That Time Stuyvesant Students Built a Particle Accelerator

The sheer complexity and technical know-how inherent in building a particle accelerator made this a considerable undertaking for a group of teenagers, even if they were considered the best and brightest students in New York City. But the project began in earnest; the students began to build the machine from scratch. Donations of materials from multiple manufacturing companies helped keep the project afloat, and the students received a half-ton of steel, five miles of copper wire, and an already-constructed transmitter for a control system. In the end, various other donations and fundraising efforts by the students helped to dramatically lower the price of construction to $10,000. While this already seems like a huge amount (especially in the 1960s), consider that the Large Hadron Collider (the largest particle accelerator in the world) cost a total of $6.4 billion and took around 30 years to build.

The Committee divided the student task force into small, specialized groups, each tasked with constructing or designing parts of the cyclotron; one group designed the electromagnet, another created the vacuum chamber, and so on. Testimonies from Stuyvesant students and teachers of the time indicated that the power required for the accelerator to function “tanked the electrical system for the building and surrounding area,” an effective indicator of the sheer scale of such a project.

The Cyclotron Committee was not formed solely in the spirit of scientific curiosity nor of patriotism. Besides contributing to incredible advancements in medicine, chemistry, and physics, particle accelerators present awe-inspiring possibilities that, at times, almost seem to cross into the realm of science fiction. In 2010, world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking published an article asserting that particle accelerators are the “last and best hope of building a real time machine.” Given Einstein’s foundational theory that time slows down for fast-moving objects to protect the cosmic limit of light speed, Hawking reasoned that it would theoretically be possible to transport humans to the future through the temporal fourth dimension. The only machine capable of transporting matter to such speeds as of now is a particle accelerator, though it is limited to only the most minuscule of particles. Particle accelerators can also reach temperatures of up to 7.2 trillion degrees (close to the estimated temperature of the universe just after the Big Bang), and the inside of the Large Hadron Collider is regularly kept in subzero conditions (colder than outer space.) Though their efforts clearly could not match the scale of the Collider —which began construction in 1976—the Stuyvesant students of the Cyclotron Committee undoubtedly hoped, aided by their own skill and will, to capture each of the fascinating elements of the creation of a particle accelerator. The 1962 issue of the Indicator suggests that the machine was completed, but to this day there seems to be no evidence of the project's actual completion.

Stuyvesant students are often credited as exceptional, whether it is in academics, service, or creativity. Like true scientists, they challenge themselves and push the limits of nature and of knowledge, turning fiction into reality and driving society to ever greater heights. Even though its ambitious goals never achieved fruition, the Cyclotron Committee retains its impressive mark on school history, serving as one of the crowning achievements of the school ever since its inception.