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358 Comments
- colasrtney, on 09/10/2008, -3/+332I wish I was knowledgeable enough to make a witty comment about this.
- DrDragun, on 09/10/2008, -2/+238This thing is going to open the portals like in Doom. Before turning this ***** on they need to make sure to place health kits all around the facility and stack exploding toxic barrels near areas where enemies might congregate, just in case some lone hero starting with a pistol might have to fight his way out. Really we shouldn't turn this thing on until our civilization has developed Space Marines though.
- ErrorFree, on 09/10/2008, -6/+168History is repeating itself. How do you think the first big bang happened? 0_0
- DeskFlyer, on 09/10/2008, -1/+157I was just reading up on some more info about this thing when I found this mind-blowing fact:
"The size of the LHC constitutes an exceptional engineering challenge with unique operational issues on account of the huge energy stored in the magnets and the beams.[15][34] While operating, the total energy stored in the magnets is 10 GJ and the total energy carried by the two beams reaches 724 MJ.[35]
Loss of only one ten-millionth part (10−7) of the beam is sufficient to quench a superconducting magnet, while the beam dump must absorb an energy equivalent to a typical air-dropped bomb. These immense energies are even more impressive when one considers how little matter is carrying it. Under nominal operating conditions (2,808 bunches per beam, 1.15×1011 protons per bunch), the beam pipes contain 1.0×10-9 grams of hydrogen, which, in standard conditions for temperature and pressure, would fill the volume of one grain of fine sand."
סּ_סּ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider ... - AllenAwesome, on 09/10/2008, -9/+133You should never cross the beams! Oh...wait...your colliding them? Well then that's fine.
- BXRWXR, on 09/10/2008, -1/+103Looks like the drive bay of the Event Horizon.
- Lodarage, on 09/10/2008, -0/+79http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldy ...
(Don't forget to view the source page source! ) - ScottMcIntyre, on 09/09/2008, -8/+86This is a stunning photo- you really get a sense of the massive scale. Let's hope it still looks as impressive in a few days- and that it hasn't blown to smithereens! :-)
- MrEdwardo, on 09/10/2008, -1/+71Scientist 6: "I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard
analysis procedures today, Gordon."
Scientist 7: "Yes, but with good reason. This is a rare opportunity for
us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet."
Scientist 6: "And, potentially, the most unstable."
Scientist 7: "Now, now, if you follow standard insertion procedure,
everything will be fine."
Scientist 6: "I don't know how you can say that. Although I will admit
that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely
unlikely."
Scientist 7: "Gordon doesn't need to hear all this, he's a highly
trained professional. We've assured the administrator that nothing will
go wrong."
Scientist 6: "Ah...yes, you're right. Gordon, we have complete
confidence in you."
Scientist 7: "Well, go ahead. Let's let him in now." - sunyata76, on 09/10/2008, -17/+84Supercollider? I hardly know 'er!
(Ah, XKCD) :) - jgatz, on 09/10/2008, -2/+63we know it won't
but if something were going to destroy the world, I bet it would look something like that - sanman, on 09/10/2008, -11/+62"Never mind that, HAL -- Can You Run Crysis?"
- sm1er, on 09/10/2008, -2/+49The magnets create a strong magnetic field that keep the particles in the center of the tube.
- wedges, on 09/10/2008, -1/+43don't forget to place floating, rotating guns behind secret doors. and toss random keys around the facility. and even though it seems unnecessary, there should probably be at least one chainsaw on premises.
- LimeParrot, on 09/10/2008, -0/+42You have done well.
- BufordT, on 09/10/2008, -1/+42Where is the Quarter to show us how big it actually is? Also missing is how many football fields would either fit inside of it, or how many you could lay end to end inside of it.
- jax0047, on 09/10/2008, -0/+36When I'm in power, football fields will be the standard unit of measurement.
- EBFoxbat, on 09/10/2008, -0/+36If a black hole where created in the middle of that, the only thing that would get sucked in would be particles in the immediate area. The blackhole would have a mass of two protons and thus only the gravitational pull of two protons (plus whatever was initially pulled in). The world would not get pulled inside out.
This is similar to "what if the sun turned into a blackhole (assuming we weren't incinerated and ejected by the preceding super nova)?" The answer is that nothing would happen. We would continue our orbit as is, albeit a bit darker. The mass of the blackhole would be the same as the mass of the sun. That means the gravitational pull will be the same.
It's not until you get into the event horizon that funky things happen and it would take an external force to enter the event horizon unless it grew in mass to reach your particular area. - Proctor, on 09/10/2008, -2/+36I'm Afraid, Dave.
- NJHiker, on 09/10/2008, -0/+33"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."
- Zorkon, on 09/10/2008, -1/+33You know, nobody knew what to do with electrons when they were first discovered, but you seem to be enjoying their practical applications today.
