Large Hadron Collider Produces "mini Big Bang"

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

I understood none of what you just quoted and I know nothing of this Higg or his Boson which you speak of. Have you tried down the side of the seti or the man draw?

Naw but in all seriousness I have no idea what they're doing but it all sounds good. I can guarantee you that someone will shout about it making a black hole and destroying the world. Damn paranoid creeps.

 

[Whitenail]

Interesting, let's just hope these discoveries can be put to better use than finding new and interesting methods of blowing things up.

Then again maybe this is how our universe began, maybe time is cyclical and perhaps we were our own God (or gods, or forces behind our creation depending on your stance)...or perhaps I'm overthinking things.

 

[Tharwen]

It's been doing that for about a year now! It's just... less mini now.

Also, discovering the Higgs Boson isn't the only aim of the project. I probably shouldn't, but I get slightly annoyed when news sources proclaim the LHC's primary function as being 'creating the god particle!'.

 

[Kenko]

Is this more evidence against religion?

Its another step in that direction. Isnt religious scripture evidence enough against religion in modern times?

I don't think it takes 9 billion US dollars to suggest that stories about a magic man who has magical sex with virgins who then has a son that grow up to perform magic mircals really needs that much money thrown at it to appear comical

You sir , will have my babies.... Plz?

Ok, what is your opening bid

open to haggling

10,000? Wait, no I changed my mind. 1 milion thingamajigs for babies? Good deal yes?

 

[Tharwen]

I'm surprised nobody on the Escapist has brought this up yet. I'd say it's pretty substantial news.

The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than at the centre of the Sun.

So then, if it produced temperatures approaching 27 TRILLION, 999 BILLION, 540 MILLION degree's Fahrenheit (for those of you outside of the US, It's 27 billion, 999 millard, 540 million degrees fahrenheit, I'm not converting it into celsius for ya), then explain to me, how did it NOT melt the air around it into plasma, or melt the LHC it'self into a slag of molten metal?

1. There's no air for several metres around it.

2. The energy isn't emitted as heat.

 

[tomtom94]

The Black Hole Machine LHC does some incredibly cool things, but there'd better be some practical applications at the end of it cause if it doesn't people are going to be seriously annoyed and...to be frank I can't exactly blame them.

Nevertheless, continue the good fight FOR SCIENCE!

 

[gabe12301]

Did the world Explode? I think not.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I love how we can't get past the first page without bashing religion shows how mature these forums can be at times. Although be nice to see if the Big Bang Theory can be proved correct or not and maybe this could eventually lead to cold fusion or at least a better form of fusion than we have already.

Although I love how creative Physicists are about calling the force that over comes the coloumb law. The guy who made up names must of been on holiday as the Strong Force is pretty damn uninventive.

Spoiler

I'm surprised nobody on the Escapist has brought this up yet. I'd say it's pretty substantial news.

The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than at the centre of the Sun.

So then, if it produced temperatures approaching 27 TRILLION, 999 BILLION, 540 MILLION degree's Fahrenheit (for those of you outside of the US, It's 27 billion, 999 millard, 540 million degrees fahrenheit, I'm not converting it into celsius for ya), then explain to me, how did it NOT melt the air around it into plasma, or melt the LHC it'self into a slag of molten metal?

Not 100% sure on how it works but it could be something like a plasma type generator. They suspend it with magnetism to stop it from melting everything near it. Although I do think the LHC is a vaccum of some sort to get rid of unnecessary particles. So no Air or medium to travel through less heat.

 

[SpecklePattern]

Like the fact that no one actually knew if these kind of temperatures would actually create some sort of mini black holes which would have perhaps less than funny effects. But it seems that the particle quantities and energy put into them in time span are still small enough not to cause anything nasty.

I have to object to this. Any black holes created by the LHC would dissolve in a matter of milliseconds. I don't remember where the article itself is, but I do remember reading about it shortly after they got it up and running.

Actually I think we have not created any artificial black holes so that is your quess for what comes to "dissolving" of a black hole. Like I said also.

Like the fact that no one actually knew if these kind of temperatures would actually create some sort of mini black holes which would have perhaps less than funny effects. But it seems that the particle quantities and energy put into them in time span are still small enough not to cause anything nasty.

Not to be personal, but that type of thinking is the type of extreme "what if?'s" that hinder scientific progress. Akin to nobody driving their cars due the the pathetically insignificant chance that the whole thing will explode when the engine turns over.

Hmm. I read my post again and I don't see "what if?'s" in my part. If LHC would need humans to fuel itself I would not stand in the way as long as no one would put me in for the fuel. I am physicist for life.

 

[TriggerUnhappy]

When you're dealing with the temperature of the sun, nothing is a "safe controlled environment". Still, pretty interesting.

 

[Crunchy English]

A bit technical for my rather loose grasp of physics, but the LHC did SOMETHING without breaking down, blowing up or costing more money so... yay science.

On the prospective side, creating something that hot must have created a ton of usable energy: couldn't even one millionth of the sun's energy essentially solve any energy crisis we have? Just another piece of evidence proving that energy is really easy to come by, what we really need is a massive, super efficient battery.

 

[SpokeyPokey]

I'm surprised nobody on the Escapist has brought this up yet. I'd say it's pretty substantial news.

The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than at the centre of the Sun.

So then, if it produced temperatures approaching 27 TRILLION, 999 BILLION, 540 MILLION degree's Fahrenheit (for those of you outside of the US, It's 27 billion, 999 millard, 540 million degrees fahrenheit, I'm not converting it into celsius for ya), then explain to me, how did it NOT melt the air around it into plasma, or melt the LHC it'self into a slag of molten metal?

