3 ms·

> The Oh-My-God particle had 10^20 (100 quintillion) times the photon energy of visible light, equivalent to a 142-gram (5 oz) baseball travelling at about 28 m

by klyrs 3y ago

> The Oh-My-God particle had 10^20 (100 quintillion) times the photon energy of visible light, equivalent to a 142-gram (5 oz) baseball travelling at about 28 m/s (100 km/h; 63 mph) For comparison a typical professional baseball pitch is around 90mph. At 63mph I guess it might not break your face, but it would certainly leave a bruise (if it was actually a baseball -- who knows what the actual particle would do to flesh and bone). I know people are pretty derisive about using swimming pools or whatever for measurement, but I think this one is pretty good for bringing incomprehensible numbers into the realm of lay-understanding.

orangea 3y ago
Note that such a baseball with the same energy as this particle would still have much more momentum than the particle. So getting hit by the particle wouldn't "leave a bruise".
rsiqueira 3y ago
Is this equivalent to a 14 gram bullet (10x less than your example) travelling at 1000 km/h (10x more than your example)? Or a 1,4 gram bullet at 10.000 km/h hitting you?
- klyrs 3y ago
  I don't think so, no. Kinetic energy grows with the square of velocity, and linearly with mass. So a 14g bullet travelling at 316km/h or a 1.4g bullet travelling at 1000km/h. But for what it's worth, I think most people have more experience catching baseballs than bullets (and I don't know how much bullets typically weigh or how fast they travel).
Gibbon1 3y ago
No idea about a particle like this one but, I've read that cosmic rays pass through flesh leaving a microscopic track of destruction[1]. However atomic collisions result in a shower of particles. And very high energy you get multiple showers. A problem if you're trying to shield people in space for a long time. You need enough shielding to stop the secondary showers of particles. [1] Extreme example from memory... meh google, In 1978 Soviet physics student Anatoli Bugorski got zapped by a proton beam which burned a track through his head. Recovered with damage, completed his PhD and is still alive.
- klyrs 3y ago
  Good point, wikipedia has a good description here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski > Reportedly, he saw a flash "brighter than a thousand suns" but did not feel any pain. He was hit with a 76GeV beam; this was a single particle with 320 billion GeV. I do wonder how many particles at 76GeV he was hit with. And yeah... damage. > The left half of Bugorski's face swelled up beyond recognition and, over the next several days, the skin started to peel, revealing the path that the proton beam had burned through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. As it was believed that he had received far in excess of a fatal dose of radiation, Bugorski was taken to a clinic in Moscow where the doctors could observe his expected demise. However, Bugorski survived, completed his PhD, and continued working as a particle physicist. There was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity, but the fatigue of mental work increased markedly. Bugorski completely lost hearing in the left ear, replaced by a form of tinnitus. The left half of his face was paralysed due to the destruction of nerves. He was able to function well, except for occasional complex partial seizures and rare tonic-clonic seizures. Yikes.

by klyrs 3y ago

orangea 3y ago

Note that such a baseball with the same energy as this particle would still have much more momentum than the particle. So getting hit by the particle wouldn't "leave a bruise".

rsiqueira 3y ago

Is this equivalent to a 14 gram bullet (10x less than your example) travelling at 1000 km/h (10x more than your example)? Or a 1,4 gram bullet at 10.000 km/h hitting you?

klyrs 3y ago
I don't think so, no. Kinetic energy grows with the square of velocity, and linearly with mass. So a 14g bullet travelling at 316km/h or a 1.4g bullet travelling at 1000km/h. But for what it's worth, I think most people have more experience catching baseballs than bullets (and I don't know how much bullets typically weigh or how fast they travel).

Gibbon1 3y ago

No idea about a particle like this one but, I've read that cosmic rays pass through flesh leaving a microscopic track of destruction[1]. However atomic collisions result in a shower of particles. And very high energy you get multiple showers. A problem if you're trying to shield people in space for a long time. You need enough shielding to stop the secondary showers of particles. [1] Extreme example from memory... meh google, In 1978 Soviet physics student Anatoli Bugorski got zapped by a proton beam which burned a track through his head. Recovered with damage, completed his PhD and is still alive.

klyrs 3y ago
Good point, wikipedia has a good description here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski > Reportedly, he saw a flash "brighter than a thousand suns" but did not feel any pain. He was hit with a 76GeV beam; this was a single particle with 320 billion GeV. I do wonder how many particles at 76GeV he was hit with. And yeah... damage. > The left half of Bugorski's face swelled up beyond recognition and, over the next several days, the skin started to peel, revealing the path that the proton beam had burned through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. As it was believed that he had received far in excess of a fatal dose of radiation, Bugorski was taken to a clinic in Moscow where the doctors could observe his expected demise. However, Bugorski survived, completed his PhD, and continued working as a particle physicist. There was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity, but the fatigue of mental work increased markedly. Bugorski completely lost hearing in the left ear, replaced by a form of tinnitus. The left half of his face was paralysed due to the destruction of nerves. He was able to function well, except for occasional complex partial seizures and rare tonic-clonic seizures. Yikes.