CERN

On Wednesday, Noah and I missed out on school to go to CERN, the ‘Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire’ in Geneva. CERN is most known by having the largest particle accelerator in the world – the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider.

Our first stop was the Universe of Particles exhibit. It was a big wooden sphere that represented the amount of wood that grows in all Swiss forests, in one hour. Inside the dome was a lot of little spheres that showed some of CERN’s achievements and what they do there.

Next we went into the reception, got our lanyards, and went into the museum. It showed how the LHC works, and how it detects particles. There was also a pattern and lights on the floor that change depending on cosmic rays that fall through the atmosphere.

Then we went on the tour. First, we went past the ATLAS detector building, which is the largest detector in the world. We watched a 3D movie about how the detector was constructed, and how it works. We then went to the control room and looked at what the workers were doing.

Finally, we went to CERN’s first particle accelerator, the Synchrocyclotron. There, we learnt a bit about CERN’s history and why they started, and some achievements along the way.

I loved our visit to CERN. I definitely learnt lots of things about physics and the LHC. And the best bit? It was all free!