The Large Hadron Collider MEGATHREAD / FAQ

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ReV VAdAUL: Oct 3, 2004; I'm WILD about
WILDMAN

Thanks for posting this, I have a semi-serious question, are there any likely everyday applications the results from these experiments will have? I imagine that if so its only very indirectly but I love the idea of something along the lines of "our washing machines are now 30% more effective thanks to LHC research!"

# ¿ Aug 7, 2008 23:31

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ReV VAdAUL: Oct 3, 2004; I'm WILD about
WILDMAN

ymgve posted:

Someone else on another site asked a similar question - and got a few good answers

Thankyou, I do like how its uncertain how quickly we'll see practical applications from the experiment itself (if ever) but the system used to gather the data from the experiment has almost imeadiate applications for the internet.

StarkingBarfish posted:

Another commonly asked one- There are almost no direct every day applications from the work we do. In your home right now, there are at least 3 pieces of particle physics you use frequently, the smoke detector, the microwave, and the Cathode Ray Tube TV. Those are all old inventions though. The problem is the energies we deal with are just not possible to make on a tabletop yet, and even if you could, you'd not be able to do much practical with them.

The cool part however, is that there are many indirect applications. The superconducting cables we use in our magnets save insane amounts of electricity. They're being tested in the US at the moment as underground cable for long-distance transmission of HV. The web is ours as well, invented at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee as a tool to help us shuffle data around universities.

Ah right so its like NASA, I don't drive to work in a moonbuggy but I do use velcro. Well that is cool then, thanks for your response.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2008 23:59

ReV VAdAUL: Oct 3, 2004; I'm WILD about
WILDMAN

SpaceJunk posted:

Interesting (and a good explanation of divergence), but not quite right. Read my response above.

They should not be dangerous at all, as if they did exist they would be completely analogous to electric monopoles. This is because of the complete symmetry in Electromagnetism between electric fields and magnetic fields when both electric and magnetic monopoles exist. Electric monopoles are quite common (electrons are electric monopoles for example) and pose no dangers. As far as I know, no currently verified theory predicts negative consequences for the producing of magnetic monopoles.

Why do you think its been mentioned so often by the fear mongerers then? I've seen it mentioned quite often next to stranglets and micro black holes? The wiki mention of it leads to: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13555 and which says:

quote:

A 2003 safety review for the LHC found "no basis for any conceivable threat". It acknowledged that there's a small chance the accelerator could create short-lived, mini black holes or exotic "magnetic monopoles" that destroy protons in ordinary atoms. But it concluded that neither scenario could lead to disaster.

(the only mention of monopoles)

So would this mean, given what StarkingBarfish said about protons, that all our atoms would fly apart if exposed to a magnetic monopole (in the very worst scenario)?

# ¿ Aug 10, 2008 01:19

ReV VAdAUL: Oct 3, 2004; I'm WILD about
WILDMAN

How likely is it that Dark Matter is responsible for Voyager slowing down/not moving as quickly as expected?

# ¿ Aug 10, 2008 17:56

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