what is a particle accelerator and how does it work?
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A particle accelerator is a physics device which uses electric fields to accelerate charged particles to immense speeds, sometimes significant fractions of the speed of light. Common particles that can be found within particle accelerators include protons and electrons, the building blocks of the atom.\n\nA particle accelerator is used to observe the behavior of small particles at high velocities and energies, as well as for more everyday purposes such as generating a specific sort of electromagnetic radiation. Particle accelerators are often used to smash particles against each other at very high speeds, revealing their more fundamental components. The x-ray generator and television set are both common examples of particle accelerators, with the same basic design as their larger cousins used in high-energy physics experiments. A particle accelerator falls into one of two categories: circular or linear.\n\nIn a circular particle accelerator, particles are accelerated in a continuous circular path. The advantage of this arrangement is that the particle can be directed in a circle many times, saving hardware. The downside is that particles in circular accelerators emit electromagnetic radiation, called synchrotron radiation. Because their momentum is constantly encouraging them to fly out on a trajectory tangential to the circle, energy must continuously be expended to keep them on the circular path, meaning circular particle accelerators are less efficient. In large accelerators, synchrotron radiation is so intense that the whole accelerator must be buried underground to maintain safety standards. The Fermilab particle accelerator in Illinois has a circular path of 4 miles (6.43 km).\n\nLinear accelerators fire particles in a straight line at a fixed target. The cathode ray tube in your television is a low-energy particle accelerator, which fires photons in the visible light range at a glass plate, the screen. The stream of photons is constantly being redirected to fill the screen with pixels. This redirection occurs fast enough that we perceive the alternating stream of photons as a continuous image.\n\nHigh-energy linear accelerators, or linacs, are used in physics applications. A series of plates alternatively attracts and repels the charged particles moving through them, pulling particles forward when they have not yet passed it, and pushing them away after they have. In this manner, alternating electric fields can be used to accelerate streams of particles to very high velocities and energies. Physicists use these accelerators to simulate exotic conditions, such as those in the center of stars or near the beginning of the universe. The "particle zoo" described by the Standard Model of particle physics was uncovered incrementally in particle accelerator experiments. The largest linear particle accelerator is the Stanford Linear Accelerator with a length of 2 miles (3.2 km).
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Electron-positron annihilation is the process that occurs when an electron (which is matter) and a positron (which is antimatter) collide. If they are both relatively at rest (which happens in an exotic but not uncommon form of matter called positronium), they destroy each other upon contact, and produce two gamma ray photons of 511 keV each which are emitted in opposite directions. If they are moving at different relative velocities, the energies of the photons emitted will be higher, in accordance with the conservation of momentum. [At higher relative velocities, other particle-antiparticle pairs can also be produced, since there is enough kinetic energy in the relative velocities to provide for the masses of those particles. At much higher relative velocities, there may be enough energy to produce a single neutral Z-boson. The opposite process is known as pair production or matter creation.]\n\nOf course, both the electron and the positron cease to exist, as their masses are converted to energy (E = mc^2), which is the energy of the two resultant photons.\n\nThere is no separate law of conservation of matter (or, mass). Actually, it goes together with the law of conservation of energy, under the name 'mass-energy conservation'. And this conservation of mass-energy, as well as the conservation of momentum, both hold during the process of annihiltion.
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An Accelerator Engineer designs particle accelerators and their attached devices which are used for scientific experimentation of atomic and sub-atomic physics.
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Nikola Tesla's Death Ray, a machine that could, using high-density particles, kill enemies within 200 miles of it.\n\nNikola Tesla's Ground electrical current, where instead of plugging something into the wall, you put it on the ground.\n\nNikola Tesla's Radio, it actually works.\n\nNikola Tesla's AC current, without which you could not power your computer.
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They are real particles.  They really exist.  The two types are mesons and baryons.  Mesons are made of one quark and an anti-quark.  Solid matter we touch in every day life is made up of atoms made of protons, neutrons, and electrons.  Protons and neutrons are two kinds of hadrons called baryons, made up from the same particles (quarks) that make up mesons, except protons and neutrons are made up of 3 quarks.  Unlike protons and neutrons, mesons are unstable, so they quickly decay.  But they can be produced and studied in particle colliders, such as the Tevatron at Fermilab, and other big colliders at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Collider (SLAC), and at Cornell.  Have a look at the following websites for more info:\n\nhttp://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/hadrons.html\nhttp://www.fnal.gov\nhttp://www.slac.stanford.edu
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To break up an atom, you have to add a significant amount of energy to it.  You can do this by bombarding it with sub atomic particles.  In an atomic reaction, neutrons drive the process.  Particle accelerators do this in research physics.
