3 ms·

What would happen to someone if it hit their skin?

by csdrane 12y ago

zeroexzeroone 12y ago
They would become Starman.
- zeroexzeroone 12y ago
  this site is so full of pussies who dont get a joke
ctdonath 12y ago
"kinetic energy equal to that of ... a 5-ounce (142 g) baseball traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph)" Probably wouldn't notice a thing. You're mostly empty space (on a subatomic level), odds are it wouldn't hit anything, and would just release no more energy than getting hit by a baseball if it did. Sure it's a stunning amount of energy for such a small object, but not much on a human scale. Compare getting hit with a bullet: penetration is damaging only because of what it tears up in the process, when the energy involved (demonstrated by getting shot while wearing a bulletproof vest) is little more than a solid kick. A "hole" of subatomic width doesn't do much damage.
- vacri 12y ago
  Total energy is not the only factor in determining damage. The rapid movement of a bullet through flesh does extra damage due to the shockwave it creates. Similarly, if you drop a hard drive on carpet it's probably okay, but if you drop it on concrete, you're likely to have damaged it and even deformed the case, even though in both cases the total energy to stop the drive is the same.
- dredmorbius 12y ago
  The energy content is significant, but it would have to be both transferred and absorbed. As you note, odds of it interacting with some bit of you are relatively low. I disagree with your baseball comparison, as the result of the collision would be a cascade of secondary particles. Each of which would likely have only a small chance of interacting with yet another bit of you before exiting your body. The net result would be something like firing a cannonball (or bullet) at a series of bead curtains. Most of the time, the bullet would miss. Occasionally it might strike one or more beads. Those then would also mostly miss the other beads within the curtain, though some might strike and cause secondary effects. Most of the energy would simply transit the curtain system as a whole. Or maybe even at sheets of laced (punched-out) tissue paper. The target simply doesn't have the capability to absorb the energy of the particle. A more accurate answer would require some subatomic particle modeling, past my pay grade.
evan_ 12y ago
Virtually nothing, I think. I'm not a physicist but 7.5×10^14 eV converts to 120 microjoules. Wikipedia says that one Joule is the energy in a tennis ball moving at 23 km/h (14 mph). Another comparison I've heard is that a joule is about the energy in a strong handclap. This would be about a ten-thousandth of that. Wolfram Alpha also gives the helpful comparison "0.06 times the mechanical work done pressing a key on a keyboard" so if that helps? http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7.5%C3%9710%5E14+eV+to+joules http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7.5%C3%9710%5E14+eV+to+...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - evan_ 12y ago
    I was using the number given at the end of the article for available energy in a particle collision.
  - asdfologist 12y ago
    The article says the collision energy is only 7.5×10^14 eV.
- super_mario 12y ago
  Wikipedia actually says the kinetic energy of the particle is 50 Joules (3*10^20 eV) or equivalent to slightly over quarter pound ball (142 grams) traveling at about 100 km/h.
te_platt 12y ago
See the case of Anatoli Bugorski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski He put is head in a proton beam of a particle accelerator and survived. It wasn't pretty but he got hit by a lot more than one proton.
AceJohnny2 12y ago
Here's the story of one guy who's head was in the path of a proton particle beam: http://boingboing.net/2011/02/22/what-happens-when-yo-6.html http://boingboing.net/2011/02/22/what-happens-when-yo-6.html "The radiation absorbed by his head was in the region of 1000 gray. 5 gray worth of X-rays is generally considered fatal, but Bugorski survived and went on to complete his PhD (a proton beam moving near the speed of light has different characteristics from an X-ray!). The side of his face that was burned by the beam's exit has not visibly aged in the years since the accident. " Note that such a beam contains millions (or a few orders of magnitude more?) of protons. I can't say whether millions of protons with a millionth of the energy as this particle do more or less damage.
mattheww 12y ago
Close to nothing would happen. The relevant quantity to understand is the stopping power (usually referred to by us physicists as dE/dx). Stopping power drops significantly as energy of the charged particle increases. So for very large energies, very little of that energy is deposited over a given distance (in an absolute sense). This principle is how some radiation therapies work to treat cancer. Because the stopping power curve for protons is well understood, a proton beam can be tuned to deposit all of its energy is a fairly small area. Aside/Rant: this question clearly can be answered by someone with expertise in the field. So why did people feel the need to speculate about it instead of just waiting for someone who knows how to answer it?

