The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently operating at the energy of 4 TeV per beam. At this energy, the trillions of particles circle the collider's 27-kilometre tunnel 11,245 times per second. Before they reach the LHC, the particles are sped up in a series of interconnected linear and circular accelerators: once they reach the maximum speed that one part of the accelerator chain can achieve, they are shot into the next. Without any other force involved, the particles would drift apart and their momentum would carry them in a straight line. More than 50 types of magnets are needed to send them along complex paths without their losing speed.