... which particles can move freely * A way of speeding up the particles Charged particles can be accelerated by an electrostatic field. British scientists John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton were able to accelerate protons to 250,000 eV , by placing electrodes with a large potential difference at each end of an evacuated tube. The Van de Graaff accelerator uses the same principles as the Van de Graaff Generator. The Van de Graaff accelerator builds up a potential between two electrodes by transporting charges on a moving belt. This can accelerate particles to energies as high as 15 million eV. Accelerators are used to explore atomic nuclei, helping nuclear scientists to identify new elements and to explain the interactions that affect the entire nucleus. Several hundred of fundamental particles have been identified. Physicists hope to discover rules or principles that will permit arrangement of subnuclear particles. Such an arrangement would be ...

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