Short explanation is that a black hole that contains the mass of a few atoms has only the gravitational strength of a few atoms. Gravity's effect at distance diminishes in the same way that audio volume does, as the inverse of the square. If you move twice as far away from the source, the strength of the gravity (or sound, or light) is only one-fourth as strong as it was, if you move four times as far away, the strength of the gravity is only one-sixteenth as strong as it was, eight times as far, one sixty-fourth as strong, and so forth. Thus, a black hole with the mass of a few atoms has a diameter of maybe a trillionth of an inch and the gravitational effects just a thousandth of an inch away from it are so miniscule as to be virtually impossible to measure. That's why there's no threat to us. The LHC may not have had much mention in the commercial media, but us astronomy and physics geeks have been sporting nerd wood for years over it. And curiously enough, the Moon is the result of another planet about the size of Mars arc-welding itself to the infant Earth soon after it was formed, so it wouldn't be the first time!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 5:13 AM
Subject: RE: [newmellotrongroup] OT. Large Hadron Collider- er, you WHAT?
No offence taken, Jon. My knowledge of the state of the union as far as the contemporary physics research infrastructure goes is scanty and casually acquired.
No problem at all, m'dear. I just panic when the words 'cosmic catastrophe' appear in an overview of something of this scale. As one does.
The wierd part is that something of this scale isn't regarded as sufficiently newsworthy to be absolutely ubiquitous common knowledge given the sheer magnitude of the gear.
I only found out about the existence of the place yesterday.
I'm not normally given to technophobia by the way. Maybe there's too much Robert Anton Wilson in my head instead of original thought.
..although I really hope we don't end up arc-welding ourselves to the Moon. It would make a rich footnote in some other culture's sci-fi film.
(alien Galactic History student) 'So what happened to them?'
(Galactic History Professor) ' Well, they accidently invented the first really effective Fusion Drive.'
' So, what went wrong?'
'They rammed Mars'
Love & Scones
(fingers crossed, eh?)
x
msw
________________________________
> To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
> From: jonesalley@cox.net
> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 09:18:56 -0500
> Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] OT. Large Hadron Collider- er, you WHAT?
>
>
> ----Please don't take this wrong because it really isn't meant to be a shot, but if you're feeling uneasy, it means that you don't understand black holes. Microscopic black holes carry no threat to the Earth or to you.
>
>
>
> I was just wondering if it was actually 'clever' or 'safe' to build a machine 30 miles long that is
> actually expected to
>
> create black holes.
>
>
> in Switzerland, Earth.
>
>
> Why do I have a REALLY uneasy feeling about this?
>
>
>
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