The Cyclotron

In order to make a nuclear weapon out of uranium, you need a certain amount of ?good? uranium. Uranium is more abundant as Uranium 235, but Uranium 238 is considered ?good? for fission. To separate the ?good? and ?bad? Uranium it is ionized and fired into a chamber with a strong magnetic field. The different Uranium hits different places on a target plate and is then scraped off.

Target plate V = 1 MV B-field (into the page) X X X X X X X Uranium ion entering chamber X X X X X X X X The numbers 235 and 238 refers to how many neutrons are present in each atom of Uranium. The Uranium is ionized (a single electron is removed from the Uranium atoms). The mass of a Uranium 238 ion is 3.983x10-25 kg. a) What is the mass of a Uranium 235 ion? These ionized atoms are accelerated with an electric potential of V = 1 Megavolt. b) What is the charge of a Uranium ion (consider what it is missing)? c) What is the speed at which the Uranium 235 exits the electric potential? d) What is the speed at which the Uranium 238 exits the electric potential? After being accelerated, they are fired into a chamber with a magnetic field of B = 1.5 T. There is a target plate positioned right next to where the ions enter the chamber. e) At what position do the U235 ions hit the plate? f) At what position do the U238 ions hit the plate?