LHC is due to power up tonight

[Techmonkey]

yeah, I know, heard that one before

but it looks for real this time. pretty cool (literally ), I can't wait for the new research! but I have a feeling it'll just conclusively prove not much at all. ah well.

anyone not gonna sleep easy tonight? my physics teacher has ex-colleagues who work there now, and apparently they had a problem with one of the support stands for one of the magnets, or something along those lines... and a simple balance of weight problem slipped through the design process, AND 4 engineering safety reports! our future is in their hands

edit: they won't actually be doing the awesome stuff until later on this year, so I wouldn't take out a second mortgage just yet!

[Matt_W]

I'm genuinely excited about what we might learn from the LHC.

It would be cool if it serves as the point to which people can start time-travelling back to - unless they bring monsters with them.

[Brad Barker]

cern's website is awful. where did you hear about this? i can't find information easily.

[Sean S]

UAC is secretly funding it. Watch out for the Demons.

[jazzy grille]

Originally Posted by Sean S

UAC is secretly funding it. Watch out for the Demons.

I have my BFG laying around somewhere, so I am fine.

[Ripper]

i too cant wait for it... its gonna be cool as long as it works and dont melt the earth.


and as far as time travel goes... i've come up with the notion that even if its physically possible to send a particle back in time, its not psychologically possible... just watch the first back to the future and read the hitchhikers books and you;ll understand what i mean

[iamlowsound]

What are you guys talking about? Linkage?

lowsound

[Nappa]

Originally Posted by Brad Barker

cern's website is awful. where did you hear about this? i can't find information easily.

I would also like to find a link to this.

Edit: nvm

[Matt_W]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

What are you guys talking about? Linkage?

lowsound

The Large Hadron Colider at Cern was to be turned on last night.

[Tsal]

http://www.lhcountdown.com/ has been updated to 53 days.

The countdown timer was set to the 15th of May because there was no definite time given for the actual activation, recent events show that CERN wont be dividing by zero until much later on in the year, so now the countdown timer will be reset again and will be continually tweaked to go by the latest info that CERN are releasing.

[Matt_W]

Originally Posted by Tsal

http://www.lhcountdown.com/ has been updated to 53 days.

Bah, that sucks.

[Techmonkey]

Originally Posted by Ripper

and as far as time travel goes... i've come up with the notion that even if its physically possible to send a particle back in time, its not psychologically possible... just watch the first back to the future and read the hitchhikers books and you;ll understand what i mean

yeah, the problem with quantum physics is, by its very nature, so much of it is speculation - and no matter how much we think about it, we can't *prove* anything.

but who knows, maybe with the LHC at CERN, and the impending construction of ITER (although I gather they're focusing on nuclear fusion as an economically viable process more so than researching fundamental particles)... we'll discover something conclusive

Originally Posted by Matt_W;

Bah, that sucks.

yeah... but look on the bright side. 53 more days of guaranteed existance

[Brad Barker]

Originally Posted by Techmonkey

yeah, the problem with quantum physics is, by its very nature, so much of it is speculation - and no matter how much we think about it, we can't *prove* anything.

[RED5]

Originally Posted by Tsal

http://www.lhcountdown.com/ has been updated to 53 days.

Not to stray from the topic? but that quote by Rockwell just hit me at the right time. Thanks.

[Brad Barker]

i've been waiting for the LHC to become operational for about five years now, so it's remarkable that it'll start running some experiments by the end of this year. if there ever were such a thing as a good time to get into high energy theory, now would be it.

[Ben Lesser]

I'm sorry, but I have no idea what's going on still. I gather there's something about physics, but beyond that, I'm totally in the dark, especially with all of the acronyms being thrown around.

Could someone explain it in more layman terms, please?

[Brad Barker]

Originally Posted by Ben Lesser

I'm sorry, but I have no idea what's going on still. I gather there's something about physics, but beyond that, I'm totally in the dark, especially with all of the acronyms being thrown around.

Could someone explain it in more layman terms, please?

i'll do the best that i can...

an international team of scientists have constructed the world's largest particle accelerator, which stretches between france and switzerland. the accelerator is a large ring with a diameter of a few kilometers--it's big!

the accelerator can endow particles such as protons and neutrons with extremely high energies--essentially the speed of light, within a small fraction of a percent. when particles like protons and neutrons, called "hadrons," collide, it's really, really messy. that's because hadrons are made up of constituent particles called "quarks" and "gluons." when there is a hadron-hadron collision, the result is a "jet" of particles, largely produced from the energy of the collision itself. (from that famous equation of einstein, mass can be created from energy, even just the energy released in a collision.)

the idea is that we'll now be able to use these unreached energies to generate as-yet unseen particles that'll tell us more about what's goin' on in this crazy universe of ours.


the "lhc" stands for "large hadron collider." it's large, and it collides hadrons.

[Mon Rominee]

bosons bosons bosons!

[Chriss62]

MMmmmmmm..... Bosons........

[Barfly]

Hardons colliding? ***!!!