When we try to make new elements and launch atoms at one another they don’t blow up, but when you do that in a nuclear device it ruin’s cities
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The truth is that it depends on what atom is colliding into what other atom – and how many of these collisions you make happen all at once.
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Some combinations, when they collide, will simply glob together into a new bigger atom.
Other combinations, when they collide, will glob together for an instant but then fall apart in new way that leaves two big (but different to the original) atoms while releasing some energy.
Other combinations, when they collide, will just shatter into many little pieces releasing lots of energy in the process.
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The reason that nuclear devices make big explosions is because scientists/engineers very specifically chose a combination that is known to shatter apart very energetically – and then they got pounds and pounds of these atoms together so that a lot of those collisions will happen very quickly.
The reason why a particle accelerator doesn’t explode is because (even when they’re studying one of these high-energy-releasing combinations) they are throwing so few atoms together at once that it is basically a tiny microscopic firework rather than a big bomb.
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