ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cockcroft–Walton generator

Okay kiddo, so you know how sometimes you need something called electricity to make things work? Like how your flashlight needs batteries to turn on? Well, grown-ups need electricity too, but they need a lot more of it.

So, there's a machine called a Cockcroft-Walton generator, named after the smart scientists who invented it, and it helps make a lot of electricity for grown-ups to use.

It works kind of like a ladder, where the electricity climbs up each rung and gets stronger and stronger, until it's powerful enough to light up a whole house or even run machines.

The first rung of the ladder starts with something called an AC voltage source, which is basically just a special kind of wire that lets the electricity move back and forth really quickly. Then, the first rung sends the electricity up to the second rung, which makes it even stronger. And then the second rung sends it up to the third rung, which makes it even stronger than that!

So, the Cockcroft-Walton generator keeps adding rungs and making the electricity more and more powerful, until it's strong enough to do big jobs like powering factories or super-fast computers.

And that's how the Cockcroft-Walton generator works, kiddo!