Quantification of a contaminant in water provides the first-year general chemistry students with a tangible application of mass spectrometry. The relevance of chemistry to assessing and solving environmental problems is highlighted for students when they perform mass spectroscopy experiments.

Tandem electrostatic accelerators produce beams of positive ions which are used to penetrate atomic nuclei in a target, inducing nuclear reactions whose study elucidates varied properties of the nucleus. Uses of the system, which acts like a mass spectrometer, are discussed. These include radiocarbon dating measurements. (JN)