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The LHC

lackofcheeselackofcheese
edited September 2008 in Technology
So, this thread is for talking about the LHC.

I don't have particularly much to say about it, but I got a bit of amusement from this while looking on teh internets.
Levi R. Self's post was pure genius, I hope you can understand why ;)
I'll quote it:-
Posted by: Levi R. SelfPosted by: A NomThe probability of an event is a unitless real number in [0, 1].
The above posters are right.

Firstly, probability is no more a number than a square is a rhombus.

Secondly, the concept of "unitlessness" was invented (AFAIK) by some academic to scare students a long time ago and is not taken seriously by modern scientists. I first heard of it in an early lecture in my college physics class and decided to drop it (the lecturer's accent was also really bad). Even more strange, I logged onto OpenCourseWare and Walter Lewin talked about it as well! I had heard that MIT was a good school, but I am now teaching myself physics from better books such as the Emperor's New Mind.

One example often given is angle, but clearly angles can have units of radians or degrees (among others).

Also, A Nom claims that probabilities have to be either 0 or 1. I hope anyone reading this can reflect for a moment on why this can't be true. (Hint: there would only be two probabilities!) So I don't see why anyone would take him seriously, as he is undoubtedly a troll.
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Comments

  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    That's a stupid bet to agree with. If you win, you aren't going to be around to collect your winnings.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited September 2008
    Yeah, that was said by the challenger and the first post on that page.

    Incidientally, from this blog:
    I can't help hoping that the real point of the Large Hadron Collider experiment really is to risk creating a black hole that will consume all of creation, just to force god/aliens/etc to show their hand by turning up and putting a stop to it.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • RymRym
    Always bet the world won't end, and you'll always win.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited September 2008
    That depends on the specific definition of "the world" used.
    If humanity expands to multiple planets, the destruction of the Earth (which is generally what "the world" means) may then be conducive to winning of bets.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • BlattusBlattus
    Also amusing.
  • J.SharpJ.Sharp
    They're waiting for you Gordon.

    In the test chamber.
  • NuriNuri
    My LHC laugh for the day: Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?
  • ......
    edited September 2008
    My LHC laugh for the day:Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?
    <!-- if the lhc actually destroys the earth & this page isn't yet updated
    please email mike@frantic.org to receive a full refund -->    I laughed. Awesome site, thanks Nuri.
    Post edited by ... on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Yeah, that was pretty good.
  • VigaViga
    That was cool. I saw another version too.
  • MrRobotoMrRoboto
    Well, I got my crowbar, it's a shame I didn't go to MIT...
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    All you need is advanced button pushing and see-saw physics.
  • ChurbaChurba
    They're waiting for you Gordon.

    In the test chamber.
    Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNN!
  • AprecheApreche
    edited September 2008
    They're waiting for you Gordon.

    In the test chamber.
    Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNN!
    Ok, that's like the 20th time I've seen this picture today. What I wonder is if that bearded scientist has seen it, and if he gets the joke.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • LusankyaLusankya
    They're waiting for you Gordon.

    In the test chamber.
    Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNN!
    Ok, that's like the 20th time I've seen this picture today. What I wonder is if that bearded scientist has seen it, and if he gets the joke.
    If you haven't noticed, Black Mesa has no truly reflective surfaces. He probably doesn't even know what his own face looks like.
  • WalkerWalker
    edited September 2008
    Always bet the world won't end, and you'll always win.
    Even if you don't win, it won't matter anyway. The world will be gone, and with it all worries associated with it's demise.

    Also, the LHC rap.

    Post edited by Walker on
  • VigaViga
    Wow...I did not see an old an school style rap coming from this.
  • VhdbloodVhdblood
    edited September 2008
    I win.

    image
    Post edited by Vhdblood on
  • LusankyaLusankya
    image
    Posted By: Vhdbloodimage
    Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman...

    Rise and shine...
  • ChurbaChurba
    To be honest, I would have been more amused if there was someone on the project that looked like Ryu from Street Fighter.
  • Mr. XMr. X
    Some people from hawaii were trying to sue to stop the project. Here's an article about it.

    Cern to Morons


    My favorite line from the this has to be: "It may "create unsafe conditions of physics" which may have disastrous effects."
  • YoshoKatanaYoshoKatana
    Both the rap and the Half Life tie-ins are awesome.
  • KeiyaKeiya
    Fear not, Reddit has a plan.
  • JasonJason
    Every creationist should be required to watch the rap. It perfectly explains in simple terms how we know what we know about the Big Bang, and why we don't know what we don't know about the Big Bang. It also describes the very soul of the scientific process -- if something doesn't match your expectations, test it and be ready to admit you were wrong if the experiment proves you were wrong.
  • AprecheApreche
    edited September 2008
    Every creationist should be required to watch the rap. It perfectly explains in simple terms how we know what we know about the Big Bang, and why we don't know what we don't know about the Big Bang. It also describes the very soul of the scientific process -- if something doesn't match your expectations, test it and be ready to admit you were wrong if the experiment proves you were wrong.
    You're exactly right, except for one thing. The rap does explain it in very simple terms. However, even those simple terms are not simple enough. These people are that stupid. If they were smart enough to understand the rap, they wouldn't be creationists in the first place. I submit as evidence the guy from the other thread who didn't know the meaning of the word "conceive".
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • JasonJason
    I submit as evidence the guy from the other thread who didn't know the meaning of the word "conceive".
    He was the very gentleman of whom I was thinking while posting. I hope he's off somewhere reading a book.
  • VhdbloodVhdblood
    I submit as evidence the guy from the other thread who didn't know the meaning of the word "conceive".
    He was the very gentleman of whom I was thinking while posting. I hope he's off somewhere reading a book.
    He's probably reading the bible.
  • JasonJason
    I hope he's off somewhere reading a biblia.
  • Dr. TimoDr. Timo
    So, I am a particle physicist. I worked for two summers at CERN when the LEP was still running. I'm doing a PhD in particle physics phenomenology with Supersymmetry (SUSY) as my subject. SUSY is one of the main developments in particle physics that we hope to find at the LHC. Although I don't visit CERN anymore, and am not an experimentalist, I know a lot about the machine, how it works and why we're building it.

    I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

    And to start of: No I do not know any of the guys in the picture (which is of the ceremonial "screwing of the last bolt").
  • ......
    Spy sappin' our LHC!
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