Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Transporting a 15-Meter-Wide, 600-Ton Magnet Cross Country

Posted by Soulskill on from the will-take-a-lot-of-stamps dept.

necro81 writes "Although its Tevatron particle accelerator has gone dark, Fermi Laboratory outside Chicago is still doing physics. A new experiment, called muon g-2 will investigate quantum mechanical behavior of the electron's heavier sibling: the muon. Fermi needs a large ring chamber to store the muons it produces and investigates, and it just so happens that Brookhaven National Laboratory outside NYC has one to spare. But how do you transport a delicate, 15-m diameter, 600-ton superconducting magnet halfway across the country? Very carefully."

5 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cross country? by icebike · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's an Idea, why not move the Scientists? Greyhound bus.

    Or telecommute?

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  2. No tilt.. so lets move it over the ocean? by boaworm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >> The trip will be tense, because the ring’s massive electromagnet cannot tilt or twist more than a few degrees, or the wiring inside will be irreparably damaged. It will float from New York Harbor in June, down the East Coast, around Florida, up the Gulf Coast and up the Mississippi River by July.

    That seems rather risky. Most ships would at one point or another tilt more than a few degrees to either side due to .. waves. No mention on if this is a gyro-stabilized barge perhaps...

    --
    Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
    Aristotele
  3. Re:It's not a magnet by hawguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I bet you suck dicks.

    I do, sometimes. Though I'm sure why that's relevant?

  4. Re:Saint Lawrence Seaway by istartedi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Due to the aforementioned tilting problem, the North Atlantic is a bad idea. Too many swells. Going south allows them to use the Intracoastal Waterways

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  5. I remember the old 16mm movies of the Hale mirror by Virtucon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember back in Elementary school watching the Hale telescope mirror movie. One of those old 16mm, rainy day, hell the teacher has to have a cigarette break flicks? Old black and white footage is available here: http://archive.org/details/capsca_00001

    Anyway, when they shipped the blank out to Caltech by Train it was put in a steel case. The Blank was then polished at Caltech to make the 200" mirror for the telescope and that was shipped via truck to Palomar Mountain. Anyway, they put it in a special casing for shipment and when they arrived at Palomar, they found bullet holes in the casing. Even back then, the local Luddites just wanted to spoil the fun. Anyway, my point is here that if they could ship a 200 inch mirror in the early part of the 20th century, they should be able to easily transport a 15mm magnet that's hollow in the middle.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"