Although I doubt we'll find a good, practical use for the Higgs particle, who knows? Understanding the universe we live in should be reason enough to try.
But if that isn't good enough for you, then how about this:
You've been reading all about this story on the world wide web. The web was invented at CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory, and home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that everyone is so worked up about. The web was originally invented as a way for particle physicists to share their experimental data with their colleagues around the world.
People complain about the $8 billion spent on the LHC project. Can you guess how much money has been made via the web? I'm pretty confident that it's more than $8 billion.
Like the Apollo space program, it's not just the science that's important, it's all the side technologies that are developed to support the science. These side technologies often have tangible benefits in our everyday lives. - Doomsan, on 09/10/2008, -2/+34This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
- AllenAwesome, on 09/10/2008, -1/+30Where we're going we don't need eyes to see.
- CarStan, on 09/10/2008, -0/+29http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF111-Reset.jpg
- MrHateMan, on 09/10/2008, -0/+28....and duct tape to attach your damn flashlight to you damn weapon.... we all know what happened last time
- lintmonkey, on 09/10/2008, -1/+29I like turtles.
- Meursault, on 09/10/2008, -3/+30Sing it, HAL
- inactive, on 09/10/2008, -2/+28Woo!..Now i know what a 5 Billion Dollar tunnel looks like!!
- Divals, on 09/10/2008, -0/+26All we really need is an experimental physicist with a crowbar. Pshaw, Space Marines!
- wsuvtx, on 09/10/2008, -1/+26It is about the science. Who knows what it will mean to you or any of us. As is the case with most scientific research. Something that the good old USA has forgotten about.
Oh it will determine how well Britney Spears next album will do. Does that help? - inactive, on 09/10/2008, -3/+27After reading that, I can finally feel the significance of the immense amount of energy in a tiny bit of matter (E=MC^2)
Holy *****. - Depthfunction, on 09/10/2008, -3/+27So are we dead yet? And would we know if we were?
- davecachia, on 09/10/2008, -0/+22I sure as hell hope that they've built a BFG before they open the portals.
- carbbomb, on 09/10/2008, -7/+29I can't help but read this as "large hard-on collider" every time I see it.
- BowieX, on 09/10/2008, -0/+21Isn't the diameter of the tunnel, shown in the picture, about 3.8 metres? While the undertaking of this multi-faceted experiment is certainly massive -- not in the least because that 3.8-metre diameter occurs around a 27km long circle -- to be fair, this picture doesn't exactly give a sense of its true scale.
- Chamrox, on 09/10/2008, -2/+22Anyone else reminded of the Dharma logos from LOST when you see pictures of this thing?
LHC
http://howtosplitanatom.com/wp-content/lhc.jpg
Dharma Logos
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/DHARMA_logo - fandyboy, on 09/10/2008, -1/+20I think this has more to do with the energy required to accelerate a particle to within a tiny fraction of the speed of light rather that the energy stored within it. :)
- joegibes, on 09/10/2008, -0/+19http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski
Particle accelerators will mess you up. - Sanitarium, on 09/10/2008, -2/+19I Love LAMP
- CarStan, on 09/10/2008, -1/+18I love the whole world
- inactive, on 09/10/2008, -0/+17No and yes.
or
yes and no...
oh... - nicku, on 09/10/2008, -0/+17This photo is from Boston.com's The Big Picture photo blog:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large ...
The other photo galleries are equally amazing... - PiRATE7, on 09/10/2008, -0/+16"you really get a sense of the massive scale"
no you dont, I have no idea how big that thing is from that picture. theres nothing to refrence it to. - matt646, on 09/10/2008, -0/+16epic
- Jhiaxuz, on 09/10/2008, -3/+19"The LHC ring has a circumference of 27km (assume the ring is a perfect circle). A Football field is 100m long and 50m wide. To the area of how many football fields is the area inside the LHC ring equal to?
Answer: The circumference of the LHC is 27km, hence its radius is 27000/3.14 ≃ 8600m. The area inside the LHC ring is thus 232 234 400m2. The surface of a football field is 100x50=5000m2. Thus the area inside the LHC ring is equal to 232 234 400/5000 = 46 446 football fields." - saintjason, on 09/10/2008, -2/+17Dugg for using the word "smithereens" :)
- wedges, on 09/10/2008, -7/+22it happened a long long time ago, over 6,000 years ago! a mysterious, giant, powerful old white man created the heavens and the earth in only seven days. also, he created all creatures just as they are today, and planted dinosaur skeletons in the ground and made them LOOK old to test you.
- coolku, on 09/10/2008, -3/+18RTFM
- DaFunk, on 09/10/2008, -1/+16That must be the antimatter injection manifold I always hear Geordi talking about.
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