4th July 2012.
The World of Science – especially physicists who are working tirelessly by gradually increasing the speed of two – just two of the world’s smallest particles ever found by mankind – the electrons – to a seemingly impossible speed of 299,792,458 m/s only to make them collide with each other in an attempt to find what would be the tiniest (even tiny than electrons) particle ever to be found – the Higgs Boson. And guess what – Voila! A path-breaking discovery that has provided a new dimension to Particle Physics and Quantum Mechanics – thanks to the World’s Largest Man-made machine and the World’s largest Particle Accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
So, what is the Large Hadron Collider?
It’s a particle Accelerator, which by its name accelerates particles to the desired velocity and collides them elastically to study their interaction. The one thing that separates the LHC from other PA’s is the fact that it is big – REAL BIG – spanning a total circumference of 26.7 kilometers at a depth of 50-175 meters underground. Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) after a lot of research and study – searching for an ideal place for the construction of such a humongous project from 1983-2008.
The striking feature of this PA is the fact that it is circular – something that other PA’s would feel jealous of. We all know now the fact electrons under the influence of a strong Magnetic field would undergo acceleration and follow a circular path thereby increasing its Kinetic Energy. The LHC is operated in such a temperature that it not only counters the increase in the temperature created by the acceleration but also effectively accelerates the particle.
But – how on Earth can a machine accelerate a particle to almost Light speed? The LHC has specialized Super-Conducting Quadrupole Electromagnets in enormity – that can produce more than 1 billion collisions per second. But yes, indeed there was a human error (A Magnet Quench) that happened during its construction that fatally fractured some of the Magnets forcing a shutdown for Maintenance for almost 2 years. It once again came with full force from the year 2010 and created history within 2 years of its inauguration.
The Large Hadron Collider indeed rises to an unbelievable temperature of 5.5 Trillion Degrees Celsius (The creation of the Quark-Gluon Plasma on the 13th of August 2012 even awarded it a Guinness Record) within a few seconds causing it to go into Long-Shutdowns for 3-5 years. But still, the Large Hadron Collider continues to inspire and push scientists to the edge of their seat making them look for all the teeny-weeny things that happen within the LHC for the few seconds it operates. The list is small – but the stakes are high.
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