What the Cyclotron Taught Me About Building and Maintaining Relationships

The cyclotron is a particle accelerating device that is used by physicists to accelerate charged particles to very high velocities. What's so interesting about this device is the way in which it accelerates the particles.

It consists of two D-shaped hollow metal discsplaced next to each other with a gap between the flat ends. Imagine a hollow doughnut (a toroid) placed on a horizontal surface that has been cut along the diameter with a gap between the cut edges.

A uniform vertical magnetic field is created in the region inside the D-shaped discs. The charged particles are released at the central gap between the D-shaped discs. The D-shaped discs are connected to an AC voltage source whose voltage changes sign with a frequency that matches the frequency with which the charged particles cross-over the gap between the D-shaped discs.

While the vertical magnetic field makes the charged particles move in a curved circular path without influencing its speed (magnetic field can only change the direction of motion of charged particles), the alternating voltage gives the push to the charged particles at just the right time (when the particles are crossing over the gap) and in the right directionevery time. Thus, the electric field always has only a positive effect on the speed of the charged particle. Thus, due to the increasing velocity, the charged particle starts moving in bigger and bigger circular paths, until the radius of its path becomes greater than the radius of the cyclotron disc and it emerges outside (gets liberated from the cyclotron) with a very high energy and velocity.

So what can we learn about building and maintaining relationships by understanding the working of a cyclotron?