It’s day 8 and we’re down to the final 3. We’re sorry to see Amanda leave the competition, but only one engineer will be crowned the winner! Who will it be?

Today’s highlights:

• 

  Playing with LEGO is all good practice for a career in engineering… Image by Fir0002 for Wikimedia

  You might already have some ‘engineering’ experience…

oceannedawn : Does lego building count as engineering? If so, I have had early experience

garyboorman : I think LEGO counts – lots of unis use it to teach engineering principles (gearboxes, control systems etc). Check out LEGO Mindstorms – it’s great!

• From how to create a particle accelerator… to how to create new particles:

thegeckoguynetwork : What materials do you use to make a particle accelerator?

bendrumm : mostly copper (for magnets), stainless steel (for most of the vacuum equipment), mild steel (for structures e.g. frames) and magnetic steel (for magnets too!)

wilhelm : Why is it important to take pictures of protons colliding? How will it help us in the future?

samerkilani : By colliding protons at almost the speed of light you can actually create new particles. We collide 200 billion protons 40 million times a second. Everytime we get a different collision and if we are lucky we create a particle we have never seen before

• And some great questions in ASK too:

What would happen if you stood inside the particle accelerator when it is switched on?

What’s the most useless thing you’ve made/designed?

Do you find your work rewarding?

Plus the answer to the question you’ve all been waiting for… Does long hair get in the way of engineering?