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What Are Must-Sees For Open Day At the LHC?
ribasushi writes "The last open day at the Large Hadron Collider is one week away. While I have a solid chance to go, I am dumbstruck by the insane amount of things to see during the 10 hours of the event. Since I do not know all that much about physics, I am turning to the knowledgeable crowd here at Slashdot — what do you think are the most awesome 5 must-see things on the agenda next Sunday?"
xkcd
strangelets? Best if it get lose and suck in certain individuals...
Why not go see the black holes. You'll finally be able to answer the question of what's on the other side of one!
I drink to make other people interesting!
If you can see the Xener Diode assembly and the Flux Capacitor.
You have *got* to see the flux capacitors! I realize that you're a bit new to physics, but please press hard to see the flux capacitors. Your guide may laugh uneasily - just keep pressing and don't take "No" for an answer. You won't be sorry.
"Large Hadron Collider" I had to read that line several times.
You want fun, go home and buy a monkey!
I am turning to the knowledgeable crowd here at Slashdot ...
Hahahahaha.... What drugs are you using ?.... I want some of that...mine are not working as good....
The faceless, chittering beings who are magicked into existence through the wormholes that thing is going to open up. Maybe you can at least slow them down a little bit so the rest of us have a chance.
Have fun!
Make sure you know where to get one in case of an emergency.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
Please, don't move carts with odd-looking crystals in teleporting devices.
buying a "real piece of the LHC!" on a key-ring.
See if you can goad the physicists into destroying the universe by creating a black hole. You know you want to.
You should definitely go visit the on-staff botanists. There's no plants there, but they're on-staff because they're experts on physics (one of them even "discovered" a magnetic monopole!) and used their skill with identity theft to get themselves on-staff.
blog |
how about showing us some large hadrons colliding (and maybe a higgs boson), instead of having to wait until august of 2008? or better yet, wait until august 2008..could there be a better date for an open day, that they can actually show us what it can DO rather than just what we started building 10+ years and 2.6 billion francs ago.
I think the most valuable "things" you could see on your visit would be 5 physicists who actually do know enough about the subject to appreciate it, and who could maybe pass a smattering of that knowledge and appreciation on to you. Do not misunderstand me... the fact that you asked at all demonstrates that you value the experience and do not take it lightly. I know people who would give a lot to see what you will see.
Higgs Boson. They say it will appeat at LHC magically.
Ask them to put glow-on-dark condoms on them. Make sure post the pics back here.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
The LHC is just a tourist trap. It's like Times Square. You go thinking it's gonna be all fun, then you realize it's just a bunch of bright colors and earth eating black holes, and there's nothing to do there but shop for overpriced bosons you could've picked up for half price at a more nondescript collider.
The laws of probability forbid it!
.. Small Hard-on Collider
No, really.
People are suing trying to shut it down.
How about the Higgs boson?
1. Sneak out of line and Trigger a Resonance Cascade.
2. Use crowbar to pwn all opposing aliens and crates alike.
3. Turn the greatest scientific minds into mindless lever turning tools...
4. Follow the G-Man...
A valuable find indeed.
Standard slashdot response - no one follows the link,
which shows that it's a large open house event with many activities.
Anyhoo, the Atlas detector looked very cool in a magazine I read recently (National Geographic?).
Personally I'd also try to see one of the pulse power supplies that drives the LHC injector kicker magnets, because my father's team designed them.
http://www.triumf.ca/publications/pub/arch05/pp-05-19.pdf
Yes you can tell I'm proud of him!
Bavarian Purity Law of Rice Krispie Squares: Rice Krispies, Marshmallows, Butter, Vanilla.
The On switch/button :D
You can get the answer by repeatedly asking 'What does this button do?'
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
+2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
What should you see when you visit the LHC? Why not see what everyone else is hoping to see - the Higgs Boson!
If that doesn't work out, you can ask to see just about any other particle they make around there, there's certainly enough of them. But whatever you do, don't bring up Lexx...
Maybe I just have a sick mind, or maybe it's because I know nothing about the subject.. But I could have sworn the article was talking about "large hardons.." :-)
appleguru.org
Oh wait...We should be able to see those AFTER the thing is turned on.
If you get a chance, try to visit the caverns of either of the two main experiments (ATLAS or CMS). I saw CMS while it was still above ground (it was assembled there first, unlike ATLAS), and it was a sight to behold. ATLAS is probably even more impressive and maybe more convenient since it's at the main site. Aside from that, I'd try to get a peek at the computer center and take in some of the general lectures.
