Unraveling the Mystery of Particle Accelerators and High-Speed Travel

[amt]

So, according to Relativity, as an oject approaches the speed of light, it's mass increases and the Energy required to sustain the motion goes to infinity, basically making high speed travel almost impossible.

How is it that Particle accelerators are able to accelerate Protons at 99.99% of 'c'? Protons do possesses mass don't they?

 

[ZapperZ]

So, according to Relativity, as an oject approaches the speed of light, it's mass increases and the Energy required to sustain the motion goes to infinity, basically making high speed travel almost impossible.

How is it that Particle accelerators are able to accelerate Protons at 99.99% of 'c'? Protons do possesses mass don't they?

They are able to do that using lots and lots of energy/power/electricity, and by kicking the particles faster a little bit at a time during each pass. It is why the Tevatron at Fermilab is so large, and why the LHC being built at CERN is even larger. Just to go from 99.99%c to 99.999%c takes A LOT of resources.

Zz.

 

[amt]

To accelerate 1 proton to 99% of 'c', how much energy is required?

If the particle accelerator has a radius of 5 miles, how many revolutions has the proton got to make before achieving 99% of 'c'?

Thanks.

 

[ZapperZ]

To accelerate 1 proton to 99% of 'c', how much energy is required?

If the particle accelerator has a radius of 5 miles, how many revolutions has the proton got to make before achieving 99% of 'c'?

Thanks.

Er... just find the KE with v=0.99c if you want to do this classically, or add a "gamma" factor into the relatistic KE. That will give you roughly the ballpark values.

The 2nd question does not have an answer because it depends on A LOT of things, such as what kind of acceleration mechanism is being used, how many cells are in the linac, etc.

Zz.