What sort of noise does the worlds largest machine make?

[Dean Ashby]

This might be a pretty simple question but I'm curious, what sort of
noise does the LHC make when it's circulating and colliding beams?
How does it compare to a jet engine for instance? Presumably given the
energy level it's pretty loud when the beams are being collided?

Cheers,

Dean

[Chris]

Funny you should ask. I was thinking the same this. Do collisions make sounds ?

best place to ask this is at the forum. We have a bunch of CERN guys there that might have already heard it.

[Harbles]

I found this item <a href="http://lhc-collimation-project.web.cern.ch/
lhc-collimation-project/sounds%20and%20movies.htm"> Collimator Sounds"
</a> sounds kinda like a bullet hitting steel.
I also recall reading reports of people at the cern hearing the sounds
of the injector ramping up as a kind of humming. The Peter Macready <a
href="http://www.petermccready.com/"> VR shots </a>of the LHC under
construction has sound but it's pretty much what one might expect.

[Harbles]

Doh stupid gmail doesnt take html. first link is
http://lhc-collimation-project.web.cern.ch/lhc-collimation-project/sounds%20and%20movies.htm

[ethelthefrog]

Given that the entire machine is held in extreme vacuum (and even
then, the instruments have spotted collisions when there's only been a
single beam in the system which are, most likely, collisions with gas
molecules (no vacuum is perfect)), the collisions themselves won't
make anything a human would recognise as sound. What happens when
these high energy particles smash into the solid parts of the detector
is another matter.

The quick answer is "the collisions themselves don't make sound, but I
couldn't begin to speculate about anything else..."