"An electron volt is a unit of energy that is commonly used in particle physics to describe atomic and nuclear processes (a volt, it should be noted, is not). More specifically, it is the kinetic energy gained by an electron as it is accelerated through a potential difference of one volt. A volt is equivalent to one joule (J), another measure of energy, per coulomb (C), a measure of electric charge. A single electron volt comes out to 1.602 × 10-19 J. The record-smashing energy generated by the LHC's collision events, therefore, only corresponds to 3.78 × 10-7 J, a minuscule quantity of energy. A 100-watt light bulb left on for an hour, by comparison, consumes 360,000 J. "