Have fun!
At the SLAC you can walk the length and they have an observation room exactly where the high speed particles will collide. You will want to see that part, where the sceintists will observe and whatever else you can learn. Hope to hear about your visit-maybe you'll see the Higgs or be able to visualize a magnetic field (like around when a lightning bolt strikes)-protected ofcourse! From the pictures, it must be an overwhelmingly awesome personal experience size-wise. (And a few days ago I was in awe seeing, again, how grand the Roman Statues are currently in the US on loan:))
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The builders of the world's biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/27/823924.aspx
Light's Hope Chapel?
I'm always amused by the idea of going and seeing scientific exhibits in person. Especially if you have no technical knowledge of them. I mean it's not like it really should be any better than just reading about it on wikipedia or the discovery channel but nevertheless I often find it rewarding.
So I've done a bit of thinking about this and my conclusion is that it's a combination of placebo effect and the presence of knowledgeable scientists who are good public speakers. In other words we could tell you any 5 things and so long as you really believed us it would make those worth seeing. True, it's not quite that simple. Some things simply provide more to stare at than others, but that's a large part of the effect.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
I'd say black holes, but you can't really see that can you? But you'll 'experience' it.
Go see the ATLAS detector. The detectors are one of the coolest parts at Fermi's accelerator imho.
Sad, but true. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider
If you have any interest at all in the detectors or accelerator, now's the time. Spend your time there; because, you won't be able to "tour" it later. Once it's been running the equipment will become activated (as in radioactive) and the public will no longer be able to tour the underground facilities. There will likely be physicists and technicians on hand who will be happy (excited even) to talk about what they've built.
you can always go back and look at the computer center, control rooms, or whatever at a future open house event (which I'm certain they'll have regularly, to keep the public interested).
For what it's worth, I worked as a technician at a U.S. DOE facility
"I visited the Large Hadron Collider and all I got was this radioactive T-Shirt"
Come for the groundbreaking experiments in high energy physics, stay for the wings and wet lab coat contests! Remember, Tuesdays are 'Name That Particle' night!
The energy of the beam is 725 MJ, and the magnetic field is 725 MJ. This is the same as 160kg and 2.5 tons of TNT.
I would recommend to be in the vicinity of the "beam dump" when the beam for on of about a million failsafe conditions is aimed there.
If nothing happens, you can probably induce a beamdump in any of a thousand ways. Use your imagination, or just look for big red buttons.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
I mean, Jeebus, anyone can see that it's large.
"Oh, excuse me, Dr. Physicist, I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me." Stupid physicists.
(Though perhaps it's that physicists contracted out to the folks who classify shrimp...next up, the "Jumbo Hadron.")
"Mmmm...Jumbo Hadrons"
ask for the keys and take it for a test collide!
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, try the fish!
Monstar L
you ask for advice on how to fill 10 hours at the Large Hadron Collider!
--Q
I hear the primary research assistant for the task, Gordon Freeman, will be at the event. Apparently he's the guy they picked to throw the switch that will start the collider. Make sure to take your camera!
(and a crowbar, just in case)
Since I work here.... I might give a few clues:
:-)
- before you do anything, check the Microcosm museum in the reception building. This one will explain a lot what's happening.
- this one is a must: be sure to make a trip to either the ATLAS or CMS cavern (those are the two bigger detectors attached to the LHC)
- the ATLAS control room
- the LHC control room
- the computing centre in the IT building
- and if you have time, stop by for a tea in building 40
I took part in their summer student programme last year and during that time we've been visiting all of the places that you can go visit now during the open day. My recommendations are: ...
..." - it's somewhere in building 2 if I remember correctly.
If you're interested in detectors you have enough time to visit at least two of the four major experiments. CMS is a bit far away, it takes you some 20 minutes by bus to go there, ALICE and LHCb are closer and ATLAS is just across the road opposite the main entrance. I would recommend ALICE and ATLAS - ATLAS is, just like CMS, a multi-purpose detector looking for everything that's interesting in the unknown lands of energies accessible at the LHC whereas ALICE aims to study quark-gluon plasma produced in the collisions of heavy nuclei. Make sure to visit ATLAS last - if you thought the other detectors were huge ATLAS will blow you away!
