Everything summed up, The Large Hadron Collider is the BIGGEST Scientific Experiment in the WORLD. It is the MOST EXPENSIVE thing EVER built. But in order to understand a gigantic thing as the LHC (Don't worry, even I'm not LHC Literate), one has to familiarize himself with some basic physical concepts.
A few days back, I had done a presentation on the LHC for my Astronomy Club, two times. The presentation can be viewed and downloaded below. This is the inspiration for this blogpost.
The Large Hadron Collider was first thought of in the 1980s after much of the development in something called the Standard Model had been made. There are four fundamental forces of nature: Gravity, Electromagnetism and the Two Nuclear Forces: The Strong and the Weak Force. (Please check out this link for more information). The Standard Model incorporates the Electromagnetic Force and the Nuclear Forces into one theory of almost-everything.
The standard model divides subatomic particles into two groups (i.e. Fermions and Bosons), which are nothing but elementary and force-carrying particles. Everything is elegantly summed up in the Standard Model, except Gravity and a few other things.
Let us now see where the LHC sneaks in.
Particle Physicists study "What's Inside What's Inside What's Inside" ad infinitum. So beyond the Protons, Neutrons and the Electrons, and even beyond the Quarks that make up Protons and Neutrons is the fundamental question, "What gives everything mass?" To explain this, the Standard Model hypothesizes something called the Higgs Field.
A field is a region in space where force carrying particles can interact. If ones goes with the Standard Model, then there exists a "Higgs Field" where particles interact with each other, resulting in mass. A special particle, called the Higgs Boson interacts with other subatomic particles and the strength of the interaction corresponds to the mass of the body.
One of the LHC's main aims is to find this elusive Higgs Boson, and it does this by smashing subatomic particles together!
LHC is the world's largest Particle Accelerator, accelerating subatomic particles like the Proton to 99.99% the Speed of Light. Then the particles, which are sent moving in opposite directions, collide. These collisions create new particles, which are later analysed by the physicists.
The LHC works with Hadrons, i.e. particles composed of Quarks. The Three words Large, Hadron and Collider are ENOUGH to explain the LHC!!!
So, what the LHC does is creates immense energies to accelerate particles and collide them to create new particles! It has NOTHING to do with creating a Black Hole that will suck Earth!
By the way, this Large Hadron Collider rap is a good place to get started!
Below is the link to my presentation! Hope you enjoy it! For more information, you can visit the LHC Outreach website here :)
The presentation is best viewed fullscreen on Scribd. Because it has been converted, the Presentation does not look neat. If you download it and have Office 2007, there will be no problems.
If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section!
Ciao!
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