Smashing atoms

[herme3]

I have read that subatomic particles are made up of a type of quantum foam. I read that there is enough energy in the foam of one atom to instantly boil every ocean on Earth. Scientists are now building particle accelerators and smashing atoms together. Doesn't it seem careless to smash atoms together? Wouldn't this take a chance of releasing huge amounts of energy that could destroy the world?

[5614]

i think that the scientists who design particle accelerators are sure of their capability and that the world is not at risk.

 

beside, if it could happen it probably would have happened already.

[Klaynos]

It is VERY VERY difficult to convert all of an atoms mass energy to other forms of energy, the best we can do is fusion reactions which is a few tens of MeV, which is obiviousey 10000000 times stronger than a chemical reaction but still not earth destruction power.

 

Anyone can work out the total energy of a stationary atom using:

 

E=m0c^2

 

For a moving particle you have to take relativistic effects into account

 

E=(gamma) m0 c^2

 

Where gamma is 1/(1-(v/c)^2)

 

Mass (m0) in kilograms, c = 3*10^8ms^-1, and v in ms^-1

 

Work it out with an electron moving at 0.9c ms^-1...

[swansont]

It is VERY VERY difficult to convert all of an atoms mass energy to other forms of energy' date=' the best we can do is fusion reactions which is a few tens of MeV, which is obiviousey 10000000 times stronger than a chemical reaction but still not earth destruction power.

[/quote']

 

From an efficiency standpoint, the best we can do is matter/antimatter annihilation, which converts 100% of the mass. Proton/antiproton annihilation would convert almost 2 GeV per reaction.

 

Now, I admit getting ahold of a pile of antiprotons is a bit of an obstacle...

[swansont]

I have read that subatomic particles are made up of a type of quantum foam. I read that there is enough energy in the foam of one atom to instantly boil every ocean on Earth. Scientists are now building particle accelerators and smashing atoms together. Doesn't it seem careless to smash atoms together? Wouldn't this take a chance of releasing huge amounts of energy that could destroy the world?

 

The quantum foam is related to zero-point energy. Nobody doing accelerator experiments is worried about it, because there's no known way to tap into it. It's an artifact of the QM solution to the harmonic oscillator, and basically there's a remainder that's infinitely large.

 

You think of the universe as a large box, and solve the "particle in a box" for the EM vibrational modes. Each mode has an energy of (n+1/2)hbar*w, so even if there are no photons per mode, there's this (1/2)hbar*w of energy, for an infinite number of modes. But there's no known way to access it. You can decrease it, which gives the Casimir force, but energy is unsurprisingly conserved in that situation.

[Klaynos]

From an efficiency standpoint' date=' the best we can do is matter/antimatter annihilation, which converts 100% of the mass. Proton/antiproton annihilation would convert almost 2 GeV per reaction.

 

Now, I admit getting ahold of a pile of antiprotons is a bit of an obstacle...[/quote']

 

Oh yeah annihillation sliped my mind for a moment *sigh* too early in the afternoon for this thinking business....