Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider is online today. It may be the end of the world, but I feel fine.

For some reason, whenever I try to type "hadron", I accidentally switch the D and the R. Hilarity ensues. I mean, what's not funny about a "large hardon collider"?

10 comments:

LL said...

If the world ends... you'll let me know, won't you?

And the large hardon collider sounds painful...

Jenn said...

ll - if the world ends we will see you at the gate of the black hole hollering , "Welcome, c'mon in!" as we are sucked past you.

Ferm - Now I got that stupid song from the movie, "Dream a little dream (c 1980 with corey felman)" stuck in my head. Who did it, REM?
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine..."

Jeni said...

Fermi, baby - you work with stuff like that? How the heck do you manage to remember your name or to feed the cats and stuff, after bending your mind around this kind of technical stuff. Note the preponderance here of the word "stuff" because I can't think of any other word to describe it. Somehow, my favorite word -"crapola" just doesn't seem fitting. I tried to read the info piece on what the LHC is and all that but found my eyes glossing over, crossing on me and a complete state of confusion about to set in on me then too! Dangerous "stuff" there to get me THAT confused, ya know.

Natalie said...

If you think that's funny, tell PDM to get you one of these.

fermicat said...

ll - it all depends on the circumstances, no?

jenny - yes, REM.

jeni - we accelerate electrons at my workspace. Very different! Our machines have a linear standing wave accelerator tube that is about one meter long. The HLC is another animal entirely, accelerating protons (roughly 1000 times heavier than electrons) with a circular accelerator that is 17 miles (27 km) in circumference. The protons reach energies that are about a million times greater than the energy of our electrons. Neat stuff!

fermicat said...

magnetbabe - yes, we need that. Ha ha ha!

LL said...

Ummmm... which part and what circumstance?

fermicat said...

LL - second part.... elastic collisions may not be all bad.......

:lech:

LL said...

Yes... but a large hardon collider of necessity means that two large hardons are collided, and well... there's no part of that sentence that appeals to me.

fermicat said...

ll - um, when you put it that way, me neither.