Hello everyone!
I have been watching the show young sheldon and there, Dr. Sturgis (a physics professor) said that he was working on a supercollider. But what is that? What is it exactly and what effects or impacts does it have on us?
(I am not really good in physics, just interested in the topic so a simple explanation would be appreciated if possible).
In: Physics
One common method to investigate the physics of very small particles is to accelerate them and “smash” them into each other. This results in the particles breaking up into smaller pieces which can then be studied in detail.
This kind of investigation requires a lot of energy directed into a very small space. This is what a particle accelerator does. It is a large piece of equipment that is used to accelerate small particles like protons or electrons to very high speeds before smashing them into each other.
The term supercollider is used to describe the largest types of this equipment. The current largest one is called the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) located in Switzerland. It is in the shape of a ring with a circumference of 27km.
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