Will CERN make black holes that will consume the Earth?

[tinyp3nis]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
You barely need any physics to understand why this won't destroy the Earth.

edit: explanation in a second

The way high-energy physicists discover anything new is through (surprise) throwing ever larger gobs over energy together and seeing if they observe any new particles. That's the point of a particle accelerator - make your particles go really ****ing fast and they have a ton of energy. CERN has enough energy that, if certain models are right, it will produce micro black holes. This is how we confirm or deny the validity of those models. However, these energies are on the same order as those of cosmic rays, which bombard the Earth's atmosphere all the time. Which means, if CERN will generate a micro black hole, then micro black holes are being generated constantly in the upper atmosphere. The world hasn't ended yet. Therefore, micro black holes, if they exist, wouldn't destroy the world.

I have to take many of those points on faith to accept it. And if I do that I can't claim to have enough physics knowledge to really say I know. Also that is hardly enough info either way. It's faith for you too.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Jesus Christ, did you even read what I wrote?

Are you asking me? How the hell would I know if He did or not?

[Dinner]

Who was the Croatian kid who got into an argument with KrazyKitty in the last CERN thread? I remember laughing my ass off because the kid told him he was wrong and he should go talk to someone who has a PHD in small particle physics! (or something to that effect)

The result was hilarious when he found out KK was a PHD in small particle physics. I believe JM also chimed in (and he also has or almost has his PHD in physics).

[Kuciwalker]

That particular incident is celebrated in my sig

[tinyp3nis]

The best example for what I'm trying to say is if you take a small kid who knows 1+1=2 and maybe some more adding and substracting. Could some mathemacian who has studied years on end explain to him one of his more complicated proofs by few simple magazine articles? Answer is obvious. He could, kind of... because the kid would take whatever the man said to him as gospel and repeat it whenever asked.

Just take the cat which is both dead and alive to see how good education material is pop culture science sites and magazines.

[Lancer]

Yup, that was great. Iirc his reaction was pretty good though, he saw the errors of his ways.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by tinyp3nis
I have to take many of those points on faith to accept it. And if I do that I can't claim to have enough physics knowledge to really say I know. Also that is hardly enough info either way. It's faith for you too.

It's not hard to figure out how much energy the particles in the LHC will have. It's harder - though, not that much harder - to figure out how much energy cosmic rays tend to have, but we've known that answer for a long time now. Those two numbers are really all you need to know.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by tinyp3nis
The best example for what I'm trying to say is if you take a small kid who knows 1+1=2 and maybe some more adding and substracting. Could some mathemacian who has studied years on end explain to him one of his more complicated proofs by few simple magazine articles? Answer is obvious. He could, kind of... because the kid would take whatever the man said to him as gospel and repeat it whenever asked.

Just take the cat which is both dead and alive to see how good education material is pop culture science sites and magazines.

Good thing I didn't get my physics education from pop culture science, then.

[tinyp3nis]

Well, I was under the impression there is something new we should be concerned about. I thought that is also why it was build.

[Lancer]

The bummer of the whole thing is that if that machine makes a black hole and the Earth gets sucked in we might not live long enough to say 'I told you so'.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by tinyp3nis
The best example for what I'm trying to say is if you take a small kid who knows 1+1=2 and maybe some more adding and substracting. Could some mathemacian who has studied years on end explain to him one of his more complicated proofs by few simple magazine articles? Answer is obvious. He could, kind of... because the kid would take whatever the man said to him as gospel and repeat it whenever asked.

Just take the cat which is both dead and alive to see how good education material is pop culture science sites and magazines.

So you are basically saying no one should opine until they have in depth education in that subject. So no one should make a decision except for the experts in that field? How would this apply in public policy?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by tinyp3nis
Well, I was under the impression there is something new we should be concerned about. I thought that is also why it was build.

It's kinda hard to study the particle collisions when they happen miles above the surface of the Earth. It's a lot easier when they happen inside a detector chamber that's carefully isolated from as much background noise as possible.

[tinyp3nis]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Good thing I didn't get my physics education from pop culture science, then.

Yes I know you study physics or math, my first assumption was that you do know much, but also have a lot of faith in scientific community and what they say, I could be wrong and perhaps you as much as there is to know about the whole deal, but that is not my argument. It is that basic physics info does not cut it.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
So you are basically saying no one should opine until they have in depth education in that subject. So no one should make a decision except for the experts in that field? How would this apply in public policy?

I think that's an excellent rule

[tinyp3nis]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


So you are basically saying no one should opine until they have in depth education in that subject. So no one should make a decision except for the experts in that field? How would this apply in public policy?

Actually no this is not what I am saying, people need to learn to say "I really don't know" alot more tho