The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a 27-kilometer ring tunnel located between France and Switzerland that accelerates and collides beams of protons and heavy ions at nearly the speed of light to study particle physics. Some key facts about the LHC include that its tunnel was excavated to within 1 centimeter at its two ends, its superconducting magnets operate at temperatures colder than deep space, and it can achieve temperatures over 100,000 times hotter than the center of the Sun during heavy ion collisions. The data recorded from experiments at the LHC each year would fill over 50,000 hard disks with 1 terabyte of storage each.

1. Ten amazing
facts about
the LHS
The LHC (the Large Hadron Collider) is the biggest machine ever built by
humans. Check below these 10 amazing facts about the LHC that will blow
your mind and share it with your friends.

2. Fact 1- When the 27-km long circular tunnel was excavated between
the lake of Geneva and the Jura mountain range, the two ends of the tunnel
met up to within 1 cm. The LHC re-uses the 27-km circumference tunnel that
was built for the previous accelerator called LEP. The tunnel was built at an
average depth of 100 m, due to geological considerations (translated into
cost) and with a slight slope of 1.4%. Its depth varies between 175 m (under
the Jura) and 50 m (towards the Lake of Geneva).
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collisions for physics at 13.6 TeV!
Fact 2- Each of the 6000-9000 superconducting filaments of
niobium-titanium coiled between them to make up the LHC cables is 0.007
mm thick, about 10 times thinner than a normal human hair. If put one after
another they would stretch from the Earth to the Sun and back six times with
enough leftovers for about 150 trips to the Moon. Superconductors are key for
the construction of the 9600 magnets installed in the LHC. Each type of

3. magnet contributes to optimizing the particle’s trajectory and offsetting the
effect of the tides. Not everybody knows that the Earth’s crust rises by around
25 cm in Geneva under the effect of these ‘ground tides’, causing a variation
of 1 mm in the circumference of the LHC and producing major changes in
beam energy and trajectory.
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Fact 3-The protons accelerated at CERN obtained from standard
hydrogen.Although protons beam at the LHC,are very INTENSE(each bounce
containing 1.15*10^11 protons in a beam size of 3.5 micrometres),only 2
nanograms of hydrogen are accelerated each day. Therefore, it would take
about 1 million years to accelerate 1 gram of hydrogen.
Fact 4- The central part of the LHC is the world’s largest fridge. At a
temperature colder than the deep outer space, it contains iron, steel and the

4. important superconducting coils. 120 tons of helium are required by the LHC
machine to keep the magnets at their operating temperature of 1.9 K.
Fact 5- At the same time, LHC can reach unbelievable hot
temperatures, more than 100.000 times the temperature measured at the
center of the Sun. This is achieved by accelerating and colliding together two
beams of heavy ions, an epic scientific event that takes place every day, 40
million times per second.
Fact 6 - The ultrahigh vacuum achieved in the LHC beam pipes is
comparable to the atmosphere of the Moon. The beam vacuum pressure is
10^–13 atm, low enough to to avoid collisions between the beam protons and
the spurious gas molecules in the beam.
Live from CERN: Join us for the
first collisions for physics at 13.6
TeV!

5. Fact 7- Protons in the LHC travel at 0.999999991 times the speed of
light (when LHC operates at the design energy). Each proton goes around the
27 km ring more than 11.000 times a second. A beam might circulate for more
than 10 hours, traveling more than 10 billion kilometers, enough to get to
Neptune and back again. The particles are so tiny that the task of making
them collide is like firing two needles 10 kilometers apart with such precision
that they meet halfway.

6. Fact 8- At full energy, each of the two proton beams in the LHC has a
total energy equivalent to a 400 tons train (like the French TGV) traveling at
150 km/h. This is enough energy to melt 500 kg of copper. However, in
absolute terms these energies are not impressive if compared to the energies
we deal with every day. 1 TeV is about the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito.
What makes the LHC so extraordinary is the capability to squeeze that energy
into a space about a million million times smaller than that mosquito.

7. FACT 10- THE DATA RECORDED BY THE BIG EXRIMENTS AT
THE LHC ARE ENOUGH TO FILL EVERY YEAR AROUND 50.000 HARD
DISKS WITH 1 TBYTE MEMORY EACH OR CORRESPONDING TO A
STACK OF ABOUT 10 MILLION STANDARD DVDS.

8. Live from CERN: Join us for
the first collisions for physics
at 13.6 TeV!