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It's called 'impulse' and any good, lower division, physics book will have an explanation of what it is and how it works.\n\n\nDoug
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Antimatter is just like matter, except everything has the opposite charge. Instead of a proton, which has a positive charge, there is an antiproton, which has a negative charge. Instead of a negatively charged electron, you have its antimatter equivalent, a positron. Energy is produced when matter and antimatter meet and annihilate each other. If I were to use a mathematical analogy, matter and antimatter are like additive inverses (which cancel each other out). When you get to zero matter, that's when you get a whole bunch of energy. I found this website to be a pretty understandable explanation of how antimatter works and why, even though there is antimatter all around us, the universe does not explode.
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This is the part of the wikipedia that I understood.  I can explain it to you if you want to send me a message.  I think it makes alot of sense.\nNow let’s see what happens to our accelerating particles when a torque is applied to the spinning wheel. Assume the axis of rotation created by the torque is through the center of the wheel at 90 degrees to the primary rotation of the wheel. Let’s look at a particle that is on this axis of rotation. Since the particle is on the axis of rotation there is no direct motion applied to the particle at the instant of the applied torque. But let’s look at what will need to happen at the next moment in time. The particle is now going to be forced to curve again. This time in the direction of the curve so as to accommodate the tilt of the wheel. Now we have a particle that is already moving and it wants to keep moving in a straight line. So the particle will exert a force on the wheel. If you look at a particle on the other side of the wheel you will see that the force of the second particle is in the opposite direction of the first particle. That pair of unmatched forced is what causes the precession torque that is 90 degrees to the applied torque
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the particles are accelerated by electromagnetic fields, but since it only gives giga electron volts, which is much less than a joule, it wouldnt rreally move you. it proprably would however, electrocute you and cook you with gamma rays and such
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Particle accelerators are located throughout the worls at government run labs, like Fermilab in the United States or CERN on the French-Swiss border.\n\nAs far the their size goes, the first one was built in 1929 an was only 4 inches in diameter.  Today it is typical for accelerators to be 4-5 miles in diameter, and the next generation particle accelerators have been rumored to be up to 40 miles in diameterm though these won't be built for 10-15 years.\n\nMost of these accelerators and the work they are focused on deals with the early formation of the universe, the first instants in time after the Big Bang.  They are attempting to figure out a 'Theory of Everything' (TOE), which is a fancy way for a physicist to describe a scientific theory that would take the 4 fundamental forces of nature (gravitation, electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces) and merge into one consistent theory.
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A tachyon is a theoretical particle that always moves faster than the speed of light. However, no such particles have been found and it is likely they don't exist.\n\nIn Special Relativity nothing can go at the speed of light (except something with no mass, like light). So, we cannot accelerate a spacecraft to go faster than light. As we pour more and more energy out the engine we get closer and closer, but never actually reach the speed of light. This has all be verified with lots of experiments on elementary particles, and in astronomy, much bigger things.\n\nBut, theoretically, if something started out going faster than light it would never be able to go slower. So, again theoretically, if you have a particle accelerator the energy of a collision of protons or electrons or whatever could produce a tachyon. \n\nThough, none has ever been detected, and most physics types believe it is very unlikely that they exist.\n\n\nOne thing to be aware of is that some scam places will sell you magical devices that use "tackions" or something - they often spell it wrong for legal reasons - to cure you of all disease or other nonsense. So stick with scientific tachyons!
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They basically bombard one existing element with particles and try to get em to stick. =)
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Most of the naturally occuring stuff comes from unstable atoms.  When the balance between protrons and neutrons is out of whack, the atom will fly apart.  Depending on the atom, it will break apart in one of 3 ways, it will emit an electron (beta decay), part of the nucleus (alpha) or throw off an electromagnetic wave (gamma). \nGamma also commonly comes from high energy particle hitting the atmosphere and shattering atoms.  The interaction releases a shower of other particles some of which release gamma.  It's nothing to worry about as we evolved under these conditions and our bodies are build to handle it.
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The system uses high voltage to ionize molecules in the air mostly oxygen to ozone. Ions have an electric charge sort of like static electricity they attract dust particles and create a heavier particle that falls out of the air. also dust particles are attracted to the high voltage plates much like your tv screen attracts dust.
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Just in case you wanted a nice simple answer:\n\nBoth particles are emitted from the nuclei of unstable atoms.\n\nA beta particle is a negatively charged particle equivalent to an electron\n\nAn alpha particle consists of two protons and two neutrons
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If you're referring to a massive object, as opposed to a photon(which is massless), No.\n\nParticle accelerators routinely accelerate electrons or protons to around .99999c (c=the speed of light)and then have them collide with other particles traveling at similar speed. \n\nThe result is a shower of sub-atomic particles, called Quarks and Gluons.\n\nQuantum physicists are busy trying to sort-out this proliferation of particles.  Makes for a lot of PhD theses!