CERN in numbers
The picture tube in a living room and the biggest machine on Earth do the same thing: they accelerate charged particles, steer them with fields and turn their energy into an image. The difference is scale. Here are eight comparisons, each on a log scale.
An electron in a picture tube is accelerated by about 25 kV. A proton in the LHC carries over a quarter of a billion times more energy, and it is still only comparable to a flying mosquito.
A CRT electron flies at almost a third of the speed of light. An LHC proton misses the speed of light by roughly walking pace.
From the electron gun to the phosphor is less than half a metre. An LHC proton laps a ring that runs under two countries.
A picture tube starts with a glowing cathode. The LHC is the opposite: its magnets are cooled below the temperature of outer space (2.7 K).
Both devices need emptiness so the beam does not crash into air. The LHC pipe is about a thousand times emptier than a picture tube.
An electron ends its life on the phosphor after a single flight. A proton can circulate for hours, completing over eleven thousand laps every second.
The electron beam in a television carries a fraction of a joule in flight. An LHC beam carries the energy of a speeding train, which is why dumping it safely has a dedicated system.
The LHC's screen is a detector. ATLAS weighs about as much as the Eiffel Tower, and instead of a TV programme it records images of collisions.
A charge accelerates in an electric field, a magnetic field bends its path, and energy turns into light or signal. The picture tube and the LHC are the same physics lesson told at two scales.