Large Hadron Collider goes online tonite!

[baterija]

In case anyone was wondering
http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Since the world is about to end, I am going to risk my world by doing a couple things many, many orders of magnitude more likely of killing me:
- leave the house
- drive
- eat food
- go for a run
- take a shower

Living life on the edge! :devil:

 

[PhantomPhoton]

Well, any idiot who thought the world was going to end obviously din't read too much about the LHC. All they did was switch on a proton beam going one way. No collisions yet. :sigh:

Glad to see everything went well. Hopefully we'll get some good data to start munching on this fall.

 

[TONY M]

Since the world is about to end, I am going to risk my world by doing a couple things many, many orders of magnitude more likely of killing me:
- leave the house
- drive
- eat food
- go for a run
- take a shower

Living life on the edge! :devil:

I'm going to max out my credit cards ASAP! :twothumbs

 

[LED-holic]

Well, any idiot who thought the world was going to end obviously din't read too much about the LHC. All they did was switch on a proton beam going one way. No collisions yet. :sigh:

Glad to see everything went well. Hopefully we'll get some good data to start munching on this fall.

Where did you read this? What's the point of sending a proton beam one way other than for testing purposes?

 

[jzmtl]

Well no big bang last night, that was kinda disappointing.

 

[js]

Well, any idiot who thought the world was going to end obviously din't read too much about the LHC. All they did was switch on a proton beam going one way. No collisions yet. :sigh:

Glad to see everything went well. Hopefully we'll get some good data to start munching on this fall.

That's right. No collisions at this point. First you have to get each individual species (protons and anti-protons) to go all the way around the ring.

But, guys, there is NO CHANCE whatsoever that a "mini black hole" created by the LHC will destroy the earth! And I dearly dearly wish that the media would stop wasting valuable coverage time talking about it again and again and again.

At the center of a real black hole there is what is called a singularity, and it is a point where the curvature of space-time becomes infinite. It is created because of all the mass surrounding it, being crushed and compressed inward, to the point where not even atoms exist, because atoms are mostly empty space, after all! Now, if you remove all of that mass surrounding the singularity, then *poof*, the singularity would disappear almost instantly. This is the "mini black hole" that the physicists are postulating might be produced: a very temporary, very harmless, very short-lived bit of space-time with infinite curvature. It can't "eat" anything, and it can't sustain itself.

Further, if such things can (and will) be created, then there are being created all the time in the upper atmosphere due to high energy gamma rays. And also at the center of neutron stars. If there were even the smallest chance of a "mini black hole" eating the earth, then there wouldn't be any neutron stars in existence because they would have all become black holes already.

Look, NO REPUTABLE PHYSICIST IS EVEN REMOTELY WORRIED about the earth ending due to the LHC. And neither should you be.

Granted, it's funny, and fun to make fun of and toss about--like in this thread--and that's not the problem. The problem is the news and other media constantly bringing it up again and again, giving it legitimacy, wasting time on it. Valuable time that could have been spent talking about more important issues and questions revolving around the LHC and the work that will be done there. People from my lab are involved in the LHC detector, and sensationalizing and legitimizing a pseudo-science farce like a mini-black-hole devouring the earth, is a real disservice to them and to all the people who have worked long and hard to make the LHC a reality.

 

[Chuck289]

Yah I heard an interview on the radio this morning. All they have done so far is turn the LHC on and fire a beam in one direction. They just want to make sure it works.
When they smash two beams together, thats when we get to see all the cool stuff like black holes and DeLoreans

 

[raggie33]

come on get ya stuff together fire this thing up u jerks when i was ya age i build on my self and i fired it up and created a small planet that had places that was up hilll in every direction i walked

 

[Fallingwater]

But, guys, there is NO CHANCE whatsoever that a "mini black hole" created by the LHC will destroy the earth! And I dearly dearly wish that the media would stop wasting valuable coverage time talking about it again and again and again.

The media are probably laughing their asses off that someone would believe a word of that, but they'll keep wasting coverage time because that's what people want.

