Question: what do you use a particle accelerator for?

Joshaniel Cooper answered on 18 Nov 2014:

I use two differnt types of particle accelerator, one which accelerates protons and shoots them into a big lump of metal to make netrons (the reason this happens is actually quite complicated and I’m still not entirely sure I know). I then use the neutrons because they are magnetic to look at my magnets. The other type accelerates electrons, but doesn’t shoot them at stuff. Instead, it accelerates them around a curve, which makes them give out x-rays. These x-rays have very specific energies and allow me to look at the energy levels of the electrons in the atoms of my materials. I can also tell how magnetic each type of atom is using this technique (it is called x-ray magnetic circular dichroism if you are interested).