Well, I think the point of the problem is to use the ratio and plug in some of the circuit equations. I'm not sure if this is for a grade or what, so I won't explicity say which equations. Just remember that for R and L in series, only one current goes through them. You have expressions for...
Actually, it's not that much different in grad school. Lots of these astronomers will find something accidentally. In fact, even more generally, many discoveries are accidents.
Well first off, we probably shouldn't slam him yet since I don't think anyone has any idea what a regenreating machine is. If he's talking about a regenerating machine, he'd need to elaborate a bit more. In any event, magnetism has little to no effect on neutron flux in any reasonable regime...