The energies involved in the collider hit the earth 100s of times everyday, Strangelets are hypothetical particles to fill the blanks in some obsucre Physics theory but because of complete disclosure this infinitessimally improbable events have to be discussed - Just out of interest do they quote the probabilities there? if not I can tell you you are more likely to win the lottery 3 times in a row than the universe be destroyed by LHC.
Are the high energies produced by the LHC dangerous and what happens if something goes wrong?
The LHC does produce very high energies, but these energy levels are restricted to tiny volumes inside the detectors. Many high energy particles, from collisions, are produced every second, but the detectors are designed to track and stop all particles (except neutrinos) as capturing all the energy from collisions is essential to identifying what particles have been produced. Very little of the energy from collisions is able to escape from the detectors.
The main danger from these energy levels is to the LHC machine itself. The beam of particles has the energy of a Eurostar train travelling at full speed and should something happen to destabilise the particle beam there is a real danger that all of that energy will be deflected into the wall of the beam pipe and the magnets of the LHC, causing a great deal of damage. The LHC has several automatic safety systems in place that monitor all the critical parts of the LHC. Should anything unexpected happen (power or magnet failure for example) the beam is automatically ‘dumped’ by being squirted into a blind tunnel where its energy is safely dissipated. This all happens in milliseconds – the beam, which is travelling at 11,000 circuits of the LHC per second, will complete less than 3 circuits before the dump is complete.[/Quote]
"The energies involved in the collider hit the earth 100s of times everyday, Strangelets are hypothetical particles to fill the blanks in some obsucre Physics theory but because of complete disclosure this infinitessimally improbable events have to be discussed - Just out of interest do they quote the probabilities there? if not I can tell you you are more likely to win the lottery 3 times in a row than the universe be destroyed by LHC.
Are the high energies produced by the LHC dangerous and what happens if something goes wrong?
The LHC does produce very high energies, but these energy levels are restricted to tiny volumes inside the detectors. Many high energy particles, from collisions, are produced every second, but the detectors are designed to track and stop all particles (except neutrinos) as capturing all the energy from collisions is essential to identifying what particles have been produced. Very little of the energy from collisions is able to escape from the detectors.
The main danger from these energy levels is to the LHC machine itself. The beam of particles has the energy of a Eurostar train travelling at full speed and should something happen to destabilise the particle beam there is a real danger that all of that energy will be deflected into the wall of the beam pipe and the magnets of the LHC, causing a great deal of damage. The LHC has several automatic safety systems in place that monitor all the critical parts of the LHC. Should anything unexpected happen (power or magnet failure for example) the beam is automatically ‘dumped’ by being squirted into a blind tunnel where its energy is safely dissipated. This all happens in milliseconds – the beam, which is travelling at 11,000 circuits of the LHC per second, will complete less than 3 circuits before the dump is complete.[/Quote]
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Yeah, I thought about probability when I read the article. Of course they're being misleading. Fear sells.
People wouldn't prefer a story about how this could affect us in a positive way.
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