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World's Largest Supercooled Magnet Activated

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the my-watch-is-pulling-me-east dept.

An anonymous reader writes to mention a C|Net article about the activation of the world's largest superconducting electromagnet. Switched on today at Geneva's CERN lab, the experiment is part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project. The magnet, called ATLAS, worked on its first start up. From the article: "In use, the magnet will be used to bend the paths of particles formed from the collision of protons or lead ions accelerated to near light speeds in 27km diameter subterranean contra-rotating circular beams. The ATLAS experiment is one of five in the LHC, and engages 1,800 scientists from 165 universities and laboratories in 35 countries."

2 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. The realy deep questions by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From TFA
    the LHC will be the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and will be used to investigate why particles have mass
    It's at this point I realise how amazingly little I know about particle physics. In my ignorance I always thought that having mass was an inherant property of being.
    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  2. Shutdown by Detritus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How do you shutdown the magnet without destroying it? According to my rough calculation, it stores energy equivalent to about 500 kg of TNT.

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    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat