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Old 10-September-2008, 06:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pippin View Post
Funny I thought it was CERN's job to describe what would happen.
No, Pippin. If you find it necessary to be flippant and ridicule the scientists involved, it becomes your burden to show us why they deserve said ridicule.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pippin View Post
I was just having a laugh about it "burrowing" when that really means destroying all atoms and molecules in its path.
So how did you think the word was intended? That we should imagine a column of marching protons with axes slung over their shoulders? Or perhaps just as 'causing damage to the rock'?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pippin View Post
I do trust them enough to expect a safety cut off switch to trigger, or that any misalignment in of itself shuts down the ion flow.
To stop what ion flow? I remind you that the packets circle the entire ring thousands of times per second.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pippin View Post
My personal non-scientific expectation would be that at worst it would travel a few centimeters. Even at full strength there aren't that many ions in use in comparison to the atoms of the surrounding rock and comparable density.
How many protons? How much energy? How much impact can that have on rock?

Quote:
So even a significant time before shut off, say the emergency shut off isn't triggered and one of the scientists has to kill it manually, of 5 seconds or so maximum, shouldn't pose any serious danger to the public or planet.
What happens if there is no emergency shutoff available or if it fails, and the manual shutoff fails too?

Quote:
[..] to prevent us learning they could cut a hole through the planet!!!
Ah. So that is what you expect. Can you explain how that would work? How long would it take?
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