• Question: what is the machine that you use called?

    Asked by miki to Ben on 9 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 9 Mar 2012:

      The gigantic machine I use is called the Large Hadron Collider. It speeds up protons (tiny things inside atoms) to incredibly fast speeds and then smashes them together. When the protons are smashed together they break up and lots of new things (particles) are created. I then use another big machine that we’ve named ATLAS to look at all these new things that are created when the protons collide.

      The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is circular and about 27km long. Here’s a link to a picture to show how big it is:

      ATLAS is about 25m wide and 45m long. Here’s a link to a picture to show how big it is. Can you see the 3 people in the image? They’re drawn to scale to give you an idea of how big ATLAS is.

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