On hadron colliders, dark matter and black holes

[jfrazierjr]

So, some facts and figures.

The LHC - Large Hadron Collider
(hadrons are composite particles - of which protons and neutrons are two examples. Always be careful when typing hadron not to get the d and r mixed by accident. Easy typo, completely different machine....)

And a totally different tool also.

26 659 m in circumference - the largest machine ever built
>10 years to build, and due to start this summer (first collisions predicted in August)
The magnets are kept at 1.9 degrees above absolute zero so they are colder than outer space. This is so they are superconducting.
This requires the world's largest fridge - >10,000 tonnes of liquid nitrogen.
This, combined with the detectors, will produce more than 800,000 GB of data every year and requires a whole new class of supercomputer to be designed to be able to handle it.

Umm so how much energy is this thing supposed to give us? If I got it all wrong, just let me know since I am not very physicy as you put it.

This of course is if it works as planned. We'll find that out later this summer.

Yea... it's this bit that has be worried about the state of the universe after you guys turn this thing on... Typically, anytime some one says "It's completely safe", or "There's no way anything can go wrong", or something like that, the worst possible thing happens.... of course, thats usually in movies, but art imitates life and once in a while life imitates art.

Besides, since RPMiller knows the world is going to end in 2012, something will happen to the project and you will have to delay for another 3 years before starting it up again... either that or it takes that long to blow us all to hell, take your pick.

Joe