Big Bang Experiment, HELP

[xRosiex]

just wondering if theres any one that can explain the experiment in simple terms for me. i no they are looking for the higs bosan, thats about it. im worying about all the hype of people saying the worlds going to end!!!! please explain to me if there is any actual real danger and the probobility that we might all die! thank you :)

[fo3nix]

It's all starting again! (Last summer, many questions were asked about this subject.)

The experiement is called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

It's large, because it's underground a very large area near Geneva. It's called the hadron collider because it takes a load of particles (of a type called hadrons), and throws them at more hadrons.

The result of this, if it's done at a high enough energy, is that new particles are produced in all the mess. Much like throwing two bricks together at great speed, you get a load of mess, and some (perhaps) interesting small stuff you might have missed othewise.

There is a standard model of particles that we use to predict new particles (kind of like the periodic table; just a way of finding some order). We call this the standard model, because some people just have no imagination.

One problem with this is that it doesn't suggest where particles get their mass from. One suggestion some years ago was that it was down to another, really hard to find particle, called the higgs boson. So this is just one of the things they're looking for.

It's using the same tunnel system that has been in place for some time now, just new detectors and other systems inside and around the tunnel.

[fo3nix]

...

Is it dangerous? No.

Lots of equal energy collisions are going on all the time in the upper atmosphere. You might ask why we don't just look there? Well, to look you need quite sophisticated instruments, which are quite heavy. And we haven't worked out how to hold all this heavy stuff up in the atmosphere just yet :)

Next thing to understand: the world is all about probabilities. It's all to do with quantum mechanics (you may have heard of it). But it's very fundamental.

This means that there is a probability that you will wake up tomorrow on Mars. The chance is just very, very small. But in theory it's possible.

Likewise, there is the probability that something like a black hole could be generated for a very short length of time inside this giant machine. However, the probabilities are incredibly small. There is far more chance of a UFO coming from outer space and landing on the Loch Ness Monster's back (I think those are the words of Patrick Moore).

So you have nothing to fear. It's just the media hyping everything up, and unfortunately some 'scientists' (I use the term loosely), also going with it.

[xRosiex]

thank you :) how big are the risks though?

[xRosiex]

oh thank you,my mind is a bit moreat ease! :)

[R1Geezer]

it is theorised that any black holes that are created will evaporate in Nano seconds due to hawking radiation. They are created and evaporate all the time in the upper atmosphere as f03nix says.

[Rev. Green]

Just two amendments to previous answers:-

The energy of some of the cosmic rays entering the atmosphere is much, much greater than the energies involved at LHC. These rays have been falling on Earth for thousands of millions of years with no catastophic effect. So LHC is very, very safe.

LHC is not quite like smashing two bricks together and looking for interesting dust. It is more like smashing bits of dust together and looking for interesting bricks! What happens is that each piece of "dust" contains a little bit of energy corresponding to its mass, but it is accelerated to a high speed which gives it a huge amount of extra energy. When two pieces collide there is sufficient total energy to form "bricks" which are very much larger - and more interesting - than the original "dust".

[on.knowledge]

i would rosie but the mrs says i have got to take her to Ikea.
maybe later bye.

[fo3nix]

Rev: you're right of course. I just tried to keep it exceedingly simple :)