What are the possibilities that we're going to die from this experiment?

Question

I read in the newspaper today that the Swiss have finished their 'big bang' machine (no idea what its really called)

Some people are worried that it may s***w up, causing a 'real' big bang, thus killing us.

Is it possible?

Whats the chances if so?

I wouldnt thought they would be allowed to go ahead with an experiment that could end human life so easy. No?

Sorry I dont know much else about it, any links to information websites appreciated :)

Thanks

Answer 1

People used to worry about sailing off the edge of the earth until someone worked out there were no edges. The uninformed live in fear of the nonexistent.  

Answer 2

It's just a particle accelerator. We'll be fine.

Answer 3

I wouldn't worry as the experiment is all about the energy of particles and I am sure that the Earth has been bombarded with particles from outer space of equal or higher energy.

Answer 4

there was a show on discovery about it.  it was done in the last four years and named something like, "the big bang machine."  in it they calculated the odds of anything like that happenning at infinitessimal.  the only issue the illiterate masses have with the thing is scientists speaking like scientists.  if i were asked to give a scientific estimation of how likely it would be for my pencil to spontaneously teleport itself 3 meters to the right i would be forced to respond that it was extremely unlikely.  i couldn't say impossible because there is room for the possibility in our current understanding of physics.  the odds are however that it will happen once per 200 times the life of the universe.

Answer 5

Proof the LHC will not destroy the world:

The LHC creates high energy particles and nothing else.

Particles from deep space impact the Earth every day which are FAR more energetic than anything the LHC will be able to produce.

The Earth is still here.

Q.E.D.

Answer 6

It's like the nuclear bomb. A nuclear bomb works on a chain reaction with atoms 'exploding',which sets off the atoms around it, of which set off the atoms around that.

They never really knew if this chain reaction would ever stop. But they set off a nuke anyway. Thankfully, there was a limit to how far the chain reaction would go

Answer 7

No chance of anything bad happening. Read the link. Importantly collisions at the energies that will be achieved are always happening in the earths atmosphere but the scientists at CERN will be able to analyze the ones in the LHC

http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc/faqs....

Answer 8

We honestly do not know.  The goal of the project is to explore the interactions of matter (tiny bits of matter) when they collide at very high energies (speeds approaching the speed of light).  The machine they are preparing to use is new and it is the largest ever built, i.e., it will accelerate  particles to higher speeds than have ever been reached before.  This is being done because they want to understand what happens and they think it could provide information about what happened at the Big Bang.  It is possible (but very unlikely) that a black hole could be created.  If a black hole is created, it would be the first time we ever created one and, since we do not really know anything for sure about how black holes are created or what happens when a black hole forms, it could be bad (like the entire earth would disappear into it a few seconds after it formed).  But, the people who study this stuff do not think it will create a black hole.  So... we're going to be ok (probably).  hope this helps

Answer 9

You are talking about the Large Hadron Collider.  Scientists want to re-create the big bang by smashing together protons at very high speeds.  The public is running scared because someone misunderstood, and thinks that this could spawn a black hole that will kill us all.  There are particles colliding in the universe, and with the atmosphere of Earth all the time, and we're still here.

Besides, if we do die, it'll be very very very quick.

Answer 10

Sounds like you're asking about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is going to be the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. There's absolutely no chance that it could bring about another Big Bang. You'd have to generate *all* the energy in the universe to do something like that.

There is a good chance that LHC will cause a few micro black holes to form which physicists are hoping for because of the significant insights such events could bring about. There is no chance that these micro black holes are going to do any damage though; they will be microscopic and last for mere nanoseconds.

Answer 11

See wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadro...

You have nothing to worry about.  First, they are just getting some beams going on Sept 10th -- the first collisions won't be until October.

There is no chance of the world ending.  You have nothing to fear, unless you live at the LHC, where its more likely that you will get hit by a falling crane, or trip over a cord, then get swallowed by a blackhole.

Newspapers love to report on this kind of thing. Despite what you see in movies and television, scientists are not insane madmen, but rather are thoughtful and logical, and know what they are doing.  Although microblack holes could be created, they will leak off energy in a variety of ways, such that they will only live for a very very short time, and won't grow, but will instantly start shrinking.