Post : An actively cooled cloud chamber
URL : http://hackaday.com/2012/09/24/an-actively-cooled-cloud-chamber/
Posted : September 24, 2012 at 11:01 am
Author : Mike Szczys
Tags : alