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Cern and the LHC

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mountainboo | 15:34 Sat 06th Sep 2008 | Science
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I know it's been discussed on here already but is there anyone with any scientific knowledge who can tell me what the real possibilities of creating a mini black hole or even a strangelet? I know that if a black hole is created then it won't be detected until we're all about to bite the big one!
Another question I have is: they are trying to recreate the big bang, so what if they create another universe within this univerese, which would do much the same thing as the black hole theory?
Am I right in thinking that in one of Nostrodamus predictions he says 'everyone must leave Geneva, when Saturns ring turns from Gold to Iron everything will be destroyed?
Have these Physists explored all theories, the bad aswell as the good? Surely even the slightest chance of something bad happening they shouldn't be allowed to do it
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I think thats something like that is very dangerous as they do not know what they are doing. When the tested the first H-bomb in the 1950s it turned out to be over 1,000 times more powerful than they had ever imagined (literally). This could be just as bad, if not worse, as noone knows what will happen. I think that they will make a miny black hole, but if we know anything about them even a little one would be catastrophic.

When is the experiment taking place anyway?

Could we put all the politicitians we don't like in there if it works?
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The U.S Government has funded the project so I should imagine have our government. It starts on Wednesday.

Your right, no one really knows what the outcome will be. There is an American Physist who has been trying to close it down but obviously the U.S government are the most powerful in the world so doubt much will come of that.

Stephen Hawkins said that the cosmic rays should stop a black hole from forming but that theory has been debunked.

Patrick Moore says the chances are the same as a ufo coming into our atmosphere and landing on the back of the Loch ness monster. But then he is also pro the LHC
Sir Patrick Moore is correct.

I'm currently in the middle of a PhD in Theoretical Physics, so I'd like to think that I know more about this stuff than the average Joe.

The entire idea of these black holes is just that -- an idea. Put about by idiots that don't know what they're talking about, while the real scientists get on with it. (And yes, some of these idiots are also scientists -- the few American ones again it too. Though you and everyone else are obviously not an idiot for questioning this knowledge; you should always ask 'why'.)

I realise this sounds awfully rude, but really, it's the truth. People have read Dan Brown's books and think that's what really goes on at CERN.

The idea is to produce a collision with the same kind of energy as thought to have been existent in the big bang. This doesn't mean that it'll actually produce a big bang. And as said in other threads on this site, and elsewhere, there is already a similar-sized particle accelerator going on right now -- in our atmosphere.
fo3nix is right. (I used to be a physicist at the Atomic Energy Authority)

The sort of events that the LHC will produce happen all the time in our upper atmosphere when much more powerful cosmic rays hit us.

Trouble is we cant winch thousands of tonnes of scientific detectors up there and make them happen again and again on cue which is why we have to build the LHC.

I have to take issue with fo3nix a bit though (but maybe I misunderstood). I think the micro-black hole idea started at CERN not by idiots - actually I take that back they were idiots to use the words black hole to the press!

The black hole stuff is just possible but unlikely as Hawking says but we're not talking about planet gobbling ex-stars here. Forget the TV and film ideas of a black hole micro-black holes would have a very tiny amount of mass and hence a tiny tiny gravitational field. But frankly we've been looking for them without success for so long that I tend to think that they belong in that big basket labelled "Nice idea but..."

I promise you nobody's going to distroy the Universe next week - Cubs Honour!
" . . . Cubs Honour!" <? . . . I don't know about the rest of you but I feel safer already!
Erm, I don't suppose you could maybe stick a little ' in "Cubs" for me between now and next Wednesday, could ya . . . just in case?
Yes, I should have clarified. Jake's correct regarding the black holes stuff. But they were silly using the term 'black holes', given the public's general perception of the term.

There is a difference between a theory like this black hole business, and other theories like the standard model (predicting particles such as the Higg's boson). (I explain what a 'theory' is here: http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Science/Questio n602911.html .)

If this talk of black holes unsettles you, try this:

There exists a theory (though I must note that it has no experimental evidence at all, it's just a result of playing with the mathematics, like this black holes at CERN stuff), that tiny black holes exist at every point in space. You'll have millions of them inside you! Just because someone talks about this stuff, it doesn't mean it's true (though you'd hope that scientists would have taken a PR lesson).
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Thanks for the input guys, it puts it into perspective for me and I feel more settled. I'm grateful that a physicist and a student of physics have taken the time to reply to me. Thanks again

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Cern and the LHC

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