That's not a particle accelerator...

[Celeritas]

I seem to remember a "Horizon" program some years ago about the project (when it was first muted) I have this memory of animations of the detectors and the like. It may have been a documentary on the previous collider and ended with the outline of the Cern project

I take it you've read things like the following

http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/acta/vol37/pdf/v37p1039.pdf

AS for parents allowing children to do it how far should parents limit their child's enthusiasm for science.

"Dad Mom, would you mind if I built particle accelerator in the yard"

"Well I don't think thats a good idea junior, We may have to knock the garage down and buy uncles Bills house first"

"OK Pop, I'll get the sledgehammer"

"You do that junior I'll get Bill on the phone"

Or :-

Dad Mom, I read this great article on a thing called the Manhattan project and I'd like to give it a try"

Well... Well you know junior thats some experiment you're thinking of doing and it could be dangerous. How about we do the Appolo program instead."

kind of thing

ROFLMFFAO!!

I have no doubt this will be a long and involved project. Mike(my physicist friend) and I have been blathering on the phone about this for quite awhile. we're both really excited. we bounce ideas off each other really well. he'll handle the mathematical nessecities though since he's also my math tutor, he feels this would be an excellent learning experience(translation: mike's insane but likes to hide it behind seemingly logical excuses.)
interesting document, I scanned the first page and will fully consider it when I have a minute.

like I said, this is gonna take a while but we're just crazy enough to try. i'm talking about a betatron by the way...a particle accelerator in my backyard banged together with spare parts is a little ambitious, even for me. =P

chris can I pm you with questions as this thing evolves?