Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Cockcroft-Walton accelerator

Cockcroft-Walton accelerator

9.9
A device that uses electrical parts to make high voltage and speed charged particles through a tube
  • noun
  • /ˈkɒkkrɒft ˈwɔːltən əˈkʃɛləreɪtər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : acelerador Cockcroft-Walton
  • A Cockcroft-Walton accelerator can generate the high voltages needed for certain types of nuclear experiments.

Examples

  • The Cockcroft-Walton accelerator was crucial in some of the first experiments to split the atom.

  • Many early particle physics labs constructed their own Cockcroft-Walton accelerators for research purposes.

  • The Cockcroft-Walton accelerator is essential for nuclear physics research.

  • Many laboratories use the Cockcroft-Walton accelerator for experiments.

  • A Cockcroft-Walton accelerator can generate the high voltages needed for certain types of nuclear experiments.

  • The Cockcroft-Walton accelerator was crucial in some of the first experiments to split the atom.

  • Many laboratories use the Cockcroft-Walton accelerator to facilitate high-energy physics research.

Synonyms

Cockcroft and Walton accelerator
vsCockcroft-Walton accelerator
  • Specialized
9.9

A machine that makes very high voltage to push small charged particles through a tube

is the same machine but written as a hyphenated name

Surface Forms

Cockcroft-Walton accelerator singular
Cockcroft-Walton accelerators plural

Morphology

Cockcroft-Walton + accelerator

The phrase pairs an opaque proper-name eponym ('Cockcroft-Walton' conveys no lexical meaning) with the transparent noun 'accelerator', so a B1 learner who knows 'accelerator' can infer it is a specific kind of accelerator but cannot derive the technical sense or mechanism from the name. Because the category is predictable but the detailed meaning is not, the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Cockcroft-Walton accelerator is named after the scientists Cockcroft and Walton, who built an early machine that used a series of parts like a 'ladder' to make a very high voltage and push charged particles down a tube. So the name recalls that ladder-like way of raising voltage and is used for this kind of 'high-voltage' particle accelerator.