How to Design a Particle Accelerator

What is a particle accelerator and how would you go about designing one? We’ve heard of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, but what of the tens of thousands of other accelerators being used in science and medicine?

Accelerator Physicist Dr. Suzie Sheehy introduces the basics in this Royal Institution animation, from their ingredients—particles, energy, control, collision and detection—to their three main categories: linear, cyclotron and synchrotron.

Next, Sheehy explains how particles can be trapped in a particle accelerator:

Further reading: How an accelerator works and How Atom Smashers Work.