( CNN ) -- A 50-foot-wide , 15-ton magnet is about to set out on a 3,200-mile barge-and-truck tour down the East Coast of the United States , around Florida and up from the Gulf to Chicago before going to work to measure one of the smallest particles known to science . Currently at the Department of Energy 's Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island , New York , the massive particle storage ring is scheduled to travel to another DOE facility at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the suburbs of Chicago , where scientists hope it will help more accurately measure the properties of subatomic particles called muons . The tiny particles exist for only 2.2 millionths of a second , according to a press release from the Brookhaven lab . The massive magnet creates a magnetic field 30,000 times the Earth 's magnetic field , but is so fragile that the coil it contains ca n't bend more than a tenth of an inch to maintain its current precision . The voyage , scheduled to begin on Saturday and end in July , will send the metal behemoth on a journey on trucks and barges . For safety , when it is on the road it will be traveling about 5 mph , so most of the highway portion will happen at night to limit traffic interference . Once settled in its new home , the magnet will be part of an experiment measuring what is called in physics the g-2 ( pronounced the gee minus two ) of the muon . The existing measurement is already very precise and one of the most well-defined measurements in physics . Nearly every physics theory has required it as a baseline , according to Fermilab . The goal of the new measurement is precision to 140 parts per billion -- the same as measuring the length of a football field to a precision of one-tenth the thickness of a human hair . This experiment aims to find a measurement four times more precise than the currently accepted measurement . Should that value be substantially different from the value current equations predict , it could usher in a new era of particle physics , scientists say . Fermilab has a website tracking the location of the magnet at http : //muon-g-2.fnal.gov/bigmove/ .
The 50-foot-wide , 15-ton magnet is now at a lab on Long Island . It needs to get to a lab near Chicago , where it will help measure subatomic particles . The barge-and-truck trip will go down the East Coast , around Florida and up from the Gulf . The trip is scheduled to begin Saturday .