The end of the universe itself?

Oh no, there's really no threat to the world. Having said that, I want a particle accelerator. B> particle accelerator for Otago uni.

I dont think they will accept meso as payment.

Yeh, the topic is the end of the universe, so i was trying to explain that a black hole isnt going to form and engulf the earth

I have 300mil, you sure that won't be enough?

And yeah, most of the worriedness and stuff around the LHC is just media sensationalisation, mostly caused by Dan Brown. I had another read over Angels & Demons the other day (Actually caused by a thread Flowsion posted a while ago), and wow, the way it shows scientists and CERN in it is just... well, dumb.


On an unrelated note, it is my dream to some day work at CERN or NASA, or some related agency. New Zealand's got a nice wee ultra-cold physics department here at Otago, but working at CERN or with NASA would just be sex.

The fact that there's an event horizon doesn't mean that if you're outside it, you won't feel a thing.

Just because you're sitting in front of a furnace and not inside it doesn't mean you won't feel the heat.

Oh, on a related note: http://www.petitiononline.com/LHCDS/petition.html

A petition to have them shout "Commence primary ignition!" when they first turn on the LHC.

The fact that there's an event horizon doesn't mean that if you're outside it, you won't feel a thing.

Just because you're sitting in front of a furnace and not inside it doesn't mean you won't feel the heat.

But as long as you stay out side of that horizon, you can still escape. :>

But as long as you stay out side of that horizon, you can still escape. :>

Yes, but depending on the size of the black hole, and how close you are to it, you'll already have been crushed to a pulp, and/or would need to travel very close to the speed of light (And probably accelerate quickly enough to it, resulting in a far too massive force) in order to escape.

Yes, but depending on the size of the black hole, and how close you are to it, you'll already have been crushed to a pulp, and/or would need to travel very close to the speed of light (And probably accelerate quickly enough to it, resulting in a far too massive force) in order to escape.

Bigger the hole, less force. :> If you got close enough to any hole near us to be sucked in out of the horizon, you deserve to die. :[ Actually, if you got that close, spaghettifacation(Let's see you spell it) would have owned you.

s-p-a-g-h-e-t-t-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n

oooo

And you just refuted your own point there.

Bigger the hole, less force. :> If you got close enough to any hole near us to be sucked in out of the horizon, you deserve to die. :[ Actually, if you got that close, spaghettifacation(Let's see you spell it) would have owned you.

What do you mean "bigger the hole, less force"? o_o And as for the rest, yes, that's exactly my point. If you stay outside the event horizon, yes, you theoretically can escape, but if it's a decently sized black hole (As in, not one made by the LHC), if you're too close, chances are, you're dead anyway.

Other Coliders have been used before

what makes this one different?

We're still alive. Now all we have to wait is wait until October.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/...-circ.html

And Hazzy, a black hole is pretty much a lot of gravity.

Having more mass doesn't decrease the gravity. It rather increases it.

Other Coliders have been used before

what makes this one different?

It's much much bigger XD

im gonna start worrying when these collisions cause enough energy to light up a flash light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8Vr00EB...=rec-fresh

We're still alive. Now all we have to wait is wait until October.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/...-circ.html

And Hazzy, a black hole is pretty much a lot of gravity.

Having more mass doesn't decrease the gravity. It rather increases it.

Next up for the collider is cranking up the energy of the proton beams to about 10 trillion electron volts, more powerful than other particle accelerators like Fermilab's Tevatron but still short of the proposed maximum collision energy of 14 trillion electron volts that the researchers hope to reach.

Errt, wrong. They will (not hope) to get the protons up to the energy of 7TeV each, because they are spinning in opposite directions, the collision will result in 14TeV, the predicted amount.

Today they spun the protons at a mear 1.5*10^-6 the speed of light, not too impressive (about 1000mph), but it was just to make sure a proton moving 99.999% of the speed of light wont derail because of a misaligned magnet.

Also worth noting, they did infact say "Commence Primary Ignition!" when they started it, which made every nerd in the world lol.

Either way, I'm more of the rubber band theory, that all the energy in the universe will be converted into matter via stars, thus putting great gravitational effects between matter and dark matter causing the universe to collapse in on itself. From this collapsible a new universe is born with another big bang. I also believe this has happened before, and we are simply another universe in the cycle of the rubber band bouncing back and forth.

Also worth noting, they did infact say "Commence Primary Ignition!" when they started it, which made every nerd in the world lol.

omg I watched a video but I didn't hear it at all. *must rewatch*

The source of this is: Wikipedia, and Youtube videos.

Not very valid sources. O_o

Either way, this thing isn't going to kill us. [/non-scientific answer] All of this is just mass paranoia. But lolCERN. Weren't they in that Dan Brown book?

Not very valid sources. O_o

Either way, this thing isn't going to kill us. [/non-scientific answer] All of this is just mass paranoia. But lolCERN. Weren't they in that Dan Brown book?

Yeah, quite badly portrayed too, I might add.

What do you mean "bigger the hole, less force"? o_o And as for the rest, yes, that's exactly my point. If you stay outside the event horizon, yes, you theoretically can escape, but if it's a decently sized black hole (As in, not one made by the LHC), if you're too close, chances are, you're dead anyway.

The force needed to stay stationary outside of a Black Hole's Horizon decreases with the mass.
"Your calculations show that the larger the hole, the weaker the rocket blast you will need to support yourself, hovering at 1.0001 horizon circumferences."
~ pg 40 of Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip S. Thorne.

I can't find the equation on the Wiki page, but it's something like how much the hole bends space. An increase in mass decreased the bend. :>
Imagine a Bowling Ball on a mattress. It bends in. Now imagine a led ball weighing less than the ball, but having a much smaller diameter. It'll make a steeper dip in the mattress. The same applies to Black Holes, if I remember correctly.

omg I watched a video but I didn't hear it at all. *must rewatch*

You can hear a few people mumble it, and the guy says it as he's reaching for the champagne

I've read so much into this, that I'm convinced that it's relatively safe. But what gets me is, I also read something that said that the average person won't see much in the way of results from this. It cost $10 billion to build and yet the average person won't see much from it. They say it will help scientists gain a better understanding of the universe and what not. I have nothing against that, but we have so many people in poverty right now, people starving in other parts of the world, people that can barely afford enough food and gas to last a week, yet they spend 10billion to build this machine to do what? Find out more about the universe? I think it could have waited a bit longer. Sorry if I missed something here, but from what I've read, thats what I've come up with. If anyone knows what else this thing can do for us, feel free to say something, I'd really like to know.