::: In the five billion year history of our planet there have never been
::: two cosmic rays pointing toward each other which collided with
::: roughly similar energies??
:: The chance of two high-energy cosmic rays colliding near Earth is
:: already ridiculously low. The chance that both have energies
:: comparable to the proposed collider is a microscopic fraction of
:: that. The chance that they have momenta oppositely directed to
:: within even a millionth of a percent in one chosen axis is a
:: lottery-winning fraction of that.
Yet, cosmic rays hit "stationary" particles all the time, right?
And sometimes with many times the energy of a CERN particle, right?
So... choose a frame in which the "stationary" particle is moving with
the same speed as the cosmic ray, in the opposite direction. This is
always possible, and just as valid as any other frame. And you'll *still*
have a collision energy in that frame higher than CERN's.
:: Doing the same in the other two axes as well is even more
:: ridiculously unlikely.
Not sure what "the same in the other two axes" means, but it seems clear
that since "axes" are an artifact of the coordinate system, and coordinate
systems are a matter of how you choose to describe the collision and not
a feature of the actual, real world, this is easy to arrange, not hard.
Wayne Throop throopw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://sheol.org/throopw
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