4 ms·

I wonder what impact on eg human body such particle would have. would it just go through or boil some cells? could someone unlucky hit by such particle just dro

I wonder what impact on eg human body such particle would have. would it just go through or boil some cells? could someone unlucky hit by such particle just drop dead?

pletnes 3y ago
Probably pass through while generating secondary radiation also powerful enough to leave the body. Nothing you’d notice. Might cause cancer but so could other cosmic rays or radioactive rocks you encounter day to day.
nine_k 3y ago
The particle won't dissipate all its energy inside the body, so likely it won't even hurt you noticeably. It it hit you eye though you'd likely see a very bright flash. 50 J is about as much as an airsoft gun pellet carries; not going to hurt you even if it manages to dump all its energy on your body.
- closewith 3y ago
  Airsoft is typically ~1 J. Even the most powerful are below 5 J. 50 J is enough to hunt small pests in an air rifle. Easily enough to injure or blind a human.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
jfengel 3y ago
You wouldn't notice it. The energy is sufficient, but the momentum is too small. Energy goes up with square of velocity and momentum just linearly, so this particle gets more of its energy from velocity and less from mass compared to a macroscopic object. The result is lowish momentum. It probably hits a water molecule and the heat is quickly dissipated. You don't recoil because the momentum is small. It might kill a few cells, but far smaller than the ordinary cycle of life. So any effect is swamped.
simne 3y ago
Most impressive about nuclear physics, is knowledge, that in classic rigid matter exists huge-huge emptiness - atom core is just about 1/100,000 of volume of atom. And this emptiness is so huge, that to make safety blanket against cosmic particles for interstellar flights (on current level of radiology medicine), need few METERS of solid shield, or hundred KILOmeters of atmosphere. Second important consideration, nuclear fission reactions are very slow if compare to speed of light, this is why possible nuclear bomb, as if cores explode immediately, all nuclear fuel will be just fly out and not react. So, high probability, if SINGLE high energy particle will intersect human body, will nothing happen, this particle will just fly right through body without any visible effects. But even if particle will be so fortunate to directly hit some core in human body, according to rule of impulse saving, this core will also got very high speed and will fly out of body before fission appear (when high energy particles hit core of air at high altitude, they have some time to fission, so on surface usually detected traces of fission).

I wonder what impact on eg human body such particle would have. would it just go through or boil some cells? could someone unlucky hit by such particle just drop dead?

pletnes 3y ago

Probably pass through while generating secondary radiation also powerful enough to leave the body. Nothing you’d notice. Might cause cancer but so could other cosmic rays or radioactive rocks you encounter day to day.

nine_k 3y ago

The particle won't dissipate all its energy inside the body, so likely it won't even hurt you noticeably. It it hit you eye though you'd likely see a very bright flash. 50 J is about as much as an airsoft gun pellet carries; not going to hurt you even if it manages to dump all its energy on your body.

closewith 3y ago
Airsoft is typically ~1 J. Even the most powerful are below 5 J. 50 J is enough to hunt small pests in an air rifle. Easily enough to injure or blind a human.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

jfengel 3y ago

You wouldn't notice it. The energy is sufficient, but the momentum is too small. Energy goes up with square of velocity and momentum just linearly, so this particle gets more of its energy from velocity and less from mass compared to a macroscopic object. The result is lowish momentum. It probably hits a water molecule and the heat is quickly dissipated. You don't recoil because the momentum is small. It might kill a few cells, but far smaller than the ordinary cycle of life. So any effect is swamped.

simne 3y ago

Most impressive about nuclear physics, is knowledge, that in classic rigid matter exists huge-huge emptiness - atom core is just about 1/100,000 of volume of atom. And this emptiness is so huge, that to make safety blanket against cosmic particles for interstellar flights (on current level of radiology medicine), need few METERS of solid shield, or hundred KILOmeters of atmosphere. Second important consideration, nuclear fission reactions are very slow if compare to speed of light, this is why possible nuclear bomb, as if cores explode immediately, all nuclear fuel will be just fly out and not react. So, high probability, if SINGLE high energy particle will intersect human body, will nothing happen, this particle will just fly right through body without any visible effects. But even if particle will be so fortunate to directly hit some core in human body, according to rule of impulse saving, this core will also got very high speed and will fly out of body before fission appear (when high energy particles hit core of air at high altitude, they have some time to fission, so on surface usually detected traces of fission).