If you have ever followed @lemouth blog here on steemit, you will know he writes a lot on particle physics and of course the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is a particle accelerator.
Photo by Maximilien Brice. The big 8 toroid magnets stands out on the detector (License: CC-BY-4.0]:
CERN PhotoLab The @steemstem group even paid a visit to the CERN's accelerator complex two months ago.
Just in case you have not been following his blog, I will explain in brief what that was. The LHC is one of the most massive projects built by humankind in their quest to unravel the mysteries of our universe.
The LHC is a programme built by CERN ( European Organisation for Nuclear Research). It is a collaboration of more than 100 countries with over 10,000 scientists and engineers. The collider is one of the most complex experimental programmes in the world; the LHC project kicked off on September 10, 2008.
The LHC spans a mind-boggling 27-kilometre ring which comprises of superconducting magnets and other things which enable the accelerating nature of collider as it injects energy on the particles as it travels along it.
The collision of two protons, a Higgs boson is produced which decays into two jets of hadrons and two electrons. Image by Lucas Taylor (License: CC-BY-SA-4.0]:
CERN PhotoLab ] Now that we have a fair idea of what the collider is all about, how about we take a peep at what will happen if we decide to poke our heads into one?
A Magnetic Voyage
The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator; it incites sub-atomic particles to accelerate at tremendous speeds. Guiding the particles down the tunnels are electric and magnetic field set up via the walls of the tube. The tunnel walls are akin to the barrels of the gun that guides the bullet (sub-atomic particles) and control its speed and direction.
The LHC contains 1232 dipoles and 506 quadrupole magnets to create a magnetic that is up to 8.3 Tesla which is 100,000 greater than the Earth's magnetic field.
These powerful electromagnets are needed to direct the speeding particles through the path if it were absent the particles would tend to move in a straight line.
Therefore the protons and electrons accelerate at speeds close to the speed of light. Our dear Einstein, in his theory of relativity, made us know that no particles that have mass could move as fast as the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).
Photo by Maximilien Brice. The big 8 toroid magnets stands out on the detector (License: CC-BY-4.0]:
CERN PhotoLab The particles in the LHC travel at 0.999997828 times the speed of light at injection (energy = 450 GeV) and 0.999999991 c, i.e. 0.999999991 times the speed of light at top energy (energy = 7000 GeV).
But the particles still move at an energy close to the speed of light, the energy the LHC currently produce is 6.5TeV per beam which has the capability of pushing the particles around the 27km tunnels 11,245 times per second.
1 tera elctron volts = 1,000,000,000,000 electron Volts or 1012 electron Volts
1 Tera electron volt (1 TeV) is similar to the energy produced by the motion of a flying mosquito.
LHC can squeeze energy into the space which is a million million times smaller than that of a mosquito.
If someone is brave enough, or foolish enough, depending on the side you look at it, to stick his head inside the accelerator, a proton moving at that rate is capable of killing you a couple of thousand times over.
But recall the particle collider was not set up for the inquisitive person to stick the head inside. Instead, it was set up to gain more knowledge on the building blocks of matter and possibly get more understanding of how the universe came into existence (the creation).
It's like Space
Inside the LHC is a vacuum that is just like the interstellar space with all its emptiness. We do not want some odd gas particles interrupting the particles as they speed along their merry way. Not only the vacuum helps the particles, in the case of the cryomagnets, but the vacuum also serves as an insulator that keeps the heat away.
So we have the biggest "operational vacuum in the world" inside the LHC with its impressive 10-6 mbar of insulating vacuum.
Now, imagine your head inside such a vacuum. Within 10 to 15 seconds you will be unconscious. That is right; there will be no air to breathe which leads to starving the brain of oxygen. The absence of pressure will make the blood vessels near the surface to break especially around the eyes. The saliva on your tongue will bubble as that which happened to NASA spacesuit technician, Jim LeBlanc, when his spacesuit malfuncutioned during vacuum test on December 14, 1966.
“As I stumbled backwards, I could feel the saliva on my tongue starting to bubble just before I went unconscious and that’s the last thing I remember,” recalls LeBlanc. Huffinton Post
It's Cold in Here
Oh, I almost forgot about the temperature inside. For everything to work so nicely, the temperature is lowered to the frigid temperature of -271.3°C or 1.9 Kelvin. In other to achieve superconductivity (flow of electricity with almost zero resistance) the temperatures must be super low.
The liquid-helium circuit has got this covered, but your head stuck inside has not. Therefore we will have your head turned into a popsicle before anyone could spell Jack Robinson.
You may survive for teeny much longer if the other factors are not taken into consideration.
