Particle accelerators accelerate particles to extremely high speeds. The particles collide with high enough kinetic energies to produce a shower of new particles.Energy is conserved so the total energy of the particles and antiparticles before the collisions is equal to the total energy of the particles and antiparticles after the collision. This is equal to the sum of the rest energy of the particles and their kinetic energies before the collision. The rest energy of the products =total energy before - KE of products
Particle Colliders and Energy
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Specification: AQA Physics (7407), AS-level, 3.2.1.3 Particles, antiparticles and photons. Topic: Quarks and Leptons.
Key terms in this lesson
- Electron volt
- The energy transferred when an electron moves through a potential difference of one volt, equal to 1.6 times ten to the minus 19 joules.
- Photon
- A discrete packet, or quantum, of electromagnetic energy.
- Ionisation
- The removal of one or more electrons from a neutral atom, or the addition of electrons, to form an ion.
More in Quarks and Leptons
- Particle Accelerators
- Classifying Particles and Antiparticles
- Leptons
- Hadrons
- Baryons and Mesons
- Lepton Collisions
- Lepton Rules
- Neutrinos
All 17 lessons in Quarks and Leptons · All AQA AS-level Physics topics