What is the purpose of particle acceleration and why do we need to accelerate particles instead of viewing them in their current “normal” state?
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You want to know what’s inside the typical Volkswagen Jetta. (You are asking this question because you, like every normal person, has observed anomalous behaviour from Jettas in the wild.
Luckily, you have an infinite supply of Jettas. So you decide to crack a few open to see what’s inside.
Your first attempts, head-on at 10 m/s, yield only boring bits of fenders and the occasional bolt. Your village physicist suggests more speed.
So you try higher and higher speeds. Even higher. You convince the federal Energy Department to fund your experiments. Now you can collide Jettas at 1,000,000 m/s. Lots of fascinating data, and body parts, come flying out.
After expending roughly the GDP of a typical EU country, you now have a theory about Jettas and their highway behavior. You publish a paper. Everybody cheers, except the stockholders of VW.
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