Big Bang Machine

[maltaron]

Several months ago the TV news reported that somewhere on the continent was this huge tunnel round a city. This was fitted with some fancy wave guide stuff to send electrons round the circle till they met themselves and recreated the so called Big bang that started the universe. It was reported with pictures one night, reported as failed the following night and never heard of since. Am I right in thinking, as I did at the time, that this was a massive hoax?

 

[kevindgas]

no it is real and is about to be run again.
The Hadron collider (spelt something like that) is one of the worlds largest experiments
it was on the news again last week

 

[kevplumb]

wasn't it on extreme engineering on discovery when they where building it

 

[big-all]

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

 

[tim west]

Should be more interest in it once the Angels and Demons film is released

 

[namsag]

Seemingly when they started it up a big bang was heard and nothing happened. Followed by a little voice from the control room saying "well thats feked it"

 

[kevplumb]

then they had a smoke

 

[Trazor]

Watch it on the Webcam.

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

 

[wobs]

It's to find the Higgs Boson or something:

http://abstrusegoose.com/strips/dear_higgs_boson.PNG

 

[EddieM]

CERN need to fix it in time for the new series of Primeval, where else are they going to get those anomolies from?

 

[ColJack]

Watch it on the Webcam.

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html[/QUOTE]

LOL... thought it was serious webcam at first...

 

[Blasphemous]

Pile of junk. It'll be on eBay next week... Local Pick Up Only!

 

[tim west]

they said they'd have it fixed in no time but they seem to be going round in circles

 

[Space cat]

This was fitted with some fancy wave guide stuff to send electrons round the circle till they met themselves and recreated the so called Big bang that started the universe.

Almost right. It'll be sending protons round the circle and there are two beams travelling in opposite directions. The reason for using two beams is to get double the energy at the collision point. So why not use a single beam with double the energy?

Answer: The beam energy is limited by our ability to make magnets strong enough to bend it round in a circle. If you want to double the beam energy in a synchrotron you have two choices: double the magnetic field strength or double the diameter of the thing. Sending two beams round in opposite directions is not as simple as it sounds because they require magnetic fields of opposite polarity but it's a whole lot cheaper than building a tunnel twice the size!

One of the hoped-for results is to find the hypothetical Higgs boson. The existence of this particle is predicted by one theory of why things have inertia or, to put it another way, what exactly is the stuff we call mass. Personally, I don't think they'll find it but that in itself would be a result - and who knows what other, unexpected, particles might appear.

PS: To those who predict the end of the universe as we know it, stop worrying. Particles with energies far beyond anything we can make in our accelerators are smashing into the upper atmosphere every day. They have been doing this since the solar system was formed 4,500 million years ago - and it's still here!

 

[BingoBongo]

This was fitted with some fancy wave guide stuff to send electrons round the circle till they met themselves and recreated the so called Big bang that started the universe.

Almost right. It'll be sending protons round the circle and there are two beams travelling in opposite directions. The reason for using two beams is to get double the energy at the collision point. So why not use a single beam with double the energy?

Answer: The beam energy is limited by our ability to make magnets strong enough to bend it round in a circle. If you want to double the beam energy in a synchrotron you have two choices: double the magnetic field strength or double the diameter of the thing. Sending two beams round in opposite directions is not as simple as it sounds because they require magnetic fields of opposite polarity but it's a whole lot cheaper than building a tunnel twice the size!

One of the hoped-for results is to find the hypothetical Higgs boson. The existence of this particle is predicted by one theory of why things have inertia or, to put it another way, what exactly is the stuff we call mass. Personally, I don't think they'll find it but that in itself would be a result - and who knows what other, unexpected, particles might appear.

PS: To those who predict the end of the universe as we know it, stop worrying. Particles with energies far beyond anything we can make in our accelerators are smashing into the upper atmosphere every day. They have been doing this since the solar system was formed 4,500 million years ago - and it's still here!

thats what i thought