A Bullet Speed
Two protons at full energy have the energy which is equal to that of a 400-tonne train similar to the French TGV high-speed trains moving at 150 km/h. This energy is enough to liquidate 500 kilogrammes of copper.
Each beam absorber known as beam dump absorber is a 7m long carbon-graphite cylinder which is 700mm in diameter housed in a steel container.
The water-cooled material is surrounded by about 750 tonnes of iron and concrete shielding. For the sake of discussion, let's assume you still have your head and you are alive and well like the man below.
But Someone Did It!
Yes, some did stick his head into a particle accelerator. But it was not intentional and not on the more powerful accelerator- the LHC.
The man's name is Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski, a Russian scientist who at that time was a scientist at the Institute of High Energy Physics.
The energy accelerator is the U-70 Synchrotron. On July 13, 1978, he stuck his head inside the accelerator to check on malfunctioning hardware and got a zap for his troubles.
The machine due to a failed safety mechanism someone energised and sent a proton through his head! It was a painless entry, and Bugorski only knew he was in trouble when his face swelled to about twice its size.
His head surprisingly absorbed 2000 gray of the ionising beam when 5 grays could prove fatal.
He did not die and is alive today after celebrating his 75th year this year.
But it did not leave him scar-free; the beam did not affect his intellect as he finished his PhD after this accident. Instead, it left a part of his face paralysed and the other part "frozen" or unchanged as it was thirty-something odd years back when the accident occurred. Talk about the vampire effect; he had not aged a day in that part of the face.
Conclusion
I know we all want to live forever young, but try as much as we can not to stick our heads in a particle accelerator if we happen to visit one.
Thank you for reading.
REFERENCES
- Superconducting Electromagnet
- A vacuum as empty as interstellar space
- FAQ:CERN Brochure
- LHC Layout
- LHC Beam Dumps
- What happens when you stick your head into a particle accelerator
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The LHC is indeed the machine of all records. I am always happy to see others writing about it :)
This was fun to do :)
Let me begin by saying that I really like the neatness and organisation of your blog.
Okay, I only studied physics in my high school (SSS1 to 3), so that I could apply to study medicine in the University. It's not easy for me to fully comprehend your scientific blog post. Here, a video from Seeker on youtube about large hadron collider, LHC. At least, I've learnt from you today the existence of LHCs.
I'm wondering what would make anyone stick his head in an accelerator in the first place.
[Edited...]
@maryfavour.
People do loads of weird experiments :)
Just saying if anyone is tempted to, not to carry it out. Lol.
That's a good piece of advice 😀 . I'm not sure if this LHC is applied in the production of short 9D movies. I watched one a few days ago and saw what looks like that centre of your first picture . At a point I had to close my eyes 'cos it was quite scary 🙄 and seemed like I was really going to hit it.
@maryfavour.
Hehehe, some movies make us act as if the happenings are real. That's what great movie directors strive for, to make one feel the moment as if it's real.
I have still not gotten a good knowledge on this particular topic and I always read @lemouth post and I ask him questions and he answers and ask me to ask more if there is
Particle accelerator is just too broad and too many physics behind it, nobody would want to stick his or her hand into that Because it will scary and also I know dark matter have positive impact when you can manipulate it.... So those two topics or phenomena are friends
I stand to be corrected @greenrun
You may want to check this faq brochure from CERN for more on LHC.
Thanks alot
I will check it
I indeed wrote a lot about it in the past ^^
I enjoyed reading this. A lot of interesting facts. Infact, the very first time I heard about LHC was not from my school or any science magazine. I got to know about it from a Christian Church. The pastor was misinterpreting and distorting the facts to convey the folks that LHC will destroy the earth and which means the fruitification of Bible words written 2000 years ago. A lot of people had raised their voice against this project.
I salute the scientists and authority that made this LHC project possible. And thank you for making all simple enough to understand.
That's sad, I guess he doesn't know any better.
The particle accelerators I know of are much too narrow to go inside. The beam pipes are typically smaller than 10 cm in diameter. You cannot stick your head in them.
If you were to put a rat inside, it would experience the following:
When the air is sucked out of the accelerator (beam pipes and cavities) to create a vacuum, the rat will suffocate to death. This is where the story ends for the rat. Perhaps it'll experience going through a tunnel with light at the other end where he sees green fields and a beautiful light with his dead rat friends welcoming him.
To get rid of the rest of the air, the beam pipe and cavities are heated up to some 300 degrees celsius. The remains of the rat will slowly cremate until only solids are left. There is a good chance that the vacuum technicians will notice a virtual leak (source of gas) at the place where the rat is and open up the accelerator to have a look.
