Atom smasher

Westinghouse constructs its Atom Smasher in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. The five million volt van de Graaff generator represents the first large-scale program in nuclear physics established in industry, makes possible precise measurements of nuclear reactions, and provides valuable research experience for the company s pioneering work in nuclear power. 

The five million-volt van de Graaff generator, Westinghouse Atom Smasher, 1937, represents the first large-scale program in nuclear physics established by industry. 

Beryllium is an excellent source of alpha particles, which are the nuclei of helium atoms. Alpha particles (radiation) are not very penetrating. These particles travel only a few inches in air and can be stopped by a sheet of cardboard. Alpha particles are produced in cyclotrons (atom smashers) and are used to bombard the nuclei of other elements to study their characteristics. 

One of the most useful characteristics of iron is its natural magnetism, which it loses at high temperatures. Magnetism can also be introduced into iron products by electrical induction. Magnets of all sizes and shapes are used in motors, atom smashers, GT scanners, and... 

The elements above atomic number 92 (shown shaded) are not found in nature but can be created in atom smashers the atoms break up in radioactive decay processes very quickly. 

Cyclotron A particle accelerator, or "atom smasher," in which small particles, such as protons, are made to travel very fast and then collide with atoms, causing the atoms to break apart. 

In 1940, three chemists working at the University of California at Berkeley found evidence of element 85. Dale R. Corson, Kenneth R. Mackenzie, and Emilio Segre (1905-1989) found evidence of element 85 at the end of an experiment they were conducting with a cyclotron. A cyclotton is a particle accelerator, or atom smasher. In a cyclotron, small particles, such as protons, are made to travel at high speeds. The particles collide with atoms, causing the atoms to break apart into other elements. 

In 1949, element number 97 was produced in a particle accelerator on the UCB campus. A particle accelerator is sometimes called an atom smasher. It is used to speed up very small particles and atoms, which then collide with atoms of such elements as gold, copper, or tin. These atoms are called targets. When the particles strike target atoms precisely, the atom is converted into a new element. 

Galifornium was first prepared in a particle accelerator, or an atom smasher, which accelerates subatomic particles or atoms to very high speeds. The particles collide with a target, such as gold, copper, or tin. The target atoms are converted into new elements by the interaction. 

Particle accelerator ("atom smasher") A device used to cause small particles, such as protons, to move at very high speeds. 

Francium is now produced in particle accelerators, which are also called atom smashers. These machines accelerate small particles, like protons, to nearly the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second). The particles collide with target atoms, such as copper, gold, or tin. Target atoms fragment, forming new elements and particles. 

Promethium is one of the most fascinating of all chemical elements. It has never been found on Earth s surface. Scientists know of it only because it can be prepared artificially in particle accelerators ( atom smashers ) and in other unusual reactions. Its existence was predicted as early as 1902, but its discovery was not confirmed until 1945. 

Particle accelerator ("atom smasher") A machine that makes very tiny particles, like protons or small atoms, move very fast. 

All transfermium elements are made in particle accelerators, or atom smashers. A particle accelerator is a machine that makes particles move very fast. These particles may be as small as protons or positrons or as large as ions of atoms such as nickel and zinc. They often go nearly as fast as the speed of light. Light travels about 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second). 

Credit for discovery of a transfermium element is extremely complicated. In most cases, no more than a handful of atoms is produced in an atom smasher. For example, the Dubna group first claimed to have found element 104 in 1964, but many scientists doubted this report. Five years later, American scientists also reported making element 104. This time, the evidence was better. 

The scientific interest in the elements since the middle of the twentieth century has been closely linked to the development of physics and the demands of the Cold War arms race. As chemists and physicists looked into the interior of the atom, they learned more about the structure of matter, and that knowledge, in turn, allowed a degree of control over the creation of matter. Nuclear reactors can now produce both useful and deadly materials even as they put a new source of power in to the hands of people around the world. The atom smashers, as the cyclotrons and accelerators were sometimes called, made new elements possible, and scientists continues to explore the elements, looking for the islands of stability among the superheavy elements. 

Particle accelerators called cyclotrons (atom smashers) and linear accelerators have overcome the problem of repulsion. A cyclotron (Figure 26-7) consists of two hollow, D-shaped electrodes called dees. Both dees are in an evacuated enclosure between the poles of an electromagnet. The particles to be accelerated are introduced at the center in the... 

As early as 1903, Ramsay demonstrated that helium was a product of the radioactive disintegration of radium. His experiment was an early example of the transmutation of one element into another. Today, helium is used as a source of bombarding particles in modern atom smashers. The helium nucleus—stripped of the atom s two electrons—is a common product of radioactivity and is known also as an "alpha particle. ... 

The cyclotron is the atom-smasher which has been in on the birth of practically all of the synthetic elements. 

This is not a difficult experiment to perform on a modest scale. We can bombard the silver in an ordinary 50-cent piece with neutrons by putting it in a miniature atom - smasher which has a neutron source of radium mixed with beryllium. 

Ernest Orlando Lawrence was a pioneer of big science, the use of com-pbcated and expensive instrumentation by large teams of researchers. He is best known for inventing the cyclotron, one of the first and most successful atom smashers. With this particle accelerator, Lawrence and his colleagues were able to make new radioactive isotopes, synthesize transuranium... 

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