Perhaps someone can explain this to this ignorant layman . . .
at the speed of light . . . mass would be in the direction of infinite, right????
So, why wouldn’t the earth start trying to keep that ‘toward infinite’ speck of mass as it’s new center of rotation?
I assume the answer would relate somewhat to the briefness of the flash . . .
however,
it seems to this ignorant layman that even a super brief flash of super massive anything would have some repercussions to the earth’s rotation or wobble or some such????
The mass of a proton at 7 TeV is about 7,460 times the mass of the proton at rest. My guess is that the mass of particles being brought up to speed is on the order of grams per day, maybe pounds. I don't know how much "rest mass" is involved in each collision, but this "supermassive" event is probably like banging a pair of 1 pound weights together, at most. Hardly enough to affect the earth's rotation.
LHC machine outreach FAQ has the "energy to mass" calculation.
The mass of a proton at 7 TeV is about 7,460 times the mass of the proton at rest. My guess is that the mass of particles being brought up to speed is on the order of grams per day, maybe pounds. I don't know how much "rest mass" is involved in each collision, but this "supermassive" event is probably like banging a pair of 1 pound weights together, at most. Hardly enough to affect the earth's rotation.
LHC machine outreach FAQ has the "energy to mass" calculation.
At 7 Tev, mass of 1 proton = Energy/c^2 = 1.2477^-23 Kg
The article notes 20 billion protons, which is unfortunately ambiguous, because a billion US is a thousand million, or 10^9, and in the UK is a million million, or 10^12. Erring on the "heavy" side, use the UK version of billion, each packet has 20*10^12 protons. The number of protons, times the mass of each proton, gives a packet with a mass of about 25*10^-11 Kg, or 25*10^-8 gram.
That's a quarter of a microgram, a quarter of a millionth of a gram, AT SPEED. Rest mass is 1/7,460th of that.
Nevermind that no way do all of the protons collide, only a minute fraction of the 20 billion are involved in collisions, most fly by in near-hit incidents. And too, perhaps the "billion" in the article means 10^9, which results in reducing the mass of the collision by a factor of 1,000.
Even at speed, the mass of material involved in collisions is minute. 0.000 000 250 grams