Van de Graaff

1. American physicist who in 1929 invented an improved electrostatic generator (later called the Van de Graaff generator) that was adapted for use as a particle accelerator. The generator became an important research tool for atomic physicists and was also used to produce high-energy x-rays helpful in treating cancer.

Example Sentences

“The John Trump I knew would have been horrified,” said John Van de Graaff, whose father, the famed scientist Robert Van de Graaff, was John Trump’s longtime business partner.

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The contraption was a huge Van de Graaff generator of the sort you can see throwing off sparks and raising hair at science museums.

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Juliet did try to Van de Graaff generator, which is a silver sphere that generates static electricity.

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In the display, the scale model of the 65-foot Van de Graaff generator looks as it did when it began operations in 1937.

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There he was immersed in an effort to produce high-energy protons to probe the atomic nucleus, using his balky Tesla coils and Van de Graaff generators.

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