Don't count on it that you get a peak inside the actual LHC tunnel while you are visiting the detectors. I don't know why but all of our guides were quite reluctant to just pull back the curtains so that we could have a look. Maybe there's a designated visit during the open day
For lunch go to restaurant 1 and enjoy the atmosphere there. It was one of our favourite places to hang out and have a fruit salad. It is always told that many ideas for experiments and theories first came up over a cup of coffee there, it's an exciting place and your chance to chat with some of the physicists there.
There's also a kind of graveyard for old parts of experiments close to the reception. I found the Gargamelle bubble chamber most impressive, a massive biest.
Last but not least try to visit the accelerator chain (LINAC, PS) - it's quite interesting to see the bottle containing the hydrogen that goes into the different accelerators and will eventually be accelerated to these mind-boggling energies.
Wherever you go and whatever you see, have a fun day at CERN - i sure envy you.
Kilian
PS: Oh, and it's always nice to see the sign saying: "In one of these offices Tim Berners Lee invented the internet
It's there on their home page. Later, if you read in the papers, that some experiment produced negative results, you let out a sinister laugh, while twirling the keyring with your pinky, and say out loud, Not without this you won't! Fools!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Ask loudly if it's true that "if it produces a black hole then we would all be dead before we know it?"
You might also ask if you could see a Hadron.
How sad that someone asks a questions about one of the coolest science projects in the world and the Slashdot community only wants to vote up the "Funny" replies. Poor form. Stop being so guarded and show us your geek. Seriously, how could you miss: "The levitating scooter, which will take volunteers for a ride suspended in the air" http://lhc2008.web.cern.ch/LHC2008/OpenDaysE/super.html
"I went to the LHC and all I got was a third arm, a tail, six sets of testicles and radiation poisoning!"
Karma: Bad. (As in Good?)
I would say you have to see ATLAS, it is simply awe inspiring and of course get the Higgs event T-Shirt which I hope is not radioactive.
Christmas Jones. I've been told she works there?
Is that once they switch it on, you don't have to be there to see what it does...
Task Mangler
Ask them if the big bang was caused by an experiment to discover the Higg's boson.
Ask them if this is the last chance to perform this experiment before physicists realize that it will cause a big bang and inflationary event which will recycle the present universe.
Ask them if this is the same experiment that was done 20 billion light years away and that put on a show called the Star of Bethlehem 2000 years ago.
Ask them if the only proof that they will cause a big bang is that there cannot be any proof until the experiment is performed. (See also 'The Hound of the Baskervilles')
Ask them if it is necessary to do the experiment because we've been doing it for infinity and if we don't the universe will fade away forever.
Ask them if we have to do it because if we don't some other nearby civilization will beat us to it and we'll eat their dust.
I'm a student here working on ATLAS (and I'll be one of the volunteers on the 6th) and I agree with the parent. The two big 'Must sees' are the detectors and the accelerators. The detectors are going to be much more impresive looking. That said, here's my $0.02
ATLAS (point1). This is the biggest detector (and my favorite, though I'm not biased or anything....) but it will also be the most crowded by far.
CMS (point5). Almost as big as ATLAS and still damn impressive. It won't be as crowded because it's a lot further away. It will still be packed though I'm sure.
ALICE (point2). Smaller detector for heavy ions. My guess is this will be pretty crowded to since St Genis is close to CERN
LHCb (point8). Another smaller detector for b quark physics. Between Ferney and Meyrin... no idea if people will go see it.
Those are the 4 detectors ranked (in my opinion) in order of coolness. I'd try to go see 2 of them if you can. Look up info on them online (they all have websites), find out which ones you want to visit. You should also try to see the accelerator somewhere. Point 6 would be my recomendation since the beam dump is also located there (this is where the beam is evacuated in case of emergency. When you realize the energy stored in the beam, this becomes pretty impressive).
Another thing I recomend is the acelerator chain tour (point1):
http://lhc2008.web.cern.ch/LHC2008/OpenDaysE/accelerators.html
There are a lot of other things open, but most of them you can still go and visit when the LHC is running (and the crowds aren't there). One last recomendation. I'd start out going to see things out on the ring, then come back to point1 (Meyrin) and explore it with all the rest of your time. That way you should be able to get the most out of it. See you Sunday!
You can see where peoples assets are being wasted on their behalf by whiny scientists who deserve to have a living at someone elses expense!
"oooh but "we" NEED blue sky research. Who knows what fabulous things we might discover!" Pay for it your self then you theiving socialist and get your hands out of my pockets.
