ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Faraday cup

Okay, little buddy, let me break it down for you. A faraday cup is a special kind of cup that scientists use to measure the amount of electric charge in something called a beam of particles.

Think about a water gun- when you pump it up and pull the trigger, water shoots out in a concentrated stream. Similarly, when scientists shoot a beam of charged particles, they want to know how many particles are in that beam and how charged they are.

That's where the faraday cup comes in. It's like a little catcher's mitt that they put in the path of the beam. When the charged particles hit the cup, they give up some of their electrical charge and some of their energy. The cup measures that charge and energy, which helps scientists figure out the properties of the beam of particles.

So the faraday cup is really important because it helps scientists understand how particles behave and how they can be used in things like medical treatments or energy production. Pretty cool, huh?