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ATOM, IN MODERN SCIENCE 39 (Mev) by, an electric field in a linear accelerator This energy corresponds approximately to a proton veloCity of one-third the speed of light ie 100,000 km's The protons are then accelerated further in a 200-meter diameter circular path by several radio frequency accelerator sections arranged round the periphery After about 500,000 orbits they reach a final speed which corresponds to 99 94% of the speed of light ie about 300,000 km s At this velocity the protons would cover the distance from the earth to the moon in approximately one second Through this process the rest mass of the protons is increased by a factor of 30
Research work in the sub-nuclear world is based on a law of nature that the smaller the dimensions of the particles to be studied, the highei must be the energies of the beams serving as a probe By way of comparison consider the forces that hold the nucleus of an atom together The binding energy of a proton in a nucleus is about 8 Mev In order to learn something about the structure of the nuclei, one needs energies about 100 times greater than this But to carry out research into the structure of proton or neutron, one requires energies 1000 times greater ie of the order of one thousand million electron volts Elementary particle physiCS is, therefore, sometimes called high energy physics
To conclude this section let us reproduce what Dr Jentschke!3 has said in a recent interview 14
13 Dr Willibald Karl Jenischhe is the Director General of European Organisation for Nuclear Research (called CERN) which is half in French soil and half in Swiss soil Twelve nations have joined hand in peaceful research working to a convention that outlaw military aims
14 Published in Siemens Review: June 1971
