• Question: how does the particle colider work?

    Asked by gabbott to Dilwar, Lou, Rachel, Simon, Susan on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Sorry I am not a physicist and these things leave me very confused.

    • Photo: Dilwar Hussain

      Dilwar Hussain answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      There are many different types of particle colliders around the world. But I’ll stick to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as it’s the keyword mentioned. In the atom, you have a nucleus made up protons and neutrons, with electrons going around. The LHC uses 2 beams of protons going in opposite directions and smashes them together at a very high speeds.
      The scientists then look at the different particles that resulted from that smashing. It’s a bit like smashing a watch and then seeing all the little bits of it that make up a watch.
      Recently, the scientists have discovered the Higgs particle which gives everything around us its mass.

    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Atom smashers, or particle accelerators, collide particles with atoms or other subatomic particles at close to light speed, creating new particles and radiation that tell scientists about the building blocks of matter.

      The particles travel inside special tubes. All of the air is taken out of the tubes, so that the particles can travel without crashing in to air molecules. The pressure is even less than on the moon’s surface.

      The particles are accelerated around the tubes using electric fields in the same direction as the particles, which gives the particles a kick of energy as they zoom around, much like a parent pushing a child on a playground roundabout.

      Huge magnets are used to steer the particles and keep them going in the right direction. The magnetic fields are about 100,000 times the strength of Earth’s magnetic field!

      When the particles going in opposite directions crash into each other, detectors “see” the resulting particles and radiation they produce.

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