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collider

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col·​lid·​er | \ kə-ˈlī-dər How to pronounce collider (audio) \

Definition of collider

: a particle accelerator in which two beams of particles moving in opposite directions are made to collide

Examples of collider in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web One experiment used a particle collider, and the other used a prepared chip maze. — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, "This Incredible Particle Only Arises in Two Dimensions," 18 Dec. 2020 Others wanted the United States to help push for the next big collider. — Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, "With to-do list checked off, U.S. physicists ask, ‘What’s next?’," 2 Oct. 2020 Going by the running costs for the Large Hadron Collider, those costs for the new collider would probably amount to at least $1 billion per year. — Sabine Hossenfelder, Scientific American, "The World Doesn't Need a New, Gigantic Particle Collider," 19 June 2020 The scientific case for a next larger collider is therefore presently slim. — Sabine Hossenfelder, Scientific American, "The World Doesn't Need a New, Gigantic Particle Collider," 19 June 2020 In low-energy collider experiments (and accordingly at low densities of matter), protons and neutrons bounce cleanly off each other like billiard balls. — Charlie Wood, Popular Science, "Why are big neutron stars like Tootsie Pops?," 5 June 2020 Existing particle colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva, have not generated the leads to new physics that they were expected to produce. — Daniel Garisto, Scientific American, "MICE Cold: Collaboration Demonstrates Muon Ionization Cooling," 5 Feb. 2020 In traditional circular colliders, this loss limits the particles’ maximum energy. — Daniel Garisto, Scientific American, "Japan Inches Forward with Plans to Host Next Big Particle Collider," 26 Feb. 2020 The new collider was proposed as part of the ongoing discussion surrounding the course of European particle physics in upcoming decades. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "Scientists Are Planning a New Particle Collider That Absolutely Dwarfs the LHC," 16 Jan. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'collider.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of collider

1979, in the meaning defined above

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The first known use of collider was in 1979

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Cite this Entry

“Collider.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collider. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.

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More from Merriam-Webster on collider

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about collider

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