When vacuum is established, then - when the accelerator gets started up, the operators will notice an obstruction that affects the beam. They will stop the accelerator, investigate and remove the rat.
Another scenario is where you are standing next to the accelerator while it is running. This could happen if you were hiding somewhere while a patrol is clearing the area or if they somehow agreed to leave you there. If it is a low energy accelerator like a TV set, you will experience nothing. If it is a high energy accelerator you will be irradiated and sooner or later die. If you survive, you will suffer from radiation sickness.
Lastly, if you somehow manage to put yourself in front of a particle beam like Anatoli Bugorski then a high energy beam will slice through you like a very fast and thin bullet. Depending where it hits you it may do a little damage or none.
Well, let's hope no one tries it at home :)
lol. Why will I stick my head to a particle accelerator?. Well I just ask myself a rhetorical question.😁. Thanks for giving us the information about the condition of the inside of the accelerator. It will be stupid enough for any one after knowing fully well the danger to still go ahead and put head in
Also I have been wondering why thousands of people will build such a facility and government of nations will contribute so much, but this post answer it here as I quote you @greenrun
Thanks for the information.I read from @lemouth post that plan is underway too to build another accelerator in China.
Thank you for coming around.
People who are accelerated with a capable accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider will speed it up to a speed close to the speed of light.
Because of the effect of special relativity, the time period experienced by people outside the machine will last only a few days for an accelerated person. By the time they get off the LHC trip, they will be younger than all of us. There is nothing we can offer to build the machine. But he described the ways time travel has taken place today.
For example, a particle called a pi meson is usually short; they are destroyed after a millionth of a second. But their compiles accelerated to nearly the speed of light, extending their lives dramatically. It appears that these particles will be used in time, or do it at a slower time with other particles (not accelerated).
Thanks a lot for that comprehensive reply.
Hmmm! What an experience. I will not visit one not to talk of stickking my head inside a particle accelerator.
A wonderful findings and insightful writeup @greenrun
It's perfectly safe to visit as you can see from above people that did go there some weeks back.
the first time i heard of a particle accelerator is in the movie series "the flash" but somehow, Barry Allen enters the accelerator.
how related is the particle accelerator to time travel?
The accelerator helps physicists to study the condition that the universe was during its early stage. So I think some may attribute it to some sort of "time travel" back to the future.
The first time I saw the post, I was lost because I couldn't even underdtand one bit what the post was talking about. You did justice to the post, I am tempted to call this a better remix version 😄
If I recall from my physics, speed of light is the fastest of all. Just wondering how this geniuses managers to create something that move as fast as that...i drop my cap for them.
This is really very interesting to me, from the way I see things here, one can actually not age with this effect..wao.
This is really an outstanding project. I say kudos to them
The speed is close to that of the speed of light. Thanks for dropping by.
Science and Technology is meant to make life easy for man,and never meant to destroy man. I guess anyone that put his head inside must have done that by mistake like the Russian scientist Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski. Besides,the precautionary measure there will prevent any one that is sick of this world to enter.
@greenrun, thanks for time you committed to this post which help me to see some physics happening inside the Large Hadron Collider.
There's security there, I doubt you'd even get the chance to do that even if you wanted to :)
Hahaha guy this your post is a killer post. I laughed out so loud while reading. But something really got me, the "vampire effect". I think people that wants to leave forever should try basking in a mild particle accelerator, if what happened to Anatoli is something to go with, then we might create a superman!!!
You also did a nice job in simplifying particle accelerator, @lemouth always explains it with words that scare me away😅😅
Your posts appeared four times. You can check and delete the others. Looks like the network is acting up your end. Just another normal day here :)
Thanks for your insightful comment.
Interesting at always @greenrun. I don't want to live forever with this face though. I would love to age like fine wine, thank you.
I see your work. You sure know how to create some quality post. Keep up the good job.
Oh you have visited my blog? That's so cool. I am glad you like the content @greenrun. Do come around once once, so I can use you to brag small. 😂
Oh yes.
Today you have answered a question I never knew I wanted to ask.
In other news, 😱😱😱!!!!!!!
Good to see I could do that :D
Amazing write up! Was obvioulsy not expecting any human to survive by putting his head in a particle accelerator, but mersmerised to know that 1 single proton can create that much damage in a human being when accelerated. Will look forward to more post from you..
That will be great to see you again. Thanks.
Now that is mind blowing ;p
:)
It's all about science,
You choose a great content. Thanks for your valuable post.
LHC research will lead us to infinite possibilities!