Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
Turkish Teachers’ Programme 3
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and
most powerful particle collider, and the largest single
machine in the world, built by the European Organization
for Nuclear Research (CERN) from 1998 to 2008.
Its aim is to allow physicists to test the predictions of
different theories of particle physics and high-energy
physics like theStandard Model, and particularly prove
or disprove the existence of the theorized Higgs boson
and of the large family of new particles predicted by
supersymmetric theories. The discovery of a particle
matching the Higgs boson was confirmed by data
from the LHC in 2013. The LHC is expected to address
some of the unsolved questions of physics, advancing
human understanding of physical laws. It contains seven
detectors, each designed for certain kinds of research.
The LHC was built in collaboration with over 10,000
scientists and engineers from over 100 countries,
as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.
When protons arrive in the LHC they are travelling at
0.999997828 times the speed of light. Each proton goes
around the 27km ring over 11 000 times a second. It is
also the longest machine ever built.
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN could be the most
ambitious scientific undertaking ever. The results of
LHC experiments will probably change our fundamental
knowledge of the universe.
Turkey became an associate member of CERN in 2014.
As a result of this, the Turkish teachers’ programme
which offers a one week training and orientation was
started to take place twice a year in Geneva, Switzerland
at the campus of CERN. BELS physics teacher Zeynep
Tuğba Kahyaoğlu attented this training programme
in the semester break with 48 Turkish teachers from
different provinces of Turkey. They were given a
certificate of completion after having 25 hours of lessons
about particle physics, detector physics, astro particle
physics, neutrinos, accelerators, Higgs, triggering and
data collection. Moreover, they conducted the Cloud
Chamber experiment which was actually mentioned in
the IGCSE physics course.
THE CLAPPER 2014 - 2015
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