Black hole doom for all on the 10th September?

[Fraz]

I'm no physicist, but I assume the answer to that will be the Special Theory of Relativity.

Light (photons) are generally regarded (though it may be a bit of a simplification) as having no mass. Relativity suggests that mass increases as you approach the speed of light, and that the energy required to approach the speed of light also increases. Clearly, the mass of a sub-atomic particle is pretty tiny, but assuming that the implications of the Special Theory of Relativity are correct, then even that tiny mass is going to require, in effect, infinite energy to reach c. And as we can't supply limitless energy, we can't get even something as small in mass as a neutron to reach c. We can, it seems, get very, very close, though.

And if anyone that actually knows what they're talking about can put it better than that, and they probably can, feel free.

That's the badger.

The thing that really boggles the mind with relativity is the length contraction experienced as you approach the speed of light. At light speed, all lengths parallel to the direction of travel contract to zero, so from the viewpoint of a photon the universe is only two dimensional.

Oh, and time effectively becomes meaningless as it dilates to infinity as you approach the speed of light. I swear this stuff is made up.

[vrfx]

And you can also win £500 if you have a great imagination (unless the earth is destroyed of course)!

http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/Pres.../RenameLHC.asp

[Steve]

Quoting the article linked by vrfx:

He welcomed suggestions for a good name for the LHC, which should be emailed to Jon Edwards.

So there was have it, a new name has been found.

So, what discoveries have they made so far with the emailed to Jon Edwards?

[usxhe190]

That's the badger.

The thing that really boggles the mind with relativity is the length contraction experienced as you approach the speed of light. At light speed, all lengths parallel to the direction of travel contract to zero, so from the viewpoint of a photon the universe is only two dimensional.

Oh, and time effectively becomes meaningless as it dilates to infinity as you approach the speed of light. I swear this stuff is made up.

yep that's right - its cool

[chuckskull]

Errr what's wrong with the name LHC?

It's a big collider working with a group of particles called hadrons.

[AdamAnubis]

We should call it glados or city 17. Because, some people will be able to understand and laugh, and most won't

[santa claus]

What about calling it the BBC (Big Bang Collider)? Unique, distinctive and has a ridiculously high licence fee.

[iranu]

That's the badger.

The thing that really boggles the mind with relativity is the length contraction experienced as you approach the speed of light. At light speed, all lengths parallel to the direction of travel contract to zero, so from the viewpoint of a photon the universe is only two dimensional.

Oh, and time effectively becomes meaningless as it dilates to infinity as you approach the speed of light. I swear this stuff is made up.

It's mad isn't it? It's completely non-intuitive. It's no surprise that people with very little basic science knowledge find it completely incomprehensible and that's without dipping a toe into quatumn mechanics. As a layman I can follow some of the concepts and understand about 80-85% of A Brief History of Time (although I had to read it 3 times to get that understanding), but it still hurts my head. Peoples everyday experiences and concepts just don't approach reality at all when observing the world.

[NovaSphere]

I don't know if anyone has posted this one here yet (or anywhere else on this forums) so excuse me for not reading the complete topic =p

It all seems like a conspiracy to me, his even holding a small sort what crowbar... (at least he could hit something with it!)

[Agent]

Been posted NovaSphere, you're a bit late to the party

[pollaxe]

Trying to get my poor brain around a lot of these concepts is enough to give me a nosebleed.

[NovaSphere]

Been posted NovaSphere, you're a bit late to the party

Ah bummer, wouldn't have expected otherwise though ^^

[Mithrandir]

You can see live webcam footage HERE from the LHC

[Allen]

That's a couple of posts up Mithrandir.

[HoldenBurn1000]

Aww i was going to post that. Thought it may have been already.

[usxhe190]

Why wait for the protons to end the world when we already have massive financial collapse!