2012-11-28

LHC energy and momentum

Problem: The LHC delivers 8 TeV per particle in bunches of 1011 particles. What is the kinetic energy and momentum of a bunch, in SI units and then as compared to (a) a small-caliber bullet and (b) a Major-League baseball pitch?

I get that the bunch has far more kinetic energy than either a bullet or a baseball pitch, but far less momentum. A LHC particle bunch would burn you badly, but it wouldn't knock you down! Of course there are some 109 bunches per second, so you don't want to be hanging out in the beam line when it's running.