Large Hadron Collider

[ajk]

Have you got a link for those odds Johnny?

Also, look up "strangelets", they're quite good fun too.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Rubbish.

Linky?

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cach...is+sancho"+affidavit&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

complete rubbish. cosmic rays hit each other at similar energies billions of times a second completely safely. they're hitting you right now. note the abscence of black holes.

If the sorts of collisions to be replicated in the LHC are so numerous and common, why is it necessary to build the largest and most complex machine in history, in order to replicate them?

 

[ajk]

Luis Sancho is a bit crackers, to be fair.

http://www.unificationtheory.com/astrophysics/starandgalaxy.htm

 

[longdog]

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cach...is+sancho"+affidavit&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca

You said...

Apparently, even the physicists working on it think there is a 1%- 10% chance that the collider will create dark matter or black holes that will consume the earth.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but Luis Sancho is not a 'physicist working on it' is he?

So I repeat...

Show me one credible link that shows that even one physicist working on the LHC thinks there is a 1-10% risk of a disaster.

Just one.

 

[longdog]

Luis Sancho is a bit crackers, to be fair.

http://www.unificationtheory.com/astrophysics/starandgalaxy.htm

I always think

that when somebody keeps

swapping typefaces and using bold

to emphasise points

it's time to reach

for the tinfoil hat.

 

[laptop]

I always think

that when somebody keeps

swapping typefaces and using bold

At one of my jobs I sometimes get emails whose senders have thoughtfully marked the madder bits in green ink. They go straight in the bin, unless I'm bored and want to see what kind of tinfoil hat they're wearing.

Occasionally, I get messages that faithfully recreate the even-madder letter-writer stereotype: the outright bonkers every crayon in the box phenomenon.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

08-02-2008, 06:40
ATOMIC SUPLEX
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Posts: 15,727

I'm sure they have thought all this though, but it does worry me that they are not too sure what will happen when it's switched on. Machines built to recreate what happened during the big bang are a bit scary.


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There, AS. You have your answer.

 

[longdog]

Anyway...

About that link....

 

[rich!]

I read something about this today. Apparently, even the physicists working on it think there is a 1%- 10% chance that the collider will create dark matter or black holes that will consume the earth.

We were talking to a Science Museum guy about risk assessments for a project we're negotiating. He said they had an LHC exhibit, which included the risk assessment for the LHC. "Creating a black hole" and "destroying the universe" were apparently there, with "chance of occurrence" "low" - it's a three-point scale, so "low" is 0-5%.

 

[spacemonkey]

Anyway...

About that link....

The chances of you getting that link are about the same as the chances of us all perishing in an LHC created blackhole.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

We were talking to a Science Museum guy about risk assessments for a project we're negotiating. He said they had an LHC exhibit, which included the risk assessment for the LHC. "Creating a black hole" and "destroying the universe" were apparently there, with "chance of occurrence" "low" - it's a three-point scale, so "low" is 0-5%.

Five percent is pretty good.

 

[cliche guevara]

Yep. There are other scientists who are trying to get it stopped.

The term "scientist" is very broad, and will encompass those who know absolutely nothing about particle physics. It'll be those who are uneasy about the LHC.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The chances of you getting that link are about the same as the chances of us all perishing in an LHC created blackhole.

It's in this month's issue of Harper's. I've looked for the last half hour to find it online. I give up.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

It'll be those who are uneasy about the LHC.

Is that right?

 

[cliche guevara]

Is that right?

It's an assumption. You could always prove me wrong by supplying a link.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

There, AS. You have your answer.

Well for a start, I was kidding and for a finish, it's more of a statement than a question and it's definitely not an answer to itself.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Well for a start, I was kidding and for a finish, it's more of a statement than a question and it's definitely not an answer to itself.

08-02-2008, 06:40
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Atarashi otosan to ojisan Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Location Location
Posts: 15,727

I'm sure they have thought all this though, but it does worry me that they are not too sure what will happen when it's switched on. Machines built to recreate what happened during the big bang are a bit scary.

.........................

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

What?

What is your point?

It's not a question and it's not an answer to anything. Making it bold doesn't change anything.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

What?

What is your point?

It's not a question and it's not an answer to anything. Making it bold doesn't change anything.

Are you scared, or not?

If you are, Crispy etc said that the fears are bollocks, so, if I were you, I'd stop being scared.

 

[Barking_Mad]

some interesting videos here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Large+Hadron+Collider&search_type=

 

[rich!]

Five percent is pretty good.

5% is the suggested upper limit for the range "low" - the range includes "vanishingly improbably".

We've been through this before, though:

As Edward Teller calculated on the chalkboard, Oppenheimer and other physicists realized that the intense heat of fission might set off nuclear reactions culminating in the ignition of atmospheric nitrogen. Shaken, Oppenheimer suspended the seminar and telephoned Arthur Holly Compton (1892–1962), then in charge of the nascent bomb project. They had "found something very disturbing—dangerously disturbing," Oppenheimer reported. After further analysis, the scientists realized that they had miscalculated the potential for such a catastrophe.62 But for the remainder of the Manhattan Project, a number of them could not completely quell the fear that the weapon they were creating might engulf the world in flames.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Are you scared, or not?

If you are, Crispy etc said that the fears are bollocks, so, if I were you, I'd stop being scared.

I was kidding, and like I said before, it wasn't a question anyway. You also posted no answer and gave no link (actual or implied) to what Crispy said.

 

[longdog]

The chances of me having a live Dodo on the sofa watching The Sound of Music are 0-5% too

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I was kidding, and like I said before, it wasn't a question anyway. You also posted no answer and gave no link (actual or implied) to what Crispy said.

Where in your op do you indicate that you are kidding?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The chances of me having a live Dodo on the sofa watching The Sound of Music are 0-5% too

No they aren't.

 

[longdog]

No they aren't.

Yes they are.

The chance is zero which is obviously within the range 0-5%

QED

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Yes they are.

The chance is zero which is obviously within the range 0-5%

QED

There is no range. The chance is zero, and only zero.

The range is 0% - 0%.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Where in your op do you indicate that you are kidding?

I genuinely thought that it was fairly obvious when I started this thread that people would see OP as silly.
It doesn't seem quite so funny now that the tinfoil loons are out in force.

 

[SpookyFrank]

0%-5% is, when you're dealing with probability, effectively an infinite range. Not very useful and definitely not very scientific...