LHC finally online!

[x88x]

Up and running, first collision was at 7 TeV today at 13:06 CEST (6:06 EST).

Hurray! :banana::banana:

http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2010/PR07.10E.html

And the world is even still here! :P

[mDust]

And the world is even still here! :P

The black holes obviously haven't gotten to your area yet. They've unleashed hell here in Michigan. There's not much left...oh wait, it was always like this.

They're gonna need more than a day to destroy the world.:)

[SXRguyinMA]

lmao

[silverdemon]

They're gonna need more than a day to destroy the world.:)

Well, actually they are not up to full power yet... They used proton-beams (doesn't that sound nice :P) with an energy-value of 3.5 TeV (Tera electron-Volt) each, so the collision was at an energy level of 7 TeV...

The LHC is actually build to accomodate two proton-beams of 7 TeV, so they are just up to 50% of their max. But don't panic yet, they are expecting to not reach those energy levels before 2013, so we have 3 years left before the world will be sucked into the first man-made black hole...

(on a serious note though.. you know this will not happen because the mass of the black-holes that might occur is far to little to cause any damage at all...)

[mDust]

(on a serious note though.. you know this will not happen because the mass of the black-holes that might occur is far to little to cause any damage at all...)

I was always taught that it was the intense gravity due to incredible amounts of mass that made a blackhole a blackhole. I mean, it takes wicked gravity to make photons do a 180...and ironically, blackholes must be incredibly bright with all the light that they trap. I really don't understand the concept of "tiny" blackholes at all.

Another thought: do they have they're own dedicated powerplant? I can't think of a customer that energy companies would love more...as long as they pay their bills on time.

[Luke122]

My understanding is that they are tapped into grids all over Europe to supply it, but they also have generators and backup power of their own. :)

[x88x]

Well, actually they are not up to full power yet... They used proton-beams (doesn't that sound nice :P) with an energy-value of 3.5 TeV (Tera electron-Volt) each, so the collision was at an energy level of 7 TeV...
Yeah, I thought I remembered them saying that, but I wasn't sure when that would be.


But don't panic yet, they are expecting to not reach those energy levels before 2013, so we have 3 years left before the world will be sucked into the first man-made black hole...

Hmmm, sounds right in line for 2012-12-21 ... :whistler:

[Luke122]

Yeah, I thought I remembered them saying that, but I wasn't sure when that would be.



Hmmm, sounds right in line for 2012-12-21 ... :whistler:

:rolleyes:

[nevermind1534]

The black holes obviously haven't gotten to your area yet. They've unleashed hell here in Michigan. There's not much left...oh wait, it was always like this.

They're gonna need more than a day to destroy the world.:)

lol

It is very warm here today, though.

[artoodeeto]

my girlfriend's been losing a bunch of things lately...I bet a rogue mini-black hole is to blame. :D

@ mDust -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole

happy reading :) (I love this stuff...took astronomy in college and read the textbook cover to cover in a couple weeks...it helped that I already knew about half of it)

[mDust]

It is very warm here today, though. Yeah it is! Enjoy it while it lasts.


my girlfriend's been losing a bunch of things lately...I bet a rogue mini-black hole is to blame. :D

@ mDust -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole

happy reading :) (I love this stuff...took astronomy in college and read the textbook cover to cover in a couple weeks...it helped that I already knew about half of it)Happy? That basically said we're all gonna die!
They explain what they are, but don't explain how they exist. How can a few particles exert enough force on the surrounding area to cause an escape velocity above c? Unless it's all the energy congealing back into matter at a single point...I guess this is why the boss-man at the LHC didn't hire me...or maybe I shouldn't have referred to him as "boss-man" so many times in my letter of intent.

