When the
machine is switched on for the first
time at the end of this year,
particles will make a lap around the LHC
in less than one ten - thousandth of a second.
I realize these might be unfamiliar units by which to measure energy, so to give some perspective, it is seven
times the energy of the Tevatron
particle accelerator at Fermilab
in Illinois, which is presently the highest - energy
machine, and 15,000
times the energy contained
in the mass of a single proton at rest.