Large Hadron Collider Held Together By (644,328 mtrs) of Duct Tape?
Posted by Paul Woodhouse at March 3rd, 2009
Large Hadron Collider
We all know this is some feat of engineering. However, it’s extremely difficult to get a scale of the project. Not only is it impossible to imagine the sizes of particles whizzing around at beyond breakneck speeds, but it’s even more difficult to get an idea of how bloody big the thing is from the inside.
They’ve hardly started doing guided tours.
Thankfully, a certain Peter McCready has been allowed access to the Large Hadron Collider’s gizzards and has photographed some awesome panoramic views of the thing that you can swush around in full 360 degree loveliness.
Click here and give it a second or two to load. He’s even added sound effects to get a general feel of the ho and the hum of the place. [cap doff]
But, if you swing around for long enough you’ll notice the entire thing is held together by bloody duct/duck/gaffer tape. (OK, I’ll go as far as fancy aluminium tape.)
Your average roll of duct tape
Right, so if we take a look round the LHC then it appears we’ve got gaffer tape roughly every half meter. We can’t exactly say that it goes all the way round the circumference of the inner core, but by the looks of things it could very well do. The width of the inner core is approximately 3.8 meters leading to a core circumference of 11.932 meters with a total collider circumference under the Alps of 27 kilometers. [via]
So, by my reckoning (if we’re saying there’s duct tape every half meter that goes around the whole circumference), that means 644,328 meters of duct tape tops, at a rough cost of $336,227 if I were to buy it in 6″ (144 mm) wide 55 meter rolls costing $28.70 ea.
Let’s hope they got a bulk discount.
Thankfully they don’t shop at Best Buy.
To think about the size and scale of that entire project… all held together by tape.. it’s beyond me!
Wow that thing is massive. Funny how so many things like that get built and that we rely on all the time but normal Jo soaps like me never think about.
Looks like a sponsorship opportunity to me…. This quark brought to you by Duct Tape…
@Niall But us normal Joe Soaps would probably do something relatively bizarre like stick parts of it together with duct tape.
@Fred Maybe an opportunity for me to think about my nano advertising hoardings.
I’m moved to wonder what kind of ducks that tape is used on.
OK, lets get this straight. That is NOT duct tape. Its a special type aluminum tape used for HVAC and insulation projects. What the tape is holding together is foam panels that are used for insulation. This insulation is need since the LHC is cooled down to 1.9 Kelvin (-271.25 degrees Celsius) and they need to keep excess heat from permeating into the chamber which in effect would require that the massive cooling systems work harder. The use of that tape is the correct way to install those panels and there’s nothing wrong with it. Please do a little bit of research before posting articles based on pure speculation.
Dear Mr. or Mrs. Fried Boot,
I take it you’re unfamiliar with the phrase tongue-in-cheek?
Now, had you taken issue with my maths……..
Maybe I should change the title to “LHC Largest HVAC Installation EVAR?”