Build Your Own Working Model Particle Accelerator with This Kit

Particle accelerators are one humanity’s greatest scientific research tools, and they are indispensable in the study of particle physics. The Large Hadron Collider alone has a budget of approximately nine billion dollars, making it one of the most expensive — and largest — scientific instruments ever built. That is absolutely necessary to study particles moving at very high speeds, but you can study how particle accelerators themselves work with this inexpensive kit.

Jo’s Personal Particle Accelerator kit is launching through Kickstarter, and has just four days left to reach its funding goal. This project started when Josephine was only 12-years-old and she and her father built a working model particle accelerator for a school project. Everyone loved the model, and so now they want to make it available to everyone as a kit for STEM learning. While this kit won’t allow you to actually accelerate particles, it does simulate the effect using affordable parts in a safe manner.

In place of a microscopic particles, this model accelerates a small steel ball bearing around a short loop. The ball bearing is accelerated in the same way that the Large Hadron Collider accelerates particles: with electromagnets. The ball bearing is contained within an enclosed ring of clear tubing, and electromagnets controlled by an Arduino pull it along to high speeds. In that way, this model particle accelerator is a fantastic demonstration of how real, full-size particle accelerators operate — which makes it a valuable STEM learning tool.

If you want your own particle accelerator model, the Kickstarter campaign is running until September 2nd. Different options are available, but the smaller version with everything you need to get started costs AU$325 (about $219 USD). Rewards are expected to be delivered in November.