Beam

• Each proton beam at full intensity will consist of 2808 bunches per beam.
• Each bunch will contain 1.15×10¹¹ protons per bunch at the start of nominal fill.
• few cm. long
• with transverse dimensions of the order a mm, but in a collider as small as possible at the collision point (LHC - 16 microns fully squeezed)
• The particles in the LHC are ultra-relativistic and move at 0.999997828 times the speed of light at injection  and  0.999999991 the speed of light at top energy

Energy in beam

• Total beam energy at top energy, nominal beam, 362 MJ

2808 bunches * 1.15 10¹¹ protons @ 7 TeV each. = 2808*1.15*10¹¹*7*10¹²*1.602*10^-19 Joules = 362 MJ per beam

British aircraft carrier

HMS Illustrious and Invincible weigh 20,000 tons all-up and fighting which is 2 x 10⁷ kg. These are babies compared with the USS Harry S. Truman (Nimitz-class) - 88,000 tons. 

Energy of nominal LHC beam = 362 MJ or 3.62 x 10⁸ J

so 1/2 m v² = 0.5 * 2*10⁷ * v² = 3.62*10⁸
so v² is 36.2 and v is 6.0 m/s or 11.7 knots  (or around 5.6 knots if you're an American aircraft carrier)

(1 knot = 1.852 km/hour)

Subaru equivalent

Kerb weight   3140 kg plus a light person  3200 kg

1/2 m v² = 0.5 * 3200 * v² = 3.62*10⁸ gives  1712  kph 

Melting Copper

Melting point of copper: 1356 K - our magnets are at 2 K so the temperature rise needed is 1354 K

Specific heat capacity of copper: 385 Jkg^-1K^-1

Specific latent heat of fusion (energy required to convert a solid at its melting point into a liquid at the same temperature): 205000 Jkg-1

So to melt 1 kg of copper in the LHC we need (1354*385 + 205000) J

With one beam - 362 MJ - we can melt 362 10⁶/(1354*385 + 205000) kg = 498.4 kg of copper

So at nominal beam current the two LHC beams together could melt nearly one tonne of copper.

TGV

400 tons

0.5 * 400000 * v^2 = 3.62*10^8 therefore one beam = one TGV at around 150 km/h

TNT

The energy content of TNT is 4.68MJ/kg (Beveridge 1998).

362/4.68 = 77.4 kg of TNT

Tevatron (proton/anti-proton)

980 GeV beam energy - 36 bunches of 2.3 e11 protons (July 2006) gives an energy per beam around 1.3 MJ

LHC > 200 times this.