What would happen to someone if it hit their skin?

by csdrane 12y ago

What would happen to someone if it hit their skin?

zeroexzeroone 12y ago

They would become Starman.

zeroexzeroone 12y ago
this site is so full of pussies who dont get a joke

ctdonath 12y ago

"kinetic energy equal to that of ... a 5-ounce (142 g) baseball traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph)" Probably wouldn't notice a thing. You're mostly empty space (on a subatomic level), odds are it wouldn't hit anything, and would just release no more energy than getting hit by a baseball if it did. Sure it's a stunning amount of energy for such a small object, but not much on a human scale. Compare getting hit with a bullet: penetration is damaging only because of what it tears up in the process, when the energy involved (demonstrated by getting shot while wearing a bulletproof vest) is little more than a solid kick. A "hole" of subatomic width doesn't do much damage.

vacri 12y ago
Total energy is not the only factor in determining damage. The rapid movement of a bullet through flesh does extra damage due to the shockwave it creates. Similarly, if you drop a hard drive on carpet it's probably okay, but if you drop it on concrete, you're likely to have damaged it and even deformed the case, even though in both cases the total energy to stop the drive is the same.
dredmorbius 12y ago
The energy content is significant, but it would have to be both transferred and absorbed. As you note, odds of it interacting with some bit of you are relatively low. I disagree with your baseball comparison, as the result of the collision would be a cascade of secondary particles. Each of which would likely have only a small chance of interacting with yet another bit of you before exiting your body. The net result would be something like firing a cannonball (or bullet) at a series of bead curtains. Most of the time, the bullet would miss. Occasionally it might strike one or more beads. Those then would also mostly miss the other beads within the curtain, though some might strike and cause secondary effects. Most of the energy would simply transit the curtain system as a whole. Or maybe even at sheets of laced (punched-out) tissue paper. The target simply doesn't have the capability to absorb the energy of the particle. A more accurate answer would require some subatomic particle modeling, past my pay grade.

evan_ 12y ago

Virtually nothing, I think. I'm not a physicist but 7.5×10^14 eV converts to 120 microjoules. Wikipedia says that one Joule is the energy in a tennis ball moving at 23 km/h (14 mph). Another comparison I've heard is that a joule is about the energy in a strong handclap. This would be about a ten-thousandth of that. Wolfram Alpha also gives the helpful comparison "0.06 times the mechanical work done pressing a key on a keyboard" so if that helps? http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7.5%C3%9710%5E14+eV+to+joules http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7.5%C3%9710%5E14+eV+to+...

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- evan_ 12y ago
  I was using the number given at the end of the article for available energy in a particle collision.
- asdfologist 12y ago
  The article says the collision energy is only 7.5×10^14 eV.
super_mario 12y ago
Wikipedia actually says the kinetic energy of the particle is 50 Joules (3*10^20 eV) or equivalent to slightly over quarter pound ball (142 grams) traveling at about 100 km/h.

te_platt 12y ago

See the case of Anatoli Bugorski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski He put is head in a proton beam of a particle accelerator and survived. It wasn't pretty but he got hit by a lot more than one proton.

AceJohnny2 12y ago

Here's the story of one guy who's head was in the path of a proton particle beam: http://boingboing.net/2011/02/22/what-happens-when-yo-6.html http://boingboing.net/2011/02/22/what-happens-when-yo-6.html "The radiation absorbed by his head was in the region of 1000 gray. 5 gray worth of X-rays is generally considered fatal, but Bugorski survived and went on to complete his PhD (a proton beam moving near the speed of light has different characteristics from an X-ray!). The side of his face that was burned by the beam's exit has not visibly aged in the years since the accident. " Note that such a beam contains millions (or a few orders of magnitude more?) of protons. I can't say whether millions of protons with a millionth of the energy as this particle do more or less damage.

mattheww 12y ago

Close to nothing would happen. The relevant quantity to understand is the stopping power (usually referred to by us physicists as dE/dx). Stopping power drops significantly as energy of the charged particle increases. So for very large energies, very little of that energy is deposited over a given distance (in an absolute sense). This principle is how some radiation therapies work to treat cancer. Because the stopping power curve for protons is well understood, a proton beam can be tuned to deposit all of its energy is a fairly small area. Aside/Rant: this question clearly can be answered by someone with expertise in the field. So why did people feel the need to speculate about it instead of just waiting for someone who knows how to answer it?