Large Hadron Collider breaks energy record, still won't power a toaster
CERN's Large Hadron Collider just made the record books for something other than the cost of building a 27km-long circular tunnel. After achieving its first collision on Tuesday, the LHC roared beyond a trillion electron volts (1.18 TeV to be exact) literally smashing the 0.98 TeV energy record held by the Tevatron particle accelerator in Chicago since 2001. So far the LHC had been operating at a relatively modest 450 billion electron volts as it pushes up to full capacity of some 7 trillion electron volts. All that's left now is the minor issue of unlocking the secrets of the universe when the real scientific testing gets underway early next year.
























@bigshape
Wait you mean the world wasn't created by an invisible man in the sky?Who'd a thunk it!?
>_< My entire reality is crumbling before my eyes... I have been living a lie!
Does not compute! Does not compute!
*spontaneously combusts*
@(Unverified)
while it'd probably be the end of humanity, all the nuclear weapons in the world would hardly take this pos planet with us
@mrqs
Now, during the cold war on the other hand, before the nuclear treaties were made to disarm a vast majority of them...
The major BLACK HOLE is actually CERN itself.
@(Unverified)
... after they bend over and take it hard!
I love the engadget articles talking about either CERN or 2012 and the end of the world :D its so amusing..
There is diversity on our team. We have sceintists from all over Europe. Actually, every European country is represented on our team, plus three ISraelis and more than a handful of Americans, several Han Chinese and of course, Indians.
The line about not being able to power a toaster comes from that osmosis generator in Norway. We can carbonize your toast several times over, and also blacken all the brioches in Switzerland and France with the power we consume.
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi
Hahaha, that's awesome. After you are done experimenting within safety limits you should consider over-clocking that beauty. I know a group of computer geeks who would absolutely love to do that.
By the way, when you refer to Europe... is it Europe as a continent or the European Union plus Russia ?
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi
Perhaps you guys will allow me to volunteer to jump in it next time you pull the switch so I can turn into Dr.Manhattan?
or Dr.Kon in my case....
Did you know that 1 Tera eV (electron volt) is equivalent to the kinetic energy to fly a mosquito?
Did you know that throwing a bomb into your bathtub will obliterate it, while throwing the same bomb into Atlantic ocean will result in a minor splash?
In an age when luddites, kooks, conspiracy theorists and general anti-science nutjobs dominate our media, I'm delighted that something as absurdly expensive as the LHC can still get built. Restores some faith in me that the Rothschild financed Bilderberg attending liberal lizard bankers who run our world still care about basic science.
@hmmmm True true there's comfort in it.
So when they will reach 7 TeV ?
@Ahmed Alzayani "real scientific testing gets underway early next year"
That's one well placed foam finger.
You gotto love geeks pissing contest. They tend to do the most outrageous thing to do the simplest things just for bragging rights. Example? ...oh i dunno, spent billions building a 27km tunnel to just smash "stuffs". I wonder if things will be different if they got matchbox cars when they were kids.
www.7tev.com...
IT WILL HAPPEN I 2012...THIS WILL BE THE END OF THE WORLD FOLKS!!! BE WARNED!!!!
I think it'll give results that can unlock a lot of secrets, but I don't think we currently have the people to fully do so, but maybe the robot overlords can use the data, or we just wait until a smart and properly (self- I guess) educated person pops up (who hopefully isn't pushed into idiocy by the internet).
So, it "literally" smashed the record? They put some piece of paper into the beam and "smashed" it?
Using "literally" isn't right just because it sounds cool.
@JasonC
They broke the record by smashing protons literally and go over the energy limit so far, as opposed to figuratively, since they did actually use more energy and not virtually or imaginatively or proverbially or even figuratively but literally, raw numbers, numbers are written too, and they did it by smashing, so in this case I think you can use the word as it was used, and it was used deliberately in that manner amusingly referring to the smashing of atoms.
@Wwhat
There wasn't any "smashing" involved in this context; the record refers to the amount of energy involved and not particle collisions. The record was not broken due to any particle collisions, which is a prerequisite in order for the joke to be valid, but rather it was broken because of the energy at which the beams were accelerated to. The joke made me cringe a little bit, but it wasn't a big deal, I just don't think it ought to be defended unreasonably.
LOL = http://vezign.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/large-hadron-collider-star-wars.jpg
Doesn't it actually top out at 14TeV, 7 per stream?
I'd just like to point out that, while the LHC may not be able to toast a piece of bread, a piece of bread is quite capable of toasting the LHC.
The Higgs boson may need to send something else back through time pretty soon...
BTW- awesome pic; the foam hand was very well placed!
Man, they really went all out with this particle accelerator. They were able to break energy record using only 1/5 of it's power (roughly)? Goodness.
that is really 1 teV cool
http://wowguide.worldquests.com/