World ends on Wednesday?

September 9, 2008, 11:23 AM

Quote:

While the rest of us go about our daily business, maybe worrying about our mortgages, the elections or perhaps even global warming, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will conduct a multi-billion experiment that critics say could create a black hole right here on earth that will destroy the world. Unless an urgent appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by these worried scientists succeeds, the world’s biggest scientific experiment will fire up on Wednesday, September 10, 2008.

This bizarre experiment will use a massive (17 mile) donut shaped tunnel, deep underground and straddling the French and Swiss borders called the Large Hadron Collider to smash atoms together at around the speed of light. The purpose is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after Big Bang – the birth of the universe – “to provide vital clues to the building blocks of life”, (Jonathan Petre, Mail on Sunday). They expect to generate sub-atomic particles never detected before, including the Higgs Boson, predicted by British Scientist Peter Higgs way back in the 1960s. The Higgs Boson is crucial to the theory of particle physics and current understanding of the structure of the universe.
The Large Hadron Collider even has its own rap (Rapping the LHC), written by Kate McAlpine, a physics graduate from Michigan State University who works in the press office at the CERN offices in Switzerland. “…Two beams of protons/ swing ’round/ Through the ring they ride/’til in the hearts of the detectors/ they’re made to collide!/ And all that energy packed/ in that tiny room/ becomes mass,/ particles created from the vacuum…” It’s pretty good.

But some scientists who are opposed to the experiment claim it may cause a black hole that could swallow the world. “The concern is that the moment we press the return key, the particle accelerator could create a black hole that might eat up the whole planet”. If a big enough black hole develops, the world will disappear taking us with it in an instant. Another worry is that a number of small black holes will develop and that these may join together over the coming months, wreaking increasing havoc with Planet Earth; causing earthquakes and breaking up the earth’s crust over time until the whole world is eventually destroyed. These threats have been discounted by the scientists at CERN, and by most physicists around the world.
Let’s hope the doomsayers are wrong and CERN are right! But if it all goes wrong, at least Zimbabwe won’t have to worry about Mugabe any longer…

Source: http://www.bloggernews.net/117664

I don't really understand this much, but like, if they do this and they make a black hole...

What is the point of this exerpiment any ways? To see if they can make the big bang all over? Like why even risk causing to make a black hole and killing us all.

September 9, 2008, 2:38 PM

It's to re-create the Big Bang, yes, but on a much smaller scale. Though I remember learning about the LHC in Physics a couple of years ago, and according to my teacher the machine won't be ready for several years to come because of a plasma they use in the tubes. If there is even the slightest mis-calculation about its density and the like, or even a single atom of another material, then the whole experiment fails. This is down to an engineering fault, and thus it'll take several years to rectify. There's also the fact that it takes roughly the same amount of power that a moderate sized city consumes in a day to function. They have their own power station, solely for the purpose of running it.
So the world won't be ending on Wednesday. That comes in December 2012.

September 9, 2008, 2:53 PM

Just in time for my 30th birthday D:

There's already a thread on this collinder thingy, well science going to far but yeah.....same shit different thread. it's still quite a scary thought mind, but aren't the chances like, really minimal? Mind you,. that would be just my luck to get sucked into a black hole on my birthday. Why do they wwanna recreate it anyway?

September 9, 2008, 2:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Man With No Name

It's to re-create the Big Bang, yes, but on a much smaller scale. Though I remember learning about the LHC in Physics a couple of years ago, and according to my teacher the machine won't be ready for several years to come because of a plasma they use in the tubes. If there is even the slightest mis-calculation about its density and the like, or even a single atom of another material, then the whole experiment fails. This is down to an engineering fault, and thus it'll take several years to rectify. There's also the fact that it takes roughly the same amount of power that a moderate sized city consumes in a day to function. They have their own power station, solely for the purpose of running it.
So the world won't be ending on Wednesday. That comes in December 2012.

CERN are running the experiment on Wednesday, switching the LHC on in hope of finding evidence of the Higs Boson.

September 9, 2008, 2:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bambi

Just in time for my 30th birthday D:

There's already a thread on this collinder thingy

A collinder is a cooking utensil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DLFlux

CERN are running the experiment on Wednesday, switching the LHC on in hope of finding evidence of the Higs Boson.

Well obviously it isn't going to work, unless they've managed to fix it up several years ahead of schedule. But from what I was told, it wouldn't have such a huge effect as making a black hole. And if it was such a dangerous experiment as destroying the world, do you really think they'd go through with it?

September 9, 2008, 3:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Man With No Name

Well obviously it isn't going to work, unless they've managed to fix it up several years ahead of schedule. But from what I was told, it wouldn't have such a huge effect as making a black hole. And if it was such a dangerous experiment as destroying the world, do you really think they'd go through with it?

I haven't said anything about it destroying the world lol, because I don't think it will. There are chances of black holes being made though, but tiny, tiny ones, which will just dissapear anyway.

There were test runs scheduled, but they cancelled incase anything did go wrong, as like you said, it'll take a long time to repair.

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/...stones-en.html

September 9, 2008, 5:08 PM

There's already a thread on this:

http://www.finalfantasyforums.net/th...far-22974.html

September 9, 2008, 5:23 PM

Thank you Eyrth for providing the alternate link =] Please use the other thread to discuss this topic.

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