OhTehNoes! The end of the world!

Pokeh
[Deep Thought]
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 2,087

10 September 2008, 09:37 am

"Big Bang Day"

That particle collider is set to be used for the first time today. Some people are concerned about it, while others are pretty optimistic about it.

If I die, oh well, I had a good run.

Ca$hMon£y
[Smartphone]
Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 263

10 September 2008, 10:41 am

Its ok, you have a week or so...i heard that they are not going to collide anything for a few weeks...thing they are running the particle streams each way first

Pokeh
[Deep Thought]
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 2,087

10 September 2008, 10:56 am

Yeah, that's something that I found out here just after posting this topic. According to that site they won't be doing any colisions until "later this year".

Oh well, doomsday has been delayed. tongue out

Nick Hide
[Administrator]
Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 895

10 September 2008, 11:02 am

I feel fine.

Nate Lanxon
[Administrator]
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Posts: 2,122

10 September 2008, 11:03 am

There is a 1 to the 19th power (that's a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000) chance of the LHC destroying the universe.

To put that in context, you have a roughly 1 to the 10th power (1 in 10,000,000,000) chance of evaporating while shaving.

So don't worry to hard.

No particles will be collided for a month.

Pokeh
[Deep Thought]
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 2,087

10 September 2008, 11:07 am

Nate Lanxon says:
There is a 1 to the 19th power (that's a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000) chance of the LHC destroying the universe.

To put that in context, you have a roughly 1 to the 10th power (1 in 10,000,000,000) chance of evaporating while shaving.

So don't worry to hard.

No particles will be collided for a month.

Can I quote that to shut some people up?

matthewhughes
[Moderator]
Joined: 6 Jul 2007
Posts: 3,197

10 September 2008, 11:11 am

Nick Hide says:
I feel fine.

I feel fine also.

Edited by matthewhughes (Moderator) on 10 September 2008 at 10:11 am

Pokeh
[Deep Thought]
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 2,087

10 September 2008, 11:17 am

The blocking of YouTube and lack of speakers makes me sad.

matthewhughes
[Moderator]
Joined: 6 Jul 2007
Posts: 3,197

10 September 2008, 11:19 am

Pokeh says:
The blocking of YouTube and lack of speakers makes me sad.

Oh noes. Fail.

Headphones/proxy?

DavidRGilson
[Moderator]
Joined: 7 Dec 2007
Posts: 3,375

10 September 2008, 11:22 am

As someone who did physics at university, the whole "oh no we're all going to die" type people who even went to far as to file law suits against CERN, has come close to giving me a nervous tick with frustration.

I understand that the general public aren't familiar enough with the phenomenon of "Hawking Radiation". I.e. they don't realise that even black holes release material and will eventually evaporate into nothing. Then, if you don't know about this, it is the logical conclusion that the black holes will become "universal vacuum cleaners" **

**(Copyright David.R.Gilson 1994).

I can forgive non-physicists for that misconception.

Although what I want to bang their collective heads together for is this rather massive detail, as follows. We are all taught in school that only the most massive stars collapse into black holes, and that when our sun dies it will become a red giant (& then white dwarf), NOT a black hole. That being the case, and that the sun is overwhelmingly more massive that they earth, where do all these people think that the LHC is going to generate enough mass/energy (E=mc^2 remember!) to actually create a black hole!!!