How much can the Hadron Collider destroy the world?

[I-Protest-I]

Zero.

That's the possibility of it doing any damage, it creates miniscule versions of the building blocks of the universe in an environment where they can actually tell what's going on. This happens all of the time but we are unable to see it happening.
TLDR: Big machine do no harm. DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

 

[Darth IB]

Oh, in lots and lots of ways I'm sure.
But there is a website that never fails to calm me down should I worry about the LHC:
http://www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

 

[Popadoo]

I thought they already finished the tests, didn't it end up making prehistoric matter? In latent terms, one centimeter squared of 'prehistoric matter' that was around at the beginning of the universe would weigh 40 billion tons.

 

[Nyrad01]

I was wondering for a while. What's the exact danger of the Collider, and what can it do except making a black hole or big banging the existence out of it. Only the things it can screw up, not the miracles it can create if it doesn't kill us.

It doesn't matter. It's for Science!

Curses, your use of 'for science!' means that even should we find that the LHC would destroy the world, we would have to use it anyway. Curse you science!

 

[Signa]

This guy will tell you all about the dangers...



Nope, couldn't keep a straight face...

 

[FalloutJack]

The only possible way for the LHC to do any damage to the world would be through tremendous misuse. And even then, they may not actually have the capability to do it. The thing about, say, creating black holes...is that can't sustain themselves without significant mass. I refer you to the part where black holes are generally made from suns whose gravity is enormous once they've gone nova. It takes alot of force for that and I recall Stephen Hawking saying that even our local and warm-giving sun wasn't good enough, so what chance does a controlled and limited lab experiment?

 

[fates_puppet13]

the probabillaty of the hadron collider destrying the world are up there with me winning the international lottery

if you have trouble gauging those odds
im not mr lucky
and the odds are still 1 in 2 billion at least

 

[Gregg Lonsdale]

It couldn't possibly create a black hole. The greatest amount of energy the particle collisions generate is 14TV (14 Trillion volts). Scientists currently believe that, if it is even possible to create a black hole, it would require upwards of 10^160 TV. and that black hole would be so small that it would disappear almost instantly due to Hawking radiation

...yeah

 

[The_Darkness]

Vaguely surprised that this hasn't come up yet: The LHC doesn't do anything that cosmic rays aren't already doing in our upper atmosphere. It just allows us to measure such events in a (rather expensive) lab. If a black hole was formed, it would evaporate almost immediately due to Hawking Radiation, and we'd actually get some pretty neat info by watching it happen.

 

[icaritos]

It's a scientific breakthrough to actually create the building blocks of our universe! Crashing 2 particles at speeds faster than light, creating a perfect liquid, this is only the first step! Although what would be interesting from a Sociological standpoint is what the religious do with these advancements? Do they condemn them, or accept and use them to strengthen their faith?

Edit: I got a little side-tracked in Scientific Thought Orgasm. I'm pretty sure there are safety features involved if you're dealing with such powerful tools.

Not faster than light, just damn close to it.

 

[Rex Fallout]

I was wondering for a while. What's the exact danger of the Collider, and what can it do except making a black hole or big banging the existence out of it. Only the things it can screw up, not the miracles it can create if it doesn't kill us.

It could make Jesus mad...

? How so exactly?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Um...maybe there's an intergalactic law against LHCs, and alien police are sent to invade Switzerland? Well, given a few centuries for them to notice it and get here, that is.

 

[FolkLikePanda]

To me knowledge it just whacks particles together at near light speeds and producces over particles such as mesons and quarks etc. So it could make a tiny big bang that would produce smaller amounts of what it had created. The black holes you are worried about would last have a second and possibly weigh the same as a mountain (a black hole smaller than a hydrogen atom) so nothing would happen as such. So basically dow worry be happy... FOR SCIENCE!

 

[colourcodedchaos]

I think everything we need to know about those saying the LHC will bring about the end of the world is contained in one fact.

They said exactly the same thing about the Tevatron, which has been running experiments since 1994 with a conspicuous absence of sci-fi apocalypses.

Case closed.

 

[Canid117]

I was wondering for a while. What's the exact danger of the Collider, and what can it do except making a black hole or big banging the existence out of it. Only the things it can screw up, not the miracles it can create if it doesn't kill us.

It could make Jesus mad...

? How so exactly?

Becuase... [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow]

It just can.

But it wont so we shouldn't worry about it.

 

[Nimcha]

I've been there when they were still finishing construction, and for a machine that deals with such small particles it's obscenely large. Really, these magnets they were installing were like the size of a three-story building. Amazing stuff.

But the only damage it can do is to itself. It has been broken about 90% of the time since construction was completed...

 

[infohippie]

I was wondering for a while. What's the exact danger of the Collider,

Zero. There is no danger from it whatsoever. The people saying it will destroy the world have exactly as much credibility as those who thought the world was going to end last weekend. There are billions upon billions of far more energetic particle collisions happening in the upper atmosphere every day as cosmic rays smash into the ionosphere. The cool thing about the LHC is that the collisions are happening inside some stupendously sensitive detectors so we can watch what happens in great detail - for SCIENCE!

 

[Loop Stricken]

I was wondering for a while. What's the exact danger of the Collider, and what can it do except making a black hole or big banging the existence out of it. Only the things it can screw up, not the miracles it can create if it doesn't kill us.

The way it was once described to me is there's a higher chance of all your molecules falling apart whilst you shave in the morning.

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Theres about a 0.0000000000001% chance of creating a black hole that is actually dangerous. Actually, there should be a lot more zeroes on that, but you get the picture.

 

[DefunctTheory]

It's possible that the damn thing could create a micro black hole that would sink to the core of the planet and basically destroy us all in something like a year.

For this to happen, however, multiple things would have to go wrong. Namely, everything. Short of every technician and scientist getting plastered, putting just the right amount of material into the collider, then tweaking the settings, fire the thing, and God himself descending to make shit happen, its not going to occur.