have you ever seen a Wilson cloud chamber — a science experiment that lets you picture ionizing radiation? exactly how difficult would it be to develop one? If you comply with [stoppi’s] example, not difficult in any way (German, Google equate link). A plastic bottle. some tape, a flashlight, some water, hot glue, as well as — the only exotic part — a bit of americium 241. You can see the style in the video below as well as the page likewise has some a lot more advanced styles including one that uses a CPU cooler. even if you don’t speak German, the video will be extremely helpful.
You requirement to temper your expectations if you develop the basic version, however it appears to work. The plastic bottle is a need to since you have to capture it to get a pressure modification in the vessel.
If you are wondering where to get americium-241, inspect out a junked smoke detector. The second video, below, has details about exactly how to harvest it from that typical source. You requirement something that fits in the bottle cap.
It is difficult to see on the video, however different types of ionizing radiation leave telltale tracks in the chamber. Alpha bits tend to leave thick straight tracks whereas beta bits tend to be a lot more delicate as well as curvy. Although in contemporary times these are a lot more or less science curiosities, there was a time they were genuine lab devices as well as they participated in the discovery of the positron, the muon, as well as the kaon.
If you want to try a bigger chamber, we’ve seen it done. Some chambers utilize alcohol as well as dry ice.