cathode ray
2
7.0
- noun
- /ˈkæθoʊd reɪ/
- Specialized
:
rayo catódico
- Images from space are drawn in much the same manner on a television-like screen (a cathode-ray tube).
- cathode-ray tube
- cathode-ray experiment
- cathode-ray-tube monitor
Examples
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So the way the cathode ray tubes work is by accelerating electrons and slamming them into a fluorescent screen.
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Rontgen was interested in experiments with cathode ray tubes and the quality of the produced rays.
Academic text (1995) -
But still no one knew the nature of the cathode rays themselves.
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The images can be displayed and recorded on a cathode ray tube similar to one in a television.
Academic text (2000) -
His eyes were glued to the cathode-ray tube screen.
Fiction book (1991) -
The discovery of cathode rays had followed continued improvements in the art of pumping gases out of closed containers.
Academic text (1995) -
To investigate this question, he made measurements on the charge-to-mass ratio of cathode rays.
Academic text (1997) -
And cathode ray tubes can also be engineered to be instruments of perception and behave like cameras.
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Working with the cathode-ray tube required understanding the late 19th-century technologies of gas discharges and vacuum pumps.
Academic text (1997) -
The images can be displayed and recorded on a cathode ray tube similar to one in a television.
Synonyms
1
4.6
A focused stream of tiny charged particles used to make images in special microscopes
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a beam emitted from a cathode' is directly compositional from 'cathode' (an electrode that emits electrons) + 'ray' (a beam), so a learner who knows both constituent meanings can infer the MWE. Although the term is technical, its structure is literal and cross-linguistically regular, making it transparent rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Cathode ray comes from experiments with old glass tubes used in early electronics. The part called the cathode sent out a narrow 'ray' of tiny invisible particles that made a bright line on a screen, so cathode ray means the beam used in old televisions and oscilloscopes.