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I want to ask about Anatoli Bugorski, the scientist who accidentally put his head in an active particle accelerator. My question is about the shape of his wound, and I don't understand why it was relatively circular, not linear.

Should I ask in Physics.SE, History of Science and Mathematics.SE, perhaps Biology.SE, or somewhere else entirely?

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    $\begingroup$ It's not obvious what physics is involved in this. The wound was a straight line through his head with a circular cross section, i.e. a cylinder, and that's because the beam had a circular cross section. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Apr 2, 2021 at 7:33
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnRennie I assumed some design detail of the accelerator might explain it. I also thought that since the beam was travelling some significant percent of the speed of light, the wound should have looked more like he pushed his head into a band saw. How did he not get hit until his head was completely in front of it? You can see in photos that he was hit near the middle of his head. $\endgroup$
    – Ryan_L
    Apr 2, 2021 at 15:22
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    $\begingroup$ @Ryan_L - your understanding of what a particle beam might do is exaggerated quite a bit. If you moved your arm through the beam it would not be chopped off. Dwell time on a spot is the answer. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Apr 2, 2021 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ That question is, for some reason, currently being promoted by the YouTube algorithm: What happens if you put your head in a particle accelerator? (posted before 1st April, on 2021-03-26. Current stats: 2.5 million views, 120,000 upvotes, and 7,800 comments). Why? Some viral thing? $\endgroup$
    – Peter Mortensen
    Apr 7, 2021 at 4:15

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