Question: what is an electron engine

Matt Maddock answered on 15 Mar 2012:

Boy – these questions are getting tough! It might be best if you read the question and answer I’ve posted below to get us started!

/measurementm12-zone/2012/03/what-is-a-superconducting-rf-cavitie

To keep our particle accelerator working, we have to provide the equivalent of about 300 microwave oven’s worth of power to each of two superconducting RF cavities. – that’s 600 microwave ovens in total! Before we can pipe that much power anywhere, we have to generate it! We have a big room full of amplifiers, from little ones similar to what you get in a radio or a television to make the sound louder, up to bigger ones like you might get in a cinema to make sound REALLY LOUD, then up to huge ones that are like television transmitters. We don’t amplify sound, though – we amplify radio waves. We put them in at one end of the smallest amplifier and then link that up to the next biggest, then the next and so on until we get that 600 Microwave oven’s worth at the other end!

We don’t really call all this an electron engine – that was just an easy way to describe it – but it’s a pretty accurate way too! If you think of the electrons going around our particle accelerator as being a bit like the wheel of a car, then I work to keep the engine of that car running and the wheel turning!

That all seems a bit complicated, even to me, so feel free to ask more questions below and I’ll try to clear things up if I can!