 

[paxxus]

Granted, it's funny, and fun to make fun of and toss about--like in this thread--and that's not the problem. The problem is the news and other media constantly bringing it up again and again, giving it legitimacy, wasting time on it. Valuable time that could have been spent talking about more important issues and questions revolving around the LHC and the work that will be done there. People from my lab are involved in the LHC detector, and sensationalizing and legitimizing a pseudo-science farce like a mini-black-hole devouring the earth, is a real disservice to them and to all the people who have worked long and hard to make the LHC a reality.

I agree. It's very damaging to science.

BTW, I thought all mass of a black hole was in the singularity itself :shrug:

 

[js]

It's not so much what people "want", I don't think, as what will get people's attention, create a buzz, enter the public's awareness. It's the same reason that Britney Spears antics or trainwrecks get so much coverage. Even the people who hate it, and who speak out against it and our decadent society, and complain about how Britney dresses and so on and on and on --even these people are helping perpetuate the coverage.

 

[DM51]

Half the problem with the media is they are so bone idle it is difficult to get them to cover any serious story at all. They will often only cover a story like this one if there is bad news, or an alarmist slant to it.

At least the "Black Hole Will Eat the Earth Tomorrow" nonsense got them to cover it. Now Joe Public at least knows about it, and maybe he'll be interested enough to follow it up and find out more.

BTW, black holes are actually green, but the gravitational forces are so great that not even light can escape, so no color at all gets out and they appear black.

 

[js]

I agree. It's very damaging to science.

BTW, I thought all mass of a black hole was in the singularity itself :shrug:

A non-rotating black hole is modeled as if all of the mass were at the singularity itself (I've even solved the GR field equations for that case). But even in theory, a rotating black hole is a whole 'nother beastie. And in practice, there is always mass making its way to the singularity.

Still, as I understand it, I think you are essentially correct. I should have used different words. Sorry. I should have said that a singularity with very little mass can not sustain itself and "evaporates" almost instantly.

But, yeah, thanks for correcting me on that! Good point.

 

[Empath]

The media are probably laughing their asses off that someone would believe a word of that, but they'll keep wasting coverage time because that's what people want.

It has become politically expedient, to some, to discredit science. The media is a political tool that will fall all over themselves attempting to make science look like dangerous and bumbling fools deserving of alarmists' attention. If credibility is damaged in one thing, the argument could be made that credibility is lost in all others.

 

[RyanA]

Yah I heard an interview on the radio this morning. All they have done so far is turn the LHC on and fire a beam in one direction. They just want to make sure it works.
When they smash two beams together, thats when we get to see all the cool stuff like black holes and DeLoreans

LOL!
The headlines read "Science Shocked; Free Delorians!?"

Scientist Quoted: "We just turned it on and suddenly Delorians where EVERYWHERE"

One bystander said: "Tonight, all of our worst fears have been realized. I mean, what are we going to do with all these Delorians? Just look at all of 'em"

 

[matt0]

http://www.HasTheLHCdestroyedTheEarth.com/

:twothumbs

 

[jtr1962]

This is the "mini black hole" that the physicists are postulating might be produced: a very temporary, very harmless, very short-lived bit of space-time with infinite curvature. It can't "eat" anything, and it can't sustain itself.

I'll also add that black holes evaporate over time. The time scale for the ones with stellar mass is on the order of billions of years but for these microscopic ones we're probably talking nanoseconds. The black hole would cease to exist before it could swallow up an appeciable amount of matter, even if it were moving very slowly. Also, the event horizon for these mini-black holes is of an atomic scale. They just can't suddenly swallow everything in the room. Maybe at best they'll swallow a few dozen molecules of air before they evaporate.

 

[jrmcferren]

http://www.HasTheLHCdestroyedTheEarth.com/

:twothumbs

Ahh come on this one actually has a script to check to see if the LHC destroyed the world: http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

 

[PhotonWrangler]

come on get ya stuff together fire this thing up u jerks when i was ya age i build on my self and i fired it up and created a small planet that had places that was up hilll in every direction i walked

 

[Illum]