| Author: | Stefano |
|---|---|
| category: | Physics |
How to stop a beam of protons traveling at 99.99 % of the speed of light and able to melt 500 kg of copper in less than a second ?
I've found this interesting article about how to dispose of the proton beam from the Large Hadron Collider. The amount of energy and the focus of the beam is so strong that any metal would melt. So they use graphite, a solid block of it, 8 meters long and almost one meter large, weighting almost 10 tons. Graphite has a very high melting temperature, making it a good choice for the task. Any other solution would either melt or instantly vaporize, leading to a catastrophic explosion.
As a consequence, the human head is not supposed to be used for the task. Despite this, a dramatic accident happened to Anatoli Bugorski, who happened to stick his head into a particle accelerator beam in 1978, and survived to tell the tale.