Do Protons Colliding at the Large Hadron Collider make a Sound?
R
Ramona / NTi Audio
hat ein Thema begonnen
fast 4 Jahre her
While the machinery and electronics that perform the experiments make plenty of acoustic noise, the actual particles do not: the collisions happen in a vacuum. No air, no sound.
Despite the lack of sound, what is happening there is incredible:
In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in Geneva, Switzerland, at CERN, over 3000 scientists from around the world are pushing the limits of technology; seeking answers to fundamental questions; trying to discover what is the nature of our universe and what is it made of?
In one of the experiments, the ATLAS Experiment, 120 billion protons are extracted from hydrogen, and formed into 30cm-long packages. These packages are accelerated simultaneously in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction around a 27km long, 5cm diameter tube to almost the speed of light. The tube is 100 meters underground, in almost a vacuum, and at almost zero Kelvin. The packages pass each other more than 11000 times per second, and on each passing, only about 30 proton collisions happen.
It is said that a collision is as likely as two needle-thin arrows hitting point-on from bows 10 km apart… silently.
Ramona / NTi Audio
While the machinery and electronics that perform the experiments make plenty of acoustic noise, the actual particles do not: the collisions happen in a vacuum. No air, no sound.
Despite the lack of sound, what is happening there is incredible:
In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in Geneva, Switzerland, at CERN, over 3000 scientists from around the world are pushing the limits of technology; seeking answers to fundamental questions; trying to discover what is the nature of our universe and what is it made of?
In one of the experiments, the ATLAS Experiment, 120 billion protons are extracted from hydrogen, and formed into 30cm-long packages. These packages are accelerated simultaneously in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction around a 27km long, 5cm diameter tube to almost the speed of light. The tube is 100 meters underground, in almost a vacuum, and at almost zero Kelvin. The packages pass each other more than 11000 times per second, and on each passing, only about 30 proton collisions happen.
It is said that a collision is as likely as two needle-thin arrows hitting point-on from bows 10 km apart… silently.
Read more about the result of the collisions here:
CERN Website - facts and figures