A Little More Land

Today the first particle beam was successfully sent around the Large Hadron Collider! This utterly amazing piece of equipment, the largest, most powerful, and most expensive scientific experiment ever undertaken by humanity, will undoubtedly result in many profound revelations about the structure of matter and the universe.

Some breathtaking statistics:

• 27km circumference, located underneath France and Switzerland
• Over 1200 magnets (each 15m long!), and hundreds of smaller magnets, keep the beam of protons (smaller than a human hair) tight and focused
• The magnets are cooled to just a few K. Colder than space.
• According to the LHC site, the accuracy needed to get the beams to collide “akin to firing needles from two positions 10 km apart with such precision that they meet halfway!” And at nearly the speed of light no less!
• Total cost: €3.2 – €6.4 billion ($4.5 – $9 billion)
• Over 10,000 scientists are working on the project

Check out the live webcam feed for a view of the control room.

Tags: physics