[NSFW] http://synthesismagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/large_hardon_collider.jpg
It's all coming together, even (Dr.?) Kleiner will be there.
;)
http://lhc2008.web.cern.ch/LHC2008/OpenDaysE/point6.htmlhttp://lhc2008.web.cern.ch/LHC2008/OpenDaysE/point6.html
I say go for "LHC P1: Meyrin" which seems to include a visit of ATLAS. My opinion is ATLAS is a must-see. But don't go there is you have a pacemaker.
.oO0(?)
I thought a superconducting key ring would be a cool souvenir.
They don't sell it over the net.
So I tried eBay.
No luck, but there was some superconducting parafinelia for some $10K. So I asked
How much to ship to Iran
G
The CERN has a very nice cafeteria.
Also have a look at Mont Blanc, which you can see when you're in front of the LHC building. It's a very nice view.
Georg
because they bend the light via gravitational lensing. If a black hole is directly between you and a light source (like a distant galaxy) you see what's called an Einstein ring caused by the lensing.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
1.If you can still see ATLAS go and see it and get a sense of the size of the experiment chambers.
2.Look down the Hole they lowered the equipment through.
3.Eat at Restaurant 2, the daily grill is awesome
4.Watch the road for fast campus vans and bikes
5.Go into the exhibit under the gift shop to learn about the LHC project.
Carry a crowbar.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
1. Ask where the armory is...If something goes horribly wrong..thats a KEY location. 2. Ask to Junction Box H3479-943. I made that up but would be cool if they had one. 3. Ask to see the hidden gun implacements. 4. Ask if it explodes what is the minimum safe distance. 4b. Ask where self Destruction button is? 5. FInd out what local towns or villages offer the best collection of heros to survive the resultant transdimensional crossover. (Local sports figures, children that are too cute die, stay away from sleazy girls and politicians.) 6. Finally ask where the gift shop is and do they have a minature working version.
Hello:
I am betting there will be no Higgs and no superpartners. When gravity is unified with EM as I have done, there will be no need for the Higgs boson, as mass itself does the job, thank you very much. Call my bluff, see my latest YouTube video with a nasty amount of math, deriving the good old Maxwell equations along with ones for gravity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9TUqUXGgpE
Doug
Working on new views of old physics at http://VisualPhysics.org
In the hall with the ring. Surface buildings can be accessed during operation (esp. if you have contacts or make contacts). The experimental control rooms
likewise. The interaction/detector halls and the ring will be harder to get into (locked during running; possibly hot and restricted afterward).
They have a destory the Earth/Universe button which is located right next to the Staples Easy button, Destroying the Earth, "That was Easy"!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
If they have a sense of humor over there, they probably have set up a few big red buttons at eye level for both children and adults. Unlabeled. And connected to loud, scary sirens.
While personally I'd be more interested in seeing the Oscillation Overthruster, the fnords, and the white hole that'll be created after they fire the thing up, I'd say than an article by somebody who's actually seen the LHC really does deserve some Mod Informative points.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Hi. I am a physics student. What I'd love
to see is the LHC control room.
At our department, we have a small particle accelerator in the basement.
The controls there is some sight. It's especially interesting
how the local physicists have made (sometimes rather homebrewn looking) equipment for the control computers
in order to control the beam of electrons. I wonder how it must look at the LHC.
Also, try to get a look at the place where they inject particles
into the ring.
I know that most think it extremely unlikely, but I for one would like some advance notice of when they are going to crank this thing up for real so that I can at least make sure I live the few days before that to the fullest.
Ever wondered what it would be like if they generated a large, non-disappearing black hole?
Would the world die?
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
I'm posting this from my phone so I apologize for being an AC, though I'd suggest focusing on helping them out in their upcoming lawsuit. I'm sure when it comes to separating fact from fiction they'll do fine, however they could certainly use some help on the pr side as the case (and future research) will likely depend heavily upon public opinion of the safety measures in place and the forknowledge of their research in terms of the newest breed of global warming hippy bs, I guess everyone freezing their asses off in spring made them decide to go with a topic the general public wouldn't know much about :)
But I fear it got annihilated by one of those pesky little black holes they make there.
Is Chuck Norris going to be there when they fire this thing up. Chuck is the only thing that can stop a black hole, because nothing sucks Chuck Norris but Chuck Norris.
It's an alien plot to infect us with a nano-parasite. Only the energies found in the ATLAS control room and the LHC control room are powerful enough to make it work.
Just say NO!
*grin*
I was looking for those numbers.