Small hadron collider
A group has filed suit against the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Among other doomsday scenarios, they cite the possibility that when the LHC is turned on, it will create black holes that will swallow up matter and suck up the earth.
This reminds me of our third-year science project at Pisay. My groupmates did all the work because it was a continuation of their second-year project. It was a prototype for a machine that would harness energy from water, and it looked like a small windmill. Or it may have been a small hadron collider–I wasn’t paying attention, and now I regret it.
Some teachers came round to grade the projects. One teacher listened to the presentation with great interest, then asked, “But if you generate all that heat from the ocean, won’t the ocean freeze over?” This was the same teacher, by the way, who posed this question on an exam: China is opposite the US on the globe. If the entire population of China were to jump a foot in the air at the exact same instant, will the impact of their landing propel the population of the US into outer space? I’m sorry that I wasn’t in his physics class.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 10th, 2008 at 04:35
Intriguing question if only for the sake of argument. But, the fact is China is not the antipode of the US.
May 10th, 2008 at 05:13
Pretty interesting when I was doing my own research on this topic. They cite the fact that there is nothing to worry about because Hawking radiation will decay any mini blackholes that are created, however that is an extension of standard model. The anti LHC group LHCdefense.org is pretty aggressive in their attempt to suspend such research. Who knows, maybe they will succeed and open a wormhole to the planet Xen, and then Dr. Freeman will have to save us from those silly aliens that jump on ur face just like in Half-life.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:33
Actually, someone once asked the self-proclaimed smartest man in the world (and who purportedly has been fighting ignorance since the early 70’s, I forget which year) this question: “If all the people in China jumped together at the same time, will they knock Earth off its orbit?”
I forgot his answer, though. I forget a lot of things these days.
Anyway, he answers a lot of really important questions, like what causes piss shiver, and what “H” stands for in the exclamation “Jesus H. Christ!” and other mysteries. Really useful stuff.
About as useful as male nipples.