ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (often referred to as SLAC) is a super-special building where very smart people work to learn more about tiny little things we cannot even see!

Think of it like a giant microscope! A microscope helps us see things that are too small for our eyes to see, like tiny bugs or germs. But SLAC helps us see things that are even smaller than those things, like particles that make up everything around us!

Inside SLAC, there is a really long tube, like a really long straw. This tube is almost 2 miles long and is a special kind of tube called an "accelerator." In the accelerator, scientists use electricity to make tiny subatomic particles (like electrons) move really, really fast.

These fast-moving particles then crash into other particles and make even tinier particles (like protons and neutrons) that we couldn't see before.

When scientists study these tiny particles, they learn more about how everything around us is made and how it all works together. It's like putting together a puzzle! By learning about these little pieces, scientists can better understand the big picture of how our universe works.

So, SLAC is an important place where very smart people use a really long tube to learn about the tiniest things in the world that we can't even see!