Poll: Large Hadron Collider

[Russian_Assassin]

I know what it is. It is a big pussy!

...What!? Don't look at me like that! It said so here http://www.cracked.com/blog/my-field-trip-to-the-large-hadron-collider !

 

[Stephanos132]

Can't really contribute much more than what others have here, only that it, and other particle accelerators like it, use up a lot of energy and helium (for cooling of the magnets). In fact, I've heard that they'll probably have used up all the Earths helium within 20 or so years, and that unless they make fusion (or any other suitably potent energy source) commercially viable, energy constraints may force them to turn the LHC off.

 

[TimeLord]

Yes I know what it is.

No, it did not destroy the world with a black hole!

Damn you glass-half-full people thinking it would be the end of the world!

 

[Ldude893]

Ah yes, the Large Hadron Collider. They say it'll cause a black hole and suck the Earth into it, but I doubt it. It's just a giant nuclear reactor.


EDIT: Okay, maybe a little resonance cascade, but nothing more.

 

[Mukiwa]

More like Large Money Sink Collider.

Seriously, if they don't find the Higg's Boson like they intended from the start, then all they have is a giant particle accelerator.

Do you realize that America alone spends 10 times the cost of the LHC on cigarettes. Yearly.

NASA receives less money annually than Americans spend on lip balm.

If the Coca Cola company stopped spending money on advertising they could build a Large Hadron Collider once every 2 years. (and lets be honest, Coca Cola does not need advertising)

The "carbon credit" bullshit planet wide moves enough money to build the international space station. annually.

The U.S. spent enough money on the B-2 "Spirit" Bomber, from inception to production, to fund NASA for 8 years.

Each Virginia class nuclear attack submarine (which serve precisely 0 purpose) is over 3 times the cost of both the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Bots, rockets, launch, and ground crew for the entire duration of the mission.

The Gross Domestic Product of Luxembourg is enough to fund every space agency on the entire planet.

OPEC makes enough money to launch the space shuttle 3 times a day.... for a whole year.

Science is cheap compared to keeping 7 billion people alive, happy, and protected... from themselves.

Wow, those are some pretty striking figures. Sucks how little support is really given to scientific research compared to how much we could easily afford to provide.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Those people are living under rocks. The LHC has been in global news soooo many times.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

A machine that fires off particles against each other in hope of making a minimized version of The Big Bang, thereby finding out the secret to the universe. People were panicking over it creating a black hole, which turned out to be total bullshit, since the risk was close to nil. It hasn't done much good, since they still have many tweaks to fix. That's what I know.

 

[Arachon]

A machine that fires off particles against each other in hope of making a minimized version of The Big Bang, thereby finding out the secret to the universe. People were panicking over it creating a black hole, which turned out to be total bullshit, since the risk was close to nil. It hasn't done much good, since they still have many tweaks to fix. That's what I know.

Actually, it's up and running properly now.

 

[Outright Villainy]

well, it is impossible, what what I mean is, they can cause it to happen. They release a particle, and make it move along a set path, with a camera somewhere on it.

quantum particles are fucked up like that. they don't like cameras.

Cause what to happen? I'm pretty sure the uncertainty principle states that position and momentum can't be known simultaneously. It's not a technological defficiency, it simply can't be known.

Also I find a nice way of telling people how it messes it up if we look at it, is to just tell them what happens. Light messes with it, because light has momentum, and those things are really fucking small.

 

[Woodsey]

I know what it is, and I can very briefly describe what they're doing with it.

I thought everyone had heard of it after the whole "it creates a blackhole, we're going to die!" fiasco.

Nope i have no what you are talking about because i don't pay attention to most things that don't directly affect me. Call me ignorant if you must but that's the way i am

How do you know what's going to affect you if you don't find out about anything?

 

[shirin238]

The first test round is already in the past, and a entire new field of physics is laid bare (to quote the newspapers)
And I have seen some very hilarious youtube videos, including one guy which thought that the LHC will open up a gate above the Earth and unleash invaders from another dimension or something x]

 

[Aurora219]

I think we have a fairly captive audience here - and we've had news about the LHC when it arrived.

Still, I personally am surprised when teachers don't know about it, let alone other people. It's important science stuff!

 

[Ldude893]

The first test round is already in the past, and a entire new field of physics is laid bare (to quote the newspapers)
And I have seen some very hilarious youtube videos, including one guy which thought that the LHC will open up a gate above the Earth and unleash invaders from another dimension or something x]

I assumed some government man with a briefcase warned the scientists before they accidentally opened a gateway to another dimension, letting in Vortiguants and Headcrab.

 

[johnman]

Theyt are trying to smash atoms to try and find the building blocks of matter the Higg's bosun, is that right?
And all that stuff about it ending the wrold is retarded as they were only just turning it on then it broke down with a hydrogen leak.
Also Gordon freeman works there http://www.popgive.com/2008/09/gordon-freeman-spotted-at-cern.html

 

[The Undoer]

I do, but I personally don't care, it's just another one of those things, and it wouldn't be being done if we were likely at all to die from it.

And well, if it opens up a tear in time and space, letting through extra terrestrials, we have the perfect scientist there already.

Spoiler

Edit: Damn, ninja'd!

 

[Oneirius]

I wrote no, because I am not a noble prize winning physicist. Sure, I know it's a massive particle collider who is supposed to help us find the god particle and re invent the face of physics and our understanding of the universe, but I don't actually know how anything WORKS.

 

[erto101]

I had alot of fun when someone in my class came along saying that the world would cos of LHC ^^

 

[yankeefan19]

I've known about it since it was revealed because everyone I know was sayin, "OMG! It's teh End of the World!!!"

 

[DEATHROAD]

Ha..that made me laugh, 6 people dont know what it is, 300 do.

And i thought i was smart

 

[Broady Brio]

The ma-hoo-sive thing in Switzerland?

Apprently when it was first about to collide particles together, it was apprently going the end the world.