Re:CERN’s Large Hadron Collider achieves the hottest manmade...
by jessriedel on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @02:41PM
(#4382440)
The temperature at the LHC and RHIC are many orders of magnitude larger than at NIF. As aroberge mentions, temperature is roughly a measure of energy density. (Here, you should probably think of it as energy per particle rather than per spatial volume.)
NIF is applying a large amount of energy to a small but macroscopic amount of matter. The LHC and RHIC are colliding mere nuclei, so the amount of matter is roughly 22 orders of magnitude less. The LHC and RHIC collisions are vastly higher temperature (energy per particle) than NIF, but the total energy is vastly less.
NIF is applying a large amount of energy to a small but macroscopic amount of matter. The LHC and RHIC are colliding mere nuclei, so the amount of matter is roughly 22 orders of magnitude less. The LHC and RHIC collisions are vastly higher temperature (energy per particle) than NIF, but the total energy is vastly less.