How is smashing particles in a LHC anything like the big bang?

Question

I dont understand why smashing particles in a LHC would open up information about the big bang. I would understand if the big bang was more like the big head on collision but i think we can all agree 2 galactic size rocks traveling at the speed of light collided to create the big bang. So please some one tell how the big bang is anything like what goes on in a LHC?

Answer 1

No, we can't agree that two galatic size rocks traveling at the speed of light created the big bang.  In fact, I doubt you'll find anyone with a degree in physics that believes this.  The LHC can create matter with extremely high energy densities.  Right after the big bang, the universe had an extemely high energy density.  Therefore the two are similar.

Answer 2

It's simply because the energies of the collisions happening at the velocities attained in this super particle accelerator will enable (albeit very fleetingly) conditions that approximate conditions of the very very early universe ... closer to the Big Bang than we've ever gone before.  

... and a large part of the LHC project involves super computing and recording equipment to capture and analyse  data from those nanoseconds of energy bursts.  Make sense?

It's complicated.

Answer 3

It's not going to recreate the Big Bang as we know it. The idea is to create a shower of particles that are theorized to have existed in the high-energy, short timespan of the moments after the Big Bang. If we can create this scenario, we can understand how the Universe formed the way we know it today, and why the 50/50 split between matter/anti-matter at the beginning of the Universe doesn't occur today (along with a whole smorgasbord of other questions about the origins of the Universe)