The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is the world’s largest machine, capable of accelerating particles to 99.9999991% of the speed of light. The canceled Superconducting Super Collider in Texas would have been larger. The F60 Overburden Conveyor Bridge in Germany is the largest machine with similar length, width, and height, while the Knock Nevis supertanker is the largest machine capable of traveling long distances.
The largest machine in the world is the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. It has a circumference of 27 km (17 mi). If the Superconducting Super Collider in Waxahachie, Texas hadn’t been canceled in 1993, that would be the largest machine in the world, as it had a planned circumference of 87.1 km (54 mi). The Large Hadron Collider is capable of accelerating protons or heavy ions up to 99.9999991% of the speed of light, reaching a collision energy of 14 TeV (tera-electron volts). 14 TeV is about 14 times the energy of a flying mosquito, but packed into a single proton, which is about 1021, or ten trillion times less massive than a mosquito.
Despite their very large size, the Large Hadron Collider and other massive particle accelerators are essentially one-dimensional and move in a relatively thin ring. The largest machine that has similar length, width, and height is the F60 Overburden Conveyor Bridge in Lichterfeld, Germany. This machine is 505 m (1,656 ft) long, 202 m (663 ft) wide and 80 m (262 ft) high, weighing 11,000 tons. Built in East Germany by VEB TAKRAF Lauchhammer, the Conveyor Bridge is larger than the Eiffel Tower that stands on its side, but was closed after only 13 months of operation for energy-political reasons. The Overburden Conveyor Bridge is the world’s largest car capable of moving, but it can only travel short distances along dedicated train tracks.
Knock Nevis, the largest supertanker in the world, is the largest machine capable of traveling long distances. This supertanker is 1,504 ft (458 m) long, 226 ft (69 m) wide, and 100 ft (30 m) high, with a deadweight (maximum weight) of 564,763 tonnes, or half a megaton. This vessel operated from 1979 to 2004, now used simply as a floating storage and offloading unit. The vessel has such a large draft (part under water) that it was unable to cross the English Channel. Knock Nevis would be the fourth largest skyscraper in the world if it were a tower.
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