[silverdemon]

That's exactly the point, the mass off these micro black holes (MBHs) is so little that they are not strong enough to pull anything into them. It might get a bit scientific now, but I'll try to explain:

The MBH is created by crashing 2 bundles of particles into eachother, this way you get a relatively high amount of mass in a really tiny space. Thus these particles might clog up together and form a ball of mass.
When this mass is concentrated in a small enough space the gravity of this ball of material gets too large for anything to escape, including light -> we have ourselves a black hole.
Now since we can not actually see black holes (because they are black) the scientist at CERN are going to look for certain evidence of there MBH by looking for certain radiation (Hawking radiation if I'm correct)

Now on to the 'danger' of these MBHs. A basic scientific principal introduced to us by Isaac Newton is that the gravity of an object (say: the earth or other planets) depends on its mass. So the bigger the mass of an object, the greater the gravity it has.
The gravity of the MBHs created in the HLC at CERN can never be strong enough (eg have enough mass) to suck up entire molecules (let alone the entire world).
Why can't the mass be great enough? well let me try to explain using a hamburger sandwich:
When you make a hamburger sandwich you have the bread that weighs a certain amount, lets say 10 units. The burger weighs 25 units, maybe you want some cheese, add 5 units, latice: 3 units, pickles 1 unit and some sauce 1 unit. so if we add that up (collide them together) we have a burger that weighs 45 units. The burger can NEVER weigh any more than that unless you add more ingredients (which we don't)...
The same applies for the MBH (=burger) and the ingredients (=proton beams)
And since the mass of the MBH is so low it can not create enough energy to sustain itself and thus falls apart, leaving behind: a perfectly fine earth...

Hope that explains some more things

[Trace]

Nice explination!

[artoodeeto]

I agree, great analogy! I wanna burger now. dude...you could totally market that - a "black hole burger" and just have stuff stuck all over it LOL.
And yes mdust, we're all gonna die. :D but that's something like tens or hundreds of billions of years from now, and I bet either A) the human race will be extinct by then, or B) we will have found a workaround. either way, I won't be around to see it. oh well.

[silverdemon]

lol, I might just start a new fast-food restaurant: 'Black Mac Hole King' or something.
On the menu we have our already introduced "black Hole Burger", a "Galaxy Sized Cheeseburger", "Rocket-shaped Fries" and "some Space Shakes"...
All food will obviously be served on a "Shiny Flying Saucer". For the kids we will have "Neutrino Nuggets"...

Hmm, come to think of it: where can I register my trademark?

[crenn]

The LHC has been online for a while now, they've tested at lower TeV, but this was the first time they cranked it up. And they're only at 50% capicity.

[mDust]

The LHC has been online for a while now, they've tested at lower TeV, but this was the first time they cranked it up. And they're only at 50% capicity.
I thought I read about them starting it up back in January...I just figured they must have blown something else up and had to wait until now to start it back up again.
I understand black holes and Hawking radiation and all of that...but how is it only a few million particles can exert enough gravitational force on their surroundings to trap light? How are they all getting crammed into such a small space?
Oh and thanks for the burger analogy...I had to go out and get a couple burgers after that.:)

[crenn]

Who knows, maybe under a certain condition, a new element which has never been seen before, is formed.

[billygoat333]

****... it snowed 3" here. Happy April Fools, says Idaho.

[silverdemon]

If you smash carbon-atoms (the simple stuff in pencils, or the stuf you might use for your BBQ) together hard enough you end up with diamonds... How the heck is THAT possible?

What I'm trying to say is that when you use enough force you can do things you wouldn't expect to be possible. Letting the proton-beams collide with a speed very near to the speed of light will cause those effects. e.g. we get a tiny tiny black hole that excists for a tiny tiny amount of time.

To display how fast the particles in the beam are going:
When the LHC is at full power (remember they are now up to 50% of that) the particles will reach a velocity of about 99.9999991% of the speed of light. It will take less than 90 microseconds (μs) for a proton to travel once around the main ring – a speed of about 11,000 revolutions per second. (remember that 'the main ring' is 27km (17miles) long!)

source and much more reading on the LHC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

[x88x]

Whoops, looks like those crazy time travelers are breaking their code of non-interaction to stop this! :P

Apparently the discovery of the Higgs Boson will usher in a new age of limitless free energy, eliminate poverty, and bring Kit-Kats to all!

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49305387,00.htm

My favorite part:


Professor Brian Cox, a former CERN physicist and full-time rock'n'roll TV scientist, was sympathetic to Mr Cole. "Bless him, he sounds harmless enough. At least he didn't mention bloody black holes."

[mDust]

99.9999991% of the speed of light
Awesome!

bring Kit-Kats to all!
mmmm....how many? And can we choose the flavor?

[crenn]

By Nick Hide on 01 April 2010, 10:33am

That is all