• Question: Hi will My names Ethan and i want to know What particalls are zoomed around the biggest mchine in the wold. You see my uncel works at it and helped make it.

    Asked by ethanpagemason to Amy, Sarah, Will on 21 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      Hi Ethan!

      Wow, your uncle works at the Large Hardon Collider CERN in Switzerland? That’s so cool! Which bit did he build, do you know? All sorts of particles are used there, but the smallest and most interesting ones are protons, which are the tiny positively charged bits inside an atom’s nucleus.

      🙂 Sarah

    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      Hi Ethan! Wow, do you think your uncle could get me in there, I have wanted to see it for ages! They do lots of different experiments at CERN and like sarah says, most of them use subatomic particles called protons. Protons are positively charged and are the opposite to electrons which are negatively charged. Together they help to keep atoms stable. Like you say, at CERN they zoom these protons around in a circle until they are moving really fast and then they make them hit other atoms. When this happens it makes the atoms lose some protons and electrons and makes new things that we can study. It is helping us understand how particles moved during the big bang so we can find out how it started and also how black holes are made. Hope this helps! Thanks for youe question.

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