grodscorp@grods.comRap science
 | Posted by Scott on Monday 11 August 2008, 6:38 pm Categories: Science, Technology, The Internet Tags: Tags: CERN, LargeHadronCollider, rap |
Science nerds around the world are currently wetting their pants over the imminent first tests of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Here’s how Wikipedia explains exactly what a LHC does.
The collider tunnel contains two adjacent beam pipes, each containing a proton beam (a proton is one type of hadron). The two beams travel in opposite directions around the ring. Some 1232 bending magnets keep the beams on their circular path, while an additional 392 focusing magnets are used to keep the beams focused, in order to maximize the chances of interaction between the particles in the four intersection points, where the two beams will cross. In total, over 1600 superconducting magnets are installed, with most weighing over 27 tonnes. Approximately 96 tonnes of liquid helium is needed to keep the magnets at the operating temperature, making the LHC the largest cryogenic facility in the world at liquid helium temperature[10].
The protons will each have an energy of 7 TeV, giving a total collision energy of 14 TeV. It will take less than 90 microseconds for a proton to travel once around the main ring. Rather than continuous beams, the protons will be “bunched” together, into 2,808 bunches, so that interactions between the two beams will take place at discrete intervals never shorter than 25 ns apart. When the collider is first commissioned, it will be operated with fewer bunches, to give a bunch crossing interval of 75 ns. The number of bunches will later be increased to give a final bunch crossing interval of 25 ns.
Geddit? No? Well, here is the LHC in a hip hop nutshell.
(Cheers, Romany!)
