Sixth Form Physicists visit CERN in Geneva, Switzerland
On the 18th of July, the Rugby High Year 12 physics class joined Sutton Coldfield's A-level physics group to visit Geneva. We visited CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is the world’s largest nuclear physics experiment. Here, we actually saw some of the work that we had/ were going to learn about in class, in action. At CERN, amongst other experiments, they accelerate particles to near the speed of light, equivalent to 11,200 laps of the Earth every second, and collide them together to try to discover new particles and explain mysteries of our Universe.
We crossed the Franco Swiss border to visit the French side of CERN and learnt that the Large Hadron Collider, where the particles are accelerated, has a circumference of 17 miles and crosses both France and Switzerland. We went 100m underground to see the experiment itself. When we visited, the LHC was shut off for maintenance, so we were able to get extremely close to the machine.
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the exhibits around the site that told us about the origins of particle science and CERN, and what the future holds for nuclear physics. We spent the evening along the lakefront of Lake Geneva, taking in its famous 140m high water fountain.
The next day we all went to the natural history museum via the public bus, using Rugby High’s very own French physicist, James, as a translator and navigator! Here we spent time looking at the life sized animal figurines, and learning about early Earth sciences before walking into the Old Town of Geneva for some free time. There was a beautiful cathedral, delicious restaurants, and lot of photo opportunities. When back in the new town, we looked around the Swiss shops and ate crepes on the ferris wheel with views of the lake which we also saw close up on the water taxi that we took back to the hostel. We then spent our last evening eating pizza, playing card games, and bowling at a mall.
Our final day began with us visiting the History of Science museum where we looked at scientific equipment throughout the ages and learned about how many of these worked using fundamental laws of physics. A lovely boat trip around Lake Geneva was a beautiful finish to our memorable trip. All in all, it was a valuable experience, and an extremely interesting few days that I would recommend to anyone.
Rachel Coates 13A
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