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This $9 Billion Particle Accelerator Is The Largest Machine In The World


Did you know that the largest machine to have ever been created by humans is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometre long tunnel-esque particle accelerator? The LHC, that is the pride and joy of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, will probably go down in history as the largest and most powerful particle accelerator to have ever been built and it is also worth a mention that the LHC houses integral machine elements that are as tall as five storey buildings and weigh 3000 tonnes. Imagine how enormous the machine would be! 

This $9 Billion Particle Accelerator Is The Largest Machine In The World© CERN

What a marvellous job, and speaking of marvels, remember the scene from 'Iron Man 2' where Tony Stark invents Vibranium using a long tubular machine that looks like the slides you see at a water park? That machine is a crude, home made version of a particle accelerator, a machine most revered in the scientific world for its ability to study particles that make up an atom.

This $9 Billion Particle Accelerator Is The Largest Machine In The World© Marvel Studios

This machine, that was first put to work in 2008, helps scientists inch closer toward revealing undiscovered particles that make up unsolved mysteries like dark matter and anti-matter-- in the larger scheme of things, moving ahead in unraveling the physical secrets of the universe like never before.

How does it work? Particles are beamed through the LHC at significantly high speeds and the machine is capable of taking the particle beams to an even higher energy in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions in order to collide-- and what do collisions result in? The releasing of energy or the further spitting of particles, newer particles.

The LHC facilitates the flow of protons and heavy lead ions within the tunnel that is made up of thousands of superconducting electromagnets (nearly 1700, as in the case of the LHC) and the energy released from their collision is observed for the purpose of studying the further split particles.

This $9 Billion Particle Accelerator Is The Largest Machine In The World© Wikipedia

It is as complicated as it sounds and in order to get accurate readings, the tunnel must be secured from all ends and the superconducting electromagnets must remain cool at â271.3°C. That's why the tunnel is kept in frigid conditions using liquid helium (the same element Dr. Freeze uses to ice out his targets).

Does the LHC emit radiation whilst in action? Yes. That is why the LHC has been built 100 meters below the earth's surface, on the France-Switzerland border. Naturally, a lot of money went into the construction of such a complex machine so far underground-- a total of $9 billion. Billions more are spent in conducting experiments every year and just the annual operational cost of the LHC is $1 billion.

Yes, that's a tonne of money spent in the name of science but we bet you won't be saying that when discoveries in the field of dark matter help power your vehicles or help send you to space in seconds... the possibilities are endless. For now, let's just look at the LHC as the largest machine built by the hands of man, a true technological wonder!

Here's a 360 degree image of the LHC if you'd like to take a tour

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