Good luck

This is my third visit to CERN. On my first visit I was informed that only workers were allowed underground where the 27 km long particle accelerator smashes particles into each other and detectors look through the resulting debris. However on this visit we were lucky enough to coincide with a small window of opportunity when we could see the large(!) ATLAS detector being assembled in its final resting-site. The detector is one of four being built. It is 100m underground. The cavern which houses this unit is the biggest underground vault ever built by man. Claustrophobic it was not. Pictures (certainly ours) cannot do any of this justice. The experiment is simply awesome and it is all being built to find a particle first predicted by Professor Peter Higgs, who lives within half a mile of Henderson Row.

Team Work  

To see so many people working on this structure, which is a small fraction of the whole project, helps to emphasise the immense team work of which CERN are justifiably proud. As I mentioned at the start of this article, other Academicals have been to CERN before us. Indeed there are at least three former pupils who work at the site. Only one, however, has a road named after him!

Above is a tiny section of the ATLAS detector. The tube with the orange stripes is one of the 8 superconducting magnets which will be cooled to -270 degrees Centigrade.

In Geneva

The remainder of the trip was spent exploring Geneva. Saturday morning saw the whole party taking a boat trip around Lake Geneva. This gives visitors the chance to see the homes of some of the seriously rich from all over Europe. Unfortunately the cloud cover was such that we only got fleeting glimpses of the Alps.

Feeding a party of twenty-four is not always easy. We were therefore very grateful when four of the party claimed to have found a great little restaurant that would cater for all tastes. The restaurant was obviously a little worried as they literally had to call in extra staff and were taking no chances with the messy eaters! The staff of the restaurant were, however, very genuine with their praise for the standard of behaviour of the whole party. This is always gratifying when taking pupils abroad.

An Experiment

Having rested a while in our hotel we set out to find out what the nightlife of Geneva had to offer in terms of Physics. Unfortunately the only thing we could fi nd was a repeat of a previously tried experiment relating to how pressure varies with the depth of a liquid.

Having obtained the column of liquid the teachers were a little puzzled as to how best to measure the pressure. It was one of the pupils who suggested that it might be related to the speed with which we could fill the beer glasses.

And Finally

Excessive cerebral activity can, as most people know, cause pupils to come out in a sweat. The teachers obviously did not want pupils returning home with excessive body odour, but how could we ensure that everyone had showered? Geneva's famous fountain provided the answer. On the morning of our departure we decided to take a close look at this feature. The wind was blowing in the right direction as we walked out on the pier beyond the fountain.