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ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

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Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#101

Post by sdsd »

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #57
omnee wrote: post #42

The relevant part: "The ALICE analysis shows that, during Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018), about 86 billion gold nuclei were created at the four major experiments. In terms of mass, this corresponds to just 29 picograms (2.9 ×10-11 g)." Just need to scale it by trillions to make 1 ounce, but transmutation of lead to gold - the dream of many alchemists - is now just a by product of particle accelerators.

Ran the numbers. The LHC would break even if the price of gold was $48 trillion trillion per ounce.

On the other hand, it's only doing this accidentally, right? It could probably be optimized further if the goal were just transmutation. Who knows, maybe we could get all the way down to only 10 trillion per ounce! /s

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#102

Post by rad_gruchalski »

bee_rider wrote: post #95
Antipode wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the coin bite was just to check that it left an indentation. How would you use it to differentiate gold from lead? They're both soft.

I found a little discussion on the topic: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8810/is-biting-... They found a paper which apparently (I didn’t dig into their sources) says: > concludes that the coin biting is most probably a cliche in literature and movies. > The manuscript points out that there are many references to coin biting form early 20th century but not from older (contemporary to the setting) source…

But my original write up makes fora good story ;)

Apparently alchemists thought of gold to be a noble pure metal while lead was thought to be an immature version of gold that could be purified into the noble version of gold.

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#103

Post by hinkley »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #7

29 picograms. Just need to scale it by 1000000000000x to get a money printer.

It’s not even 29 picograms. It’s zero:

> Gold nuclei emerge from the collision with very high energy and hit the LHC beam pipe or collimators at various points downstream, where they immediately fragment into single protons, neutrons and other particles. The gold exists for just a tiny fraction of a second.

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#104

Post by orsenthil »

subscribed wrote: post #10
DrScientist wrote: post #5

It does make you wonder whether the physicists obsession [1] of turning base metals into gold - is the real reason for the LHC :-) [1] Newton famously spent around 30 years of his life on alchemy ( the other stuff were really side projects )

No, this is fun. It was long known it can be achieved, but it's prohibitively expensive :)

> It was long known it can be achieved, but it's prohibitively expensive :)

Really? I thought, it was one of the Newton's doom which couldn't be achieved.

When did humanity know alchemy is a real science?

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#105

Post by bee_rider »

SoftTalker wrote: post #70
jrvieira wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, alchemists didn't know about protons

Yes they were closer to thinking that everything was fundamentally made from earth, wind, fire, and water.

Electrons=Water

Photons=Wind

Neutrons=Earth

Protons=Fire

Clearly gold is just lead with a little bit of extra elemental fire, I mean, look at the colors.

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#107

Post by banku_brougham »

ozornin wrote: post #85
omnee wrote: post #42

The relevant part: "The ALICE analysis shows that, during Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018), about 86 billion gold nuclei were created at the four major experiments. In terms of mass, this corresponds to just 29 picograms (2.9 ×10-11 g)." Just need to scale it by trillions to make 1 ounce, but transmutation of lead to gold - the dream of many alchemists - is now just a by product of particle accelerators.

Profitability is just a matter of time. Uber was not profitable for years, too. Just wait until the economy of scale kicks in. Alchemy is here to stay. Element conversion is only getting started!

Dont forget network effects and bandwidth. Once there is an AI MCP the share price will blast off.

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#108

Post by olalonde »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #16
DrScientist wrote: post #5

It does make you wonder whether the physicists obsession [1] of turning base metals into gold - is the real reason for the LHC :-) [1] Newton famously spent around 30 years of his life on alchemy ( the other stuff were really side projects )

If you’re worried about your funding getting cut, transmuting lead into gold is one way to get around that.

The one trick VCs don"t want you to know...

Re: ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

#110

Post by bee_rider »

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #102
bee_rider wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found a little discussion on the topic: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8810/is-biting-... They found a paper which apparently (I didn’t dig into their sources) says: > concludes that the coin biting is most probably a cliche in literature and movies. > The manuscript points out that there are many references to coin biting form early 20th century but not from older (contemporary to the setting) source…

But my original write up makes fora good story ;) Apparently alchemists thought of gold to be a noble pure metal while lead was thought to be an immature version of gold that could be purified into the noble version of gold.

Hey, I think it is plausible enough!
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