# Energy of the particles in the particle accelerator

Recently I came across something and I was surprised. I always thought that huge amount of energy is required to accelerate particles in the accelerator in the particle physics.But looks like no. The peak energy of proton beams at the LHC now is around 7 trillion electron Volts (TeV), which is only like 0.00000121J. So energy involved in particles accelerators is not that much then or am I missing something.? May be since the mass of these partciles is so small, their velocity needs to really high to get this much energy and may be that is the big deal.?

• 7 TeVs are over 11 ergs! 7000 times more than the mass of a proton is not a lot? At the moment of impact, energywise, the protons are mostly kinetic energy. How do you define "that much"? – Cosmas Zachos Mar 28 at 0:14
• @CosmasZachos I think the OP means that LHC energy is not that high compared to other energy scales in nature, for instance in this list (which includes the LHC value too) here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(energy) – Avantgarde Mar 28 at 2:06
• Similarly, energy of superlasers is not "that much" either. The key point is not the absolute amount of energy, but it's intensity, concentration in the small amount of matter, like in LHC, or in small volume and time window, like the laser power of the fusion projects. – Poutnik Mar 28 at 6:43
• Imagine energy needed to accelerate 1 g of protons. You would need energy equivalent to anihilation of 2x3.5 kg of matter and antimatter. Or fusion of about 1000 kg of hydrogen to helium, if I remember correctly . – Poutnik Mar 28 at 6:49
• In one of his books, Sean Carroll mentions that the total energy of all the 500 trillion protons is comparable to that of an "onrushing locomotive engine". – user191954 Mar 28 at 8:10

• $300\cdot10^{12}$ particles times $0.00000121J$ gives $363 MJ$... – cmaster Mar 28 at 6:58