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Obliv
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I realize there have been multiple threads on this and believe me I tried my hardest to find these answers from them and other resources.
Questions: 1) Is the van de graaff generator a particle collider? I am under the impression that it is meant to follow up on the Cockroft-Walton accelerator and provide insight on the nucleus. I know that the cockroft-walton accelerator collided protons with lithium atoms. What baffles me is that the van de graaff generator is just two spheres that produce a potential difference with air as the insulator. How does this provide collision between particles?
edit: from http://bt.pa.msu.edu/pub/papers/steeremsc/steeremsc.pdf page 4-6 he talks about this accelerator and doesn't mention collisions so i assume now that it was not used for that. What else could it be used for? Is electrical breakdown desired, to produce sparks?
2) how do oscillating field accelerators work? I looked this up and cannot find the reason for how they circumvent the issue of electrical breakdown that the electrostatic accelerators consistently met with. I don't understand how they work in the first place so an in detail answer would be greatly appreciated.
This is for a final project for my ap physics class if anyone is wondering
Questions: 1) Is the van de graaff generator a particle collider? I am under the impression that it is meant to follow up on the Cockroft-Walton accelerator and provide insight on the nucleus. I know that the cockroft-walton accelerator collided protons with lithium atoms. What baffles me is that the van de graaff generator is just two spheres that produce a potential difference with air as the insulator. How does this provide collision between particles?
edit: from http://bt.pa.msu.edu/pub/papers/steeremsc/steeremsc.pdf page 4-6 he talks about this accelerator and doesn't mention collisions so i assume now that it was not used for that. What else could it be used for? Is electrical breakdown desired, to produce sparks?
2) how do oscillating field accelerators work? I looked this up and cannot find the reason for how they circumvent the issue of electrical breakdown that the electrostatic accelerators consistently met with. I don't understand how they work in the first place so an in detail answer would be greatly appreciated.
This is for a final project for my ap physics class if anyone is wondering
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