The 3D model shown above is of course a simplified representation of a particle accelerator and particle beam. Real accelerators are significantly larger and have vastly more components. Where the visualization shows only five magnets, a real accelerator might have hundreds or even thousands of magnets. Combined with other components, it is not uncommon for these facilties to have tens if not hundreds of thousands of control parameters. At the same time the charged particle beam in reality is so small that it is invisible to the naked eye. Using this vast number of control parameters, this tiny particle beam needs to be controlled over multiple kilometers of beam pipe down to precisions of a few tens of micrometers. For reference that is about the same as throwning a pea from Hamburg to Munich, hoping to hit a target the size of another pea. What is more, users of particle accelerators continue to ask for ever more demanding experimental setups, requiring even more precise control of the particle beam.