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Visit to CERN Geneva Switzerland 2009
This year saw the first visit to CERN Switzerland – the site of the large Hadron Collider.
The group of 2 staff, 15 students consisting mainly of those studying AS/A Level Physics and a few others who had expressed an interest in visiting the site flew from Heathrow on 2nd July 2009. On arrival in Geneva the group were transferred to their Hotel for their two night stay.
The following morning after a good breakfast the party caught the No 16 Tram to Avanchet and then a bus directly to CERN. Here the group were met by one of their guides who gave an introductory lecture to explain the history and main purpose of CERN.
The group were spilt into two and shown around some of the experimental areas including the ATLAS project and a visit to a couple of working Linear Accelerators. They were given some insight to the size of the project and how some of the very large Magnets required were lowered into the ground. They also saw some of the different types of particle detectors used and one of the control rooms where scientist monitor the experiments.
Following the tour the students had lunch at the Restaurant on the site where there was a very large selection of food at a reasonable price.
After lunch the group visited an exhibition showing a number of important historical experiments such as Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus and other displays to reflect the developments in Particle Physics.
After the visit the group returned to Geneva and spent a couple of hours looking around the town.
On both days the party walked into Geneva for their main meal and the second occasion was particularly pleasant sitting outside a lovely Italian restaurant on a warm evening.
I would like to thank Mrs Soneji for her support and all the students for making it a very enjoyable trip.
A student’s view
Our trip to CERN was not only enjoyable but we actually learnt whilst we were having fun. Who would have thought CERN was actually going to be interesting for us normal people? I must admit, though at times it did get very technical but all was well worth watching the "Scientists" (or should I say Physicists) explain how they recreated the scene of a tenth of a billionth second later after the actual big bang (I hope I've got the figures right.).
Most importantly CERN was about particle accelerators so that they could see what types of particles existed (like finding out what particles were really made out of) and then really find out about how the universe was created. We saw some models of experiments and some current activities like how they got their protons (the proton source) so that they could then experiment with them by colliding them into each other (an example of where this happens is the Large Hadron Collider.)
It was amazing to see the vast amount of knowledge they knew and my mouth hangs open every time I think about it. Luckily our physics teacher prepared us for some of the scientific vocabulary they used.
CERN has given me a new insight into physics and I now understand how some of the
simple but most valuable ideas can lead to big inventions.
Finally not only was visiting CERN great but the food and chocolate was too!