Large Hadron Collider is activated

[Mister_E]

LINK

Scientists have switched on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the device they hope will unravel some of the remaining mysteries of the universe.

At 9.30 am local time (8.30 am British Summer Time), 300 feet below the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, the most powerful particle accelerator ever built became fully operational.




Let me put it this way:

They turned it on.

Nothing Bad Happened. Yet.

[JohnnyAR]

Fuck dude, I'm scared.

[Stormfalcon]

No mini black holes ripping the planet apart.  No dimensional rifts letting tentacled beasties into our world.  So far, so good.

OTOH, no dimensional rifts letting anime cuties or bishies into our world, either.  Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.

[JohnnyAR]

OTOH, no dimensional rifts letting anime cuties or bishies into our world, either.  Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.

That'd be awesome.

[Mister_E]

No mini black holes ripping the planet apart.  No dimensional rifts letting tentacled beasties into our world.  So far, so good.

OTOH, no dimensional rifts letting anime cuties or bishies into our world, either.  Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.

Hell to that, I wanted a Zaku to pop out.

[LordKefka]

This is just another one of those Y2K situations where skeptics drown themselves in paranoia (that or just doubt)

[Tony]

Why worry! If something happens, I imagine it would hit you before you know it.

There are scarier physics out there...

[Mizuki]

It hasn't been activated today, it was just a ceremony. October is when you should really be scared, but nothing will happen, maybe a blackhole the size of a house (AKA nothing in space) will open and like dust may get sucked in, oh well.

[JTchinoy]

won't the very ground beneath the black hole get eaten as well?
do black holes move based on the gravitational pull of other objects or do they sit in place?  if they sit in place, won't that mean that black hole would suck up everything on earth that touches it as earth makes its orbit around the sun?

[sysadmin]

I read a some physics blogs in my daily activities, and most of them just roll their eyes at these types of discussions.

It is mathematically true that there is a non-zero chance of something bad happening.  Then again, there's a non-zero chance that I will quantum tunnel into your house right now.  So.. BOO!.

For the boring stuff: only certain models of the universe (compact dimensions) suggest that a tiny black hole is possible.  In other theories, the math doesn't work out.   Even then, the resulting black hole is so small (original size: one large atomic nucleus compacted into a space much smaller than that) that it would radiate away instantly (in most black hole theories).  Even if it didn't, a black hole that's zillions of times smaller than a proton actually can't absorb a proton and grow larger.. so that's that.

do black holes move based on the gravitational pull of other objects or do they sit in place?  if they sit in place, won't that mean that black hole would suck up everything on earth that touches it as earth makes its orbit around the sun?

They move according to gravity, if one was created, it'd go for the center of the earth.  But since it's so tiny, it won't interact with anything in its way, so it would probably just head there and sit there.  That's assuming that one is created and doesn't immediately disappear.

It hasn't been activated today, it was just a ceremony. October is when you should really be scared, but nothing will happen, maybe a blackhole the size of a house (AKA nothing in space) will open and like dust may get sucked in, oh well.

Yeah, the first collisions are in October.  But a blackhole the size of a house is too large.  Again, think 'less than a proton' in terms of size.

Black holes don't suck.  They're just "really dense" things.  A black hole as massive as a house will have as much gravity as a house.  You can out run those pretty easy.   If you had a black hole several times the mass of the sun, that would do some funky things.  But that's not really possible with the stuff we have lying around.

More awesome of course is that Large Hardon Collider.  But I can't talk about it on a PG-13 forum.

[XpHoBiaX]

More awesome of course is that Large Hardon Collider.  But I can't talk about it on a PG-13 forum.

;D

[mDuo13]

More awesome of course is that Large Hardon Collider.  But I can't talk about it on a PG-13 forum.

;D

sysadmin wins this thread.

[ewu]

shit is going around it but no collisions will occur until October 21


Theoretically, micro-black holes are still not a threat. The likelihood of forming a black hole is something like 1:50million and the creation of a STABLE black hole is even smaller. There is this thing called Hawking radiation (yes, the SAME Hawking) that black holes emit and cause the black holes to "evaporate".

Guys...this is something like worrying about a plane crash, EMF radiation, lightning, BPAs, or death by meteor when the real threat is heart disease....

[Chun]

shit is going around it but no collisions will occur until October 21

So a possible end of the world on my biological birthday.

Should prove... interesting? lol

~Chun

[XpHoBiaX]

shit is going around it but no collisions will occur until October 21

So a possible end of the world on my biological birthday.

Should prove... interesting? lol

~Chun

Oh hell no. How come he  gets all the fireworks on his birthday?!

[otakuapprentice]

if Y2K didnt bring the world to madness by destroying technology, then this wont do a damn thing.

now if you fast forward 4 years and 3 months to 2012, then we should be scared shitless.

[sysadmin]

now if you fast forward 4 years and 3 months to 2012, then we should be scared shitless.

Oh God, not this again.

[JohnnyAR]

now if you fast forward 4 years and 3 months to 2012, then we should be scared shitless.

Oh God, not this again.

Lol @ sysadmin

[otakuapprentice]

now if you fast forward 4 years and 3 months to 2012, then we should be scared shitless.

Oh God, not this again.

Lol @ sysadmin

yes, it is THIS again. I'll be sitting in a lawn chair drinking a beer waiting; if nothing happens, I'll be disappointed.

[ewu]

http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Hello_I_m_from_two_months_in_the_future

points for IDing the episode that the comment is from.....