The Cloud Chamber
A cool way to see evidence of subatomic particles.
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would this work to?
would play-doh work instead of plubmers putty?
Yes, it should. The
Yes, it should. The plumber's putty is water-proof, which makes it easier, but you should be able to get by with play-doh or modeling clay.
Dry Ice
What is dry ice?
Dry ice is frozen carbon
Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. You can learn more about it here: http://thehappyscientist.com/science-video/dry-ice
Atomic particals
why do the atomic particals zip around like that? It looks so cool yo!!! thanks yo
The particles are being
The particles are being emitted from the radiation source in all directions. If you suspended it in the alcohol vapor, you would see them above, below, and at all angles.
euxenite
Hi,
Where do I get the Euxenite? I found a source online, but it's expensive. Is there anything else that will work?
euxenite
Euxenite is not cheap, but there are other radioactive sources that you can use. Check your local flea market for old watches (with the radium, glow-in-the-dark hands), old orange Fiestaware, or the radioactive source found in some smoke detectors.
Cellphone radiation
I wonder If you could use a cellphone to make that trails, or even a laser. Because both have been found to give off radiation I think that you could.
Cellphone radiation
I don't think you will see trails from a cell phone, as that is a different kind of radiant energy, but it would be worth a try. It is always a good thing to actually conduct the experiment, and see what the real results are.
Dry ice?
Hello Mr. Krampf. I would really love to try this but I don't know to get my hands on dry ice. I live in Latvia and I have never even heard another person besides me mention frozen co2. Is it hard to find or is there some special shop that can sell it to you? Is dry ice really necessary or could I use regular ice?
Thank you!
RE: Dry Ice?
Yes, you do need the dry ice. Regular ice is not cold enough. Grocery stores and sea food markets often use dry ice, so you might check there. If you know a local science teacher, you could also check with them, to see if they know of a local source.
Where did we go wrong?
We could not see any cloud vapor even in a dark room with the LED light. First we used a larger plastic container than yours (from a sheet cake), and then we tried a smaller one (a tall cylindrical hard plastic CD package). We did not paint our cookie sheet black. On our second try, with the smaller container, we used a darker cake pan. We thought maybe too much of the alcohol evaporated from the paper towel while we were getting the plumbers putty ready; we started over with a lot more alcohol but still no cloud. Our block of dry ice was definitely getting everything cold, and we think we had the containers sealed well. Any ideas about where we went wrong? Also, two notes: 1) We read that the Coleman brand lantern mantels do not use the radioactive substance any more, but the ones that are made in India still do (so we ordered a package that noted it was made in India). 2) We read that a tiny percentage of the potassium atoms in “salt substitute” (potassium chloride) are radioactive and the radiation can easily be detected with a Geiger counter. Therefore, we also put some of this salt in our cloud chamber to determine if we could see evidence of it emitting particles. Since we never got a cloud to form we could not tell. Have you tried it? Thank you so much for site. We love the experiments, especially the ones involving chocolate!
clouds
i'm reading this book and an angry mean cloud is following the main character a round!!
incomplete
great experiment and video up to the point where Robert says, "...background radiation..." and then both the flash and quicktime videos stop loading ---
hmmm ???
incomplete
Try emptying your cache and watch it again. Some browsers will hold a partially downloaded video, which causes problems if you try to watch it again.
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