AUSTRALIAN SYNCHROTRON SCIENCE AND MATHS student activity

11.2 In the path of the electron

Electrons and polygons
The synchrotron consists of three stages the linear accelerator, the booster ring and the storage ring. The storage ring is used to contain the electrons while maintaining their speed and circular movement, while the linear accelerator and booster ring are used to bring them up to speed before storage.

Diagram of the Australian Synchrotron beamlines

Image courtesy: Australian Synchrotron, State of Victoria

Properties of the Australian Synchrotron storage ring

Property Radius No. of straights Period of revolution Value 34.77 metres 12 720.5 nanoseconds

Although the path of the electrons in the storage ring is shown in diagrams as being circular, this is not actually the case. Normal electron behaviour, in the absence of forces on the electron, would be for it to travel in a straight line. Instead the synchrotron keeps them in the storage ring by using 12 pairs of powerful magnets which bend the electrons paths. More information on the Australian http://www.synchrotron.vic.gov.au Synchrotron can be found at

Student activity
In this activity you will be investigating: How to calculate the electron path length in the storage ring. How close is this path to circular? What happens if the number of bending magnets is increased? How fast are electrons travelling in the storage ring? What effect does the speed of the electrons have on their mass?

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In the storage ring of the synchrotron, electrons follow a path that is a 12 sided polygon, a dodecagon, as shown on the right. Each vertex in the polygon corresponds to the location of a bending magnet station. In this activity you will investigate how close the electrons path is to a circle. 1. Assuming that the dodecagon is regular, calculate the size of the angle , in degrees.

x r

2. Using the Cosine Rule and the table of Australian Synchrotron properties at the start of this document, calculate the length of a single straight, shown as x in the diagram. The radius (r) is given in the table at the start of this document. The Cosine Rule is 2 =2 + cos( ) or, using the values we c a b2 2ab C have defined; 2 = + 2 cos( ) x r 2 r 2 2r

3. Using this value, calculate the total perimeter of the dodecagon.

4. What is the circumference of a circle of the same radius?

5. What is the percentage difference between the perimeter of the dodecagon and a circle with the same radius? Percentage difference is calculated using approximate value value true the formula % difference = 100 true value

dodecagon circle In this instance: % difference = 100 circle

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6. What reasons might designers have for choosing 12 magnetic bending stations rather than 50 or 100? Is a completely circular path actually desirable, given how the synchrotron works?

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Section 11.2

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