Kern The Gnome

I weigh 307.65g at CERN, Geneva.

This result is consistent with what I would expect from my previous results. SNOLAB, Canada was a similar latitude and my weight only differs 0.02g between these 2 locations. Compare the results on my map.

The closer I am to the equator, the less I should weigh. The velocity of the Earth’s spin at the equator is 1,670km/hr. This counteracts the force of gravity by up to 0.3%. Also because of the equatorial bulge I will be further from the centre of our planet. The further apart 2 objects are, the weaker the gravitational attraction will be between them. I really should visit Kenya, Indonesia or Ecuador and take a control reading exactly on the equator.

The man in the photographs who is helping me to conduct my experiment is Mick Storr, Head Of Education and Outreach at CERN. A great host who seemed as pleased to meet me as I was to meet him.

The location for this experiment was the actual Control Room for the Large Hadron Collider. The scientists stopped working to watch my weigh in. I hope that they didn’t miss the Higgs boson while they were turned away from their screens!

Kern gnome at CERN, Part 1.

Find out why CERN is such a special place for me here.

Here I am stood outside the elegant wooden dome entrance. I couldn’t wait get inside, explore and meet as many scientists as possible.

I had a thorough investigation of the piping which contains the accelerating proton beams for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). I even got to go inside the pipe, which is much the same dimensions as the entrance tunnel to my house back in Balingen, Germany.

Then straight on to the Control Room for the LHC. To think that a press of one of these buttons could eventually lead to the detection of the Higgs boson! The scientists were hard at work, but didn’t mind answering my gnomish enquiries, and were also keen to find out about my much smaller experiment (find out about my latest reading tomorrow).