What's Blogging On (IES Virgen del Espino): The Large Hadron Collider

What can you do with a 27 kilometer tunnel that runs sometimes under France, sometimes under Switzerland? The answer is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). It is made up of two tubes, near 1500 electromagnets and liquid helium that cools everything to less than the temperature of the outer space.

It took hundreds of scientists and engineers from many different countries around the world to build it. Directed by the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the LHC has been operational since 2008 and involves 2500 staff and 12000 visiting academics representing 600 universities. As we can see, it is an international project.

How does it work?

The tubes are used to force particles to travel at near the speed of light. In fact, the accelerator, known as the two tubes, is used to get two particle beams to travel in opposite directions at almost the speed of light one in each of the tubes. These beams are kept in the tubes with electromagnets, some bend the beams, some focus the beams, and the rest are used to squeeze each particle closer to the others.

The objective is to focus and bend beams at a particular moment, and it is this collision that scientist are interested in.

The tubes are used to force particles to travel at near the speed of light. In fact, the accelerator, Known as the two tubes, is used to get two particle beams to travel in opposite directions at almost the speed of light one in each of the tubes. These beams are kept in the tubes with electromagnets, some bend the beams, some focus the beams, and the rest are used to squeeze each particle closer to the others.

Scientists hope that by colliding particles beams they will be able to answer some of the most interesting and challenging questions of physics, such as the theory that says that gravity only works at large scale and not in the aspect of the tiniest part of matter. This is one of the questions that famous scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, have been trying to answer but they haven't been able to.

Why couldn't you be the one to answer it?

3 comments:

Paula16 May 2018 at 07:16
Hahaha I think I ain't able to answer that question, but I am amazed about the new technological advances made. I really support scientists to continue their investigations, someday I would love to discover the biggest mysteries of the universe.
Unknown30 May 2018 at 07:06
Well, that´s a very difficult question, in fact, I think I would not be able to answer it. Nowadays scientists thoughout technological advances are discovering such great things.
Santiago Cisneros Domínguez10 June 2018 at 10:13
I hope scientists soon discover the uses of this machine. So many things could be done... The Large Hadron Collider is one of the greatest technological advances and our future technology could depend on it.