Taking a closer look at LHC
In this section we present some simple calculations in order to compare LHC energy with some more familiar situations. In the section Relativity a more detailed discussion about the energy in a collider (like LHC) can be found in relativistic terms.
How much energy are we talking about?
It doesn´t look like a lot of energy
For the ALICE experiment, each ion of Pb-208 reaches 1150/2 = 575 TeV.
So, the energy per nucleon is: 575/208 = 2,76 TeV
Let´s calculate the kinetic energy of an insect of 60 mg flying at 20 cm/s:
Ek = ½ m·v2 ⇒ Ek = ½ 6·10-5·0,2 2 ~ 7 TeV
That is, in LHC each proton will reach an energy similar to that of an annoying ... MOSQUITO!
|Maybe this comparison is not very convincing so let´s look at it from another point of view.
Let´s calculate the energy present in each bunch:
7 TeV/protón·1,15·1011 protons/bunch ~1,29·105 J/bunch
A powerful motorbike 150 kg travelling at 150 km/h_
Ek = ½ ·150 · 41,72 ~ 1,29·105 J
So if a bunch of protons collides with you the impact is similar to that produced by a powerful motorbike travelling at 150 km/h.
If you are lucky to avoid that "0,2 picogram motorbike", don´t worry, there are 2807 following it. And if you decide to change lanes, the equivalent is coming in the opposite direction.
|Another calculation which can show the enormous amount of energy reached is:
1,29·105 J / bunch x 2808 bunches ~ 360 MJ
-Stored beam energy-
| And that is equivalent to
77,4 kg of TNT
The energy content of TNT is 4.68MJ/kg (Beveridge 1998).
The Heat of Fusion of Gold is ΔHF = 63,71 kJ/kg and the Molar Heat Capacity is 25,42 J/mol·K
So, 360 MJ are enough to take 1500 kg of Gold from 25ºC to total fusion ⇒ 1,5 Tonnes of Gold.
Obviously such an amount of energy can not be supplied instantly. In fact the process lasts over 20 min through a chain of different accelerators.
Xabier Cid Vidal, PhD in experimental Particle Physics for Santiago University (USC). Research Fellow in experimental Particle Physics at CERN from January 2013 to Decembre 2015. Currently, he is in USC Particle Physics Department ("Ramon y Cajal", Spanish Postdoctoral Senior Grants).
Ramon Cid Manzano, secondary school Physics Teacher at IES de SAR (Santiago - Spain), and part-time Lecturer (Profesor Asociado) in Faculty of Education at the University of Santiago (Spain). He has a Degree in Physics and in Chemistry, and is PhD for Santiago University (USC).
CERN and the Environment
For the bibliography used when writing this Section please go to the References Section
© Xabier Cid Vidal & Ramon Cid - firstname.lastname@example.org | SANTIAGO (SPAIN) |