For the same reason that a tiny spark from a sparkler will not burn you badly, but a kettle full of boiling water can give you horredous burns, even though the water is at a lower temp.: temperature is not the same as heat. A lot of people get this wrong, but temperature is the average kinetic energy of atoms in a substance (i.e. how fast the atoms are moving on average, but heat is the total kinetic energy (all the energy of those movements of atoms, all added up).

So, in the LHCs case, although the average temperature of the atoms they are colliding is absolutely massive, there are so few atoms (compared to how many are in a pan of boiling water, for instance) that it won't do much damage.

 

[thiosk]

I'm surprised nobody on the Escapist has brought this up yet. I'd say it's pretty substantial news.

The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than at the centre of the Sun.

So then, if it produced temperatures approaching 27 TRILLION, 999 BILLION, 540 MILLION degree's Fahrenheit (for those of you outside of the US, It's 27 billion, 999 millard, 540 million degrees fahrenheit, I'm not converting it into celsius for ya), then explain to me, how did it NOT melt the air around it into plasma, or melt the LHC it'self into a slag of molten metal?

The other guy wasn't correct. Edit: but the above poster is.

So they flung two nuclei into each other, and the resulting plasma was that hot. But, it was just a handful of particles at that temperature. Even though they had more energy than all the other particles that make up the instrument itself, when they transfer their energy to the particles all around them, the temperature dissipates quickly because those trillions of degrees are transferred to the trillions of trillions of trillions of atoms all around it.

Example:

Take a huge pot of boiling water, and a tall glass of iced soda. Take a teaspoon of the boiling water, and pour it immediatly into the soda. Nothing much is going to happen.

That water was BOILING hot, but you didn't transfer enough hot molecules to bring enough heat over to the soda to melt the ice.

 

[Wicky_42]

A bit technical for my rather loose grasp of physics, but the LHC did SOMETHING without breaking down, blowing up or costing more money so... yay science.

On the prospective side, creating something that hot must have created a ton of usable energy: couldn't even one millionth of the sun's energy essentially solve any energy crisis we have? Just another piece of evidence proving that energy is really easy to come by, what we really need is a massive, super efficient battery.

It didn't create that energy, it used it, lol. We manufactured a mini-big bang. That's shockingly energy intensive - the LHC is a drain on the power grind, not a major contributor

 

[jamesworkshop]

Is this more evidence against religion?

Its another step in that direction. Isnt religious scripture evidence enough against religion in modern times?

I don't think it takes 9 billion US dollars to suggest that stories about a magic man who has magical sex with virgins who then has a son that grow up to perform magic mircals really needs that much money thrown at it to appear comical

You sir , will have my babies.... Plz?

Ok, what is your opening bid

open to haggling

10,000? Wait, no I changed my mind. 1 milion thingamajigs for babies? Good deal yes?

10 for that you must be mad

 

[The Hairminator]

So then, if it produced temperatures approaching 27 TRILLION, 999 BILLION, 540 MILLION degree's Fahrenheit (for those of you outside of the US, It's 27 billion, 999 millard, 540 million degrees fahrenheit, I'm not converting it into celsius for ya), then explain to me, how did it NOT melt the air around it into plasma, or melt the LHC it'self into a slag of molten metal?

The object heated was probably extremely tiny, so the thermal energy wouldn't become too extreme (or within the limits of what human kind can produce). It was also probably heated in a controlled environment where the energy couldn't escape from the object except under very controlled circumstances.

[blockquote]Thermal Energy

Let's say it was one liter [=1 kg] (~1/4 US gallons) of water (yes, I know the molecules, not to mention the atoms, will fall apart when it becomes plasma- but still) with the starting temperature of 283K (10°C/50°F) that were to be heated to 2.799954×10^19°F (1.55553*10^19 K)

W[small]thermal[/small] = Q × m × ∆T

Where Q is 4.19, or the heat constant for water, m is the mass, 1 kg, and ∆T is the change in temperature in [K].

W[small]thermal[/small] = 4.19 × 1 × (~1.55553 × 10^19) = [HEADING=1]6.5176707 × 10^19 Joule! Holy Fuck![/HEADING]

To put it in perspective; It'd take an average Nuclear Power plant (1000 Mega Watt- full effect, all the time) 754 000 000 days (A bit over 2 million years) to generate that energy. The combined total energy of 310 Tsar Bombas

Conclusion: The net mass of what was heated is probably close to non-existent. But still, I wouldn't want to pay CERN's electrical bill.
[/blockquote]

 

[Woodsey]

Is this more evidence against religion?

Isn't there enough already?

OT: Interesting, although I thought I read that the Big Bang theory was becoming less popular in favour of others, but I could be wrong.

 

[direkiller]

I'm surprised nobody on the Escapist has brought this up yet. I'd say it's pretty substantial news.

The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than at the centre of the Sun.

So then, if it produced temperatures approaching 27 TRILLION, 999 BILLION, 540 MILLION degree's Fahrenheit (for those of you outside of the US, It's 27 billion, 999 millard, 540 million degrees fahrenheit, I'm not converting it into celsius for ya), then explain to me, how did it NOT melt the air around it into plasma, or melt the LHC it'self into a slag of molten metal?

because its on very few molecules

so when the energy dissipates its not enough to melt anything

 

[Kenko]

Is this more evidence against religion?

Its another step in that direction. Isnt religious scripture evidence enough against religion in modern times?

I don't think it takes 9 billion US dollars to suggest that stories about a magic man who has magical sex with virgins who then has a son that grow up to perform magic mircals really needs that much money thrown at it to appear comical

You sir , will have my babies.... Plz?

Ok, what is your opening bid

open to haggling

10,000? Wait, no I changed my mind. 1 milion thingamajigs for babies? Good deal yes?

10 for that you must be mad

Aaaah, Monthy Python. Aaah, nostalgic memories.