LHC Hits an Energy of 3.5TeV

Inovaovao writes "As announced on Twitter by the CMS experiment, the LHC has finally accelerated both beams to 3.5 TeV for the first time. It thus broke the previous energy record of 1.18 TeV it had set last fall, about a month since operations started again this year. It'll be a while yet before we see stable beams and collisions at 3.5 TeV. You won't get much of a clue to the timetable by reading the General Manager's pompous announcements. If you want to follow what's going on, look at the Status Ops."

Comments

If both beams are 3.5 TeV

[Low Ranked Craig]

Does that make the collision 7 TeV? Serious question - I'm not sure I completely understand the physics. OK. I almost completely don't understand them. I have read that the LHC produced collisions of 14TeV, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronvolt and that the most energetic cosmic rays are 10^8 TeV. If all that it true, doesn't it completely and totally kill the whole "LHC will destroy the world" bullshit?

Re:If both beams are 3.5 TeV

[amRadioHed]

I highly doubt you'd feel an impact with a single particle regardless of it's momentum. It would just blow right through you like an X-Ray or gamma ray without you knowing, but potentially damaging some DNA on its way.