Large Hadron Collider - We didn't get swallowed up!!

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Beanyowner

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Hey all...

Now I have no idea if anyone is interested, but I would just like to make a point of saying that media scare mongering has again been proven by the infamous Large Hadron Collider (LHC) being switched on at 8.30am this morning and clearly, the world has not been swallowed up by a black hole. Phew!
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Does anyone else find this emmensly interesting though?? I don't have a clue about nuclear and particle physics but I think I have done enough reading to get a slight grasp on what they are trying to do...sounds very good.

Anyone else remotely interested?!?

Beany*
 
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Halfstep

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Ahh, but we could be swallowed up yet. Apparently it takes a few hours for the particles to really get going, so a black hole could appear by the end of the day.

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Beanyowner

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Well they are looking for the illusive Higgs Boson particle aparently and the force field that it creates. They reckon it can prove the existance of another 6 dimensions (they already know 4 exist)...aparently its why Gravity is a 'weaker' force because it is shared between several dimensions. All sounds a bit Star Trek doesn't it!
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They are also testing the use of a 'grid' computer system. In order to analyse the data created by the LHC they required a grid network of around 100'000 computers so there will be scientists all over the world looking at the data. Even though 99% of the data retrieved will be automatically discarded by a super dooper computer analysing system then the 1% will keep all the physicists of the world busy for ages no doubt...give them another argument for them to sort out between themselves! lol!
 
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yep the danger is when they start smashing particles together so for the time being we are safe as all they are doing at the moment is sending particles in one direction only to check the magnets etc are working properly to allow the particles to complete full circuits, they will then speed them up so they will complete approx 11 circuits of the 27k 'tunnel' every second then they will start smashing them with particles travelling in the opposite direction, it is at this point we should start being concerned that the end of the world is upon us
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BeckyD

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I find it all very interesting (I was lucky enough to go on a school trip organised by Cambridge University) to CERN and to be taught all about it (before the LHC was built - I saw inside its predecessor), back in 1996. I find it bizarre that people think we're going to be swallowed up
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but then perhaps I just understand a bit more about it
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It's a very exciting time. If anyone wants to understand more about particle/sub-atomic physics but in an accessible way I can highly recommend a book called Schrodinger's Cat. The last few chapters are a bit heavy going though
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The only thing it might do is turn out the lights in Switzerland due to too much electricity being used
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[joke]
 
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Beanyowner

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[ QUOTE ]
And what if absolutely nothing happen at all?

[/ QUOTE ]

Then we'll still learn...or the scientist will anyway. If something is unsuccessful then it is still as interesting as something that is successful...glass is half full/empty and all that jazz!
 
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Beanyowner

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[ QUOTE ]
I find it all very interesting (I was lucky enough to go on a school trip organised by Cambridge University) to CERN and to be taught all about it (before the LHC was built - I saw inside its predecessor), back in 1996. I find it bizarre that people think we're going to be swallowed up
blush.gif
but then perhaps I just understand a bit more about it
laugh.gif


It's a very exciting time. If anyone wants to understand more about particle/sub-atomic physics but in an accessible way I can highly recommend a book called Schrodinger's Cat. The last few chapters are a bit heavy going though
crazy.gif


The only thing it might do is turn out the lights in Switzerland due to too much electricity being used
wink.gif
[joke]

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh wow...am jelous...bet that was amazing to see. Was trawling through the Cern website and some other linked ones and thinking it must be an amazing place to visit.

Schrodinger's Cat - Hmm...might see if I can find it. Waterstones will be receiveing a visit on saturday!
 
Angua2

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um we are still here.

Must admit that is an amazing bit of Kit though!!

Has any one seen the thing that the scientists posted on you tube? I heard a little bit of it on the radio this morning and it sounded quite fun.... shame I can't see it on the work pc
 
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Beanyowner

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[ QUOTE ]
Just as well, just eating a yogurt and you know how much mess they can make

[/ QUOTE ]

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PMSL
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Love it!

I just had two peices of Victoria Sponge cake....just in case
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Don't want to see it go to waste now.
 
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Certainly not.
It seems we're all fine.
Means I can now enjoy a knob of chocolate without being desturbed
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Ooo a cuppa tea and a slice of cake... now youre talking!

What were we talking about? oh year Collider, it didnt work then?
 
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I am so grateful to my parents - we couldn't afford for me to go on any "away" school trips - that was the only one I went on but it was so worth it. I have to admit some of the lectures (as they got more and more abstract) left me utterly baffled (the most intelligent girls at my school seemed to be following them better but I can't claim to be that clever!!).

Schrodinger's Cat is a fantastic book, unfortunately I lent my copy out to someone and never got it back, so I must re-stock. It's years since I read it but I think it starts out at A-level chemistry recap covering how objects/atoms are made up, but gets so interesting about how if you watch particles interacting they do one thing, but if you don't watch them interact/collide/whatever, but just examine the end result, they have done something entirely different. i.e. there are different possible outcomes that exist in parallel with each other and the possibilities collapse at different times to leave one true outcome.

Schrodinger posited something along the lines that theoretically if you put a cat in a closed box with a poisonous particle of matter, which may or may not decay bearing in mind it's not being watched, the cat's fate is unknown until the box is opened, so the cat theoretically is both dead and alive until the different strings of outcomes collapse.

I have probably totally misunderstood or mis-remembered that, but anyway it is a fantastic book. Except I got lost at the end.
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mrdarcy

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The scientist who took out a legal action against them switching this thing on argued that if a blackhole was to swallow us up it would be in four years time (no idea how he worked that one out), so if four years today we all disappear then he'll have been proved right! Should be just after the end of the London Olympics - so we can all enjoy that without ever having to pay the bills for it!
 
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LynneB

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just make sure you aren't eating anything runny when they start bashing them together! I have to admit to being a bit concerned, I mean why build it so far underground, or why build it at all even. The sacred particle they are looking for has apparently "never been seen before" so how do they know it exists? Physics used to baffle me at school - but here's hoping to not exploding
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