LHC breaks its own energy record, still less powerful than Lady Gaga
By Laura June 
posted March 19th 2010 2:14PM
posted March 19th 2010 2:14PM
The Large Hadron Collider is no stranger to setting energy records: back at the end of November it broke the 0.98 TeV record by hitting the 1.18 TeV mark. Well, the problem beleaguered collider's just handily surpassed itself -- this time with a truly stunning 3.5 TeV -- with beams of protons on record as having circulated at 3.5 trillion electron volt. Now, we're not scientists or anything, but that sure is a lot of volts! CERN's moving on later this week and will begin colliding the beams so they can check out the tiniest particles within atoms in the hopes of finding out more about how matter's made up. We look forward to hearing all about that, too -- but until then, we made do by reading the source over and over.
While this certainly gives me a hadron, Lady GaGa makes it go away.
@paul34 speak for yourself http://www.interscope.com/artist/news/default.aspx?nid=24937&aid=599&cmnt=1
@paul34 It could be possible to take Lady GaGa away by making tiny black holes appear all around her.
@paul34 That's probably because Lady Gaga can get a hardon too
@paul34 At least we can all be certain, large colliders will never be low brow.
Sounds like fun.
It's not 3.5 trillion electron votls, it's 3.5 Tera electron volts, which is actually really small. 1 trillionth of an electron volt. 1eV is only 1.8 x 10^-19 Joules to begin with. That being said, it is quite large for a particle accelerator
@10nisman94
Yeah, what he said.
@10nisman94
Yup, here's a C&P directly from CERN's glossary, the last line gives you an idea of the energy the protons have.
"Electronvolt (eV)
A unit of energy or mass used in particle physics. One eV is extremely small, and units of a million electronvolts, MeV, or thousand million electronvolts, GeV, are more common. The latest generation of particle accelerators reaches up to several million million electronvolts, TeV. One TeV is about the energy of motion of a flying mosquito."
@10nisman94
The Tera prefix actually does mean trillion, not trillionth. The article was correct in saying 3.5 trillion electronvolts. Also, one electronvolt is equal to 1.6x10^-19 Joules, not 1.8.
@RavenousBBT
Schooled
@10nisman94
Tritto, it's tera-electron-volts, 3.5 of which is about equivalent to force of the beating of a mosquito's wing.
Protons are really small, though, so that means a lot to them. Us crushing a blade of grass is no big deal, but to an ant underneath that blade of grass that is catastrophic force.
@10nisman94
thats what SHE said
@10nisman94
hardcore fail man, what the article said was correct
@kaasinees
BTW the collider itself uses a lot more than a few TeV.
The collision of the particles produced 3.5 TeV.
Google: 1 teraelectron volt(TeV) = 1.60217646 × 10-7 joules
notice the minus. thats 9 zeros
@kaasinees
Sorryy i was wrong. The particle beams moved at 3.5 TeV.
Just to clarify a bit for people. A simple way to think of electron volts is the following: 1eV is equal to the energy an electron gains by being accelerated across a 1 volt potential gradient. In other words, if you have a stationary electron (yes i know, hypothetical) at 0V and an electrode at 1V, that electron will be accelerated in the electric field toward the 1V electrode and will reach that electrode with a total energy of 1eV. Therefore you can think of 3.5TeV as the equivalent of accelerating an electron using a 3.5 trillion volt potential gradient. Hopefully this helps to put the figure back into its rightfully mind-blowing status for all of you.
@10nisman94
Yep, volt is a unit of power, however eV is a unit of energy and a very small amount of energy.
@10nisman94
Yep, volt is a unit of power, however eV is a unit of energy and a very small amount of energy.
@10nisman94 and I thought genius is going to point out the difference between "electronvolt" and "electron volt"... nope.
Of course, you have to keep in mind that that's the energy per proton. Looking at the CERN brochure [ http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1165534/files/CERN-Brochure-2009-003-Eng.pdf ], they have 10^11 protons per bunch, each of them with that energy and then they have 2808 of these bunches.
Converted into joule, this gives an energy of ~157444560 J or 157 megajoule, which is the energy of an average car travelling roughly at 560 km/h.
That's not too shabby.
@TheSmartGuy No. The watt is the standard unit for power. The volt is a unit for voltage. Voltage is not power. The electronvolt is a unit of energy.
"but that sure is a lot of volts!" They are not volts!!!!!! They do not measure voltage!!!!
@wifigod
It may not be a large force but it is if its just a few protons moving with the same energy as billions.
@TheSmartGuy
volt is not a unit of power, volt is a unit of voltage.
Power is measured in Watts
Energy in Joules
Watt=Joule/second
Power is energy over time.
@andy6
actually if you want to get technical volt is a measure of energy potential and can be easily converted to any form of energy for thanks the the modern miracle of Laplace Transforms. so before you correct someone, be correct.
and for the record, while 7 TeV is about the same level of energy as 7 mosquitoes, if you divide by initial mass to get a non specific value, you wind up with a mosquito that could destroy cities. so perspective is important in this, relativistic collisions are cool.
LHC< Lady Ga Ga < Sean Connery
@Chewy71
LHC < Lady Ga Ga < Sean Connery < Chuck Norris.
End of discussion.
Anything you say in response will be translated by Chuck Norris as asking for a roundhouse kick to the head.
@mike808 Lmao!
this thing is absurd. i love it.
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick
B================>
@hdawggy Dildo stick?
f my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight TeV per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.
@dill0n Great Scott......
@bazookafx3 This is heavy
Come on LHC we want the world to end already!
I cant wait until this thing makes renewable energy. Cars will run forever
@JCreazy
Yup indeed, with a small circle of 27 kilometers of circumference in the trunk
@Genicus
Looks like the hummer will finally be outsized
Lady Gaga > Everything
@fauxcivility
Everything > Lady Gaga
Hell, even iPad > Lady Gaga
@Physicsguy89
"Everything > Lady Gaga"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIeCrj_Gn6A
ORLY?
@Professor Hubert J Farnsworth
I followed one of the links at the end of that video. I caught myself watching a tutorial on how to do a Lady Gaga makeup, but I finished it anyway... thx alot...
@Physicsguy89
"Hell, even iPad > Lady Gaga"
I'll accept that as true IFF Apple donates the proceeds from its first production run to HIV/AIDS research and education.
Lady who?
@mcc
lady gagger
@kaasinees
Mick Jagger?
Awesome! Love LHC news and this is probably the punniest post title in a while.
PLUS, finally a post with a lot of comments that isn't hijacked by Team Edward vs Team Jacob! (read: fanboys and haters.)
They aren't gonna stop until the same thing that happened in "Flash Forward" happens to us.
@crearian The television version of Flash Forward is an adaption of the book of the same name where it's the LHC that does indeed cause the blackout.
@crearian Well, they had at least a quadrillion electron volts, sooo...