APOD: Hints of Higgs from the Large Hadron... (2011 Dec 18)

[Beyond]

Well, that's one way to remove the 'puff' from marshmallows. A better way, is with a stick and a fire

[neufer]

Well, that's one way to remove the 'puff' from marshmallows.

A better way, is with a stick and a fire

• Or a stick and an LHC proton beam.

<<The Proton pack, designed by Dr. Egon Spengler, is a man-portable particle accelerator system that is used to create a charged particle beam - composed of protons - that is fired by the proton gun. Described in the first movie as a "positron collider", it presumably functions by colliding high-energy positrons to generate its proton beam. The beam allows a ghostbuster to contain and hold "negatively charged ectoplasmic entities". This containment ability allows the wielder to position a ghost above a trap for capture. The doorman to the Mayor's mansion also uses the term proton pack as a toy for his little brother. Egon then replies that "A proton pack is not a toy."

While the Ghostbusters' dialogue indicates that the accelerator system operates similarly to a cyclotron (and indeed Dr. Peter Venkman refers to the proton packs in one scene as "unlicensed nuclear accelerators"), modern particle accelerators produce well collimated particle beams. This is far different from the beam from a proton pack, which tends to undulate wildly (though it still stays within the general area at which the user is aiming). The proton stream is quite destructive to physical objects, and can cause extensive property damage.

Each pack's energy cell has a half-life of 5,000 years. Knobs on the main stock of the Proton Pack can perform various functions to customize the proton stream, including adjustments for stream intensity, length, and degrees of polarization.

"There's something very important I forgot to tell you! Don't cross the streams… It would be bad… Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light." —Egon Spengler/Harold Ramis on crossing proton streams

Crossing the streams was initially discouraged, as Egon believed that "total protonic reversal" would occur: this effect would have catastrophic results. However, in a desperate effort to stop the powerful Gozer the Gozerian, Egon noted that the door to Gozer's temple "swings both ways" and that by crossing the streams, they may be able to create enough force to close the door on Gozer and its control. As the Ghostbusters cross the streams, the combination of that much energy closes the door to Gozer's dimension and severs its ties to our world. The resulting blast destroys a good portion of the roof and blows up the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.>>

[Beyond]

At least the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man went quick! It was better than being roasted over a fire and eaten.

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF][size=125]Samuel Johnson being roasted and beaten[/size][/color][/b]

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At least the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man went quick! It was better than being roasted over a fire and eaten.

<<He was sick and gout-ridden. With nobody to visit, Johnson expressed a desire to die in London and arrived there on 16 November 1784. His final moments were filled with mental anguish and delusions; when his physician, Thomas Warren, visited and asked him if he were feeling better, Johnson burst out with: "No, Sir; you cannot conceive with what acceleration I advance towards death." Seward and Hoole describing Johnson's death as "the most awful sight". Boswell remarked, "My feeling was just one large expanse of Stupor ... I could not believe it. My imagination was not convinced." William Gerard Hamilton joined in and stated, "He has made a chasm, which not only nothing can fill up, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up.">>

Art (just one large expanse of Scooper) Neuendorffer