Question

Give an application of a cyclotron.

Answer 1

Hint:In order to give an application of a cyclotron, you need to know what a cyclotron is. After picturing what is cyclotron and knowing its principles and its working, determine where you can use a cyclotron. The working and principles of cyclotron will give you an obvious idea of the application of cyclotron.

Complete answer:
A cyclotron is a gadget or a device which was invented by Ernest O. Lawrence. It is a particle accelerator. It accelerates the charged particle radially outward along a spiral path.A cyclotron consists of dees. These dees are actually two D-shaped hollow sheet metal electrodes and are placed face to face.

As a result, they create a cylindrical space for the particles to follow their trajectory and move.The dees are placed in between a large electromagnet which produces a strong and static magnetic field. The particles are injected from the centre. When the particles move with constant speed, it will just perform a circular motion due to the force acting on it due to the static magnetic field.

That is why an alternating electric field or a potential difference is applied across the dees which accelerates the particles.As you can see that the cyclotron is used to accelerate the particles, it is used in nuclear physics experiments as a source of high energy beams.

Note:You should keep in mind the basic working principle of a cyclotron. It consists of two D-shaped metal electrodes and is placed in between a large electromagnet. The point to be noted here , is that the electric field or the potential which is applied across the dees is alternating and its frequency is very specific so that when the particle moves from one dee to the other, the polarity of the voltage reverses and the particle is accelerating in the correct manner.