomp Member

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    New York Times Article from 2007



    The Times has a wealth of information about it on their website including a bit about Stephen Hawkings $100 bet about the LHC being able to discover the Higgs particle.

    This all goes live at 2:30 AM cental time tomorrow btw.
     
    #11 oomp, Sep 9, 2008
  12. Apollo Creed

    Apollo Creed Contributing Member

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    The guy's a friggin' genius!!!
     
    #12 Apollo Creed, Sep 9, 2008
  13. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    Don't tell his co-workers that. They're buzzing about his total incompetence.
     
    #13 MadMax, Sep 9, 2008
  14. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    Well, at least I'll be asleep when the black hole eats me alive.
     
    #14 MadMax, Sep 9, 2008
  15. Apollo Creed

    Apollo Creed Contributing Member

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    Between the internet, the grid, and now the LHC, I'm entirely convinced that CERN is set on global (and now interdimensional) domination.
     
    #15 Apollo Creed, Sep 9, 2008
  16. Landlord Landry

    Landlord Landry Member

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    the black holes, if created, by the LHC will be microscopic in size. a particle of dust shouldn't even be able to pass through it. it's the wormholes scientist and mathmaticians believe will be a portal for time travel, but only an atom sized molecule is believed to be able to pass through it.(for now)
     
    #16 Landlord Landry, Sep 9, 2008
  17. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j50ZssEojtM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j50ZssEojtM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
     
    #17 Joe Joe, Sep 9, 2008
  18. mazyar

    mazyar Member

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    Will the world end tomorrow?
     
    #18 mazyar, Sep 9, 2008
  19. mazyar

    mazyar Member

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    #19 mazyar, Sep 9, 2008
  20. chow_yun_fat

    chow_yun_fat Member

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    What's the point of this experiment?
     
    #20 chow_yun_fat, Sep 9, 2008
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