The LHC is a particle acceleratorand it is phenomenal at destroying protons (one of the two types of particles that make up the nucleus, or center, of an atom) at incredible speeds.
To achieve this great success, the LHC sends protons around its tunnel-like circuit at speeds just below the speed of light. Then it makes the protons collide over and over again. Why? Because when you collide things, they usually break into smaller pieces. And then you can inspect those smaller pieces to see how they make up the whole. It is fascinating.
Then,How do proton collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider help physicists solve their problems?It’s an excellent question, right?
Let’s start from the concept of gravity. We know that gravity is everywhere, and scientists can accurately predict the gravity of almost any object in space. But they still don’t know exactly what makes it so. Before the LHC, when physicists tried to examine how a force like gravity worked, their calculations told them that there were unknown particles involved in the process. They couldn’t see these particles themselves; they just knew that without something like these particles, the calculations could not work in any way.
In a way, it was like being able to see only the undiscovered particle tracks. At least it was a clue. But those tracks led into a building that they had no key to. So the LHC is the device that shakes and breaks that building until the particles come out of hiding.
And the scientists succeeded. Their most famous discovery so far was made in 2012, when physicists found a particle called the Higgs boson. This small particle had been mentioned for the first time in the 1960s but it took us around 50 years to possess the necessary technology to prove that they were right.
The bottom line is that for 10 years, the Large Hadron Collider has given scientists the opportunity to look closer than ever at the tiniest particles that exist and are hidden from view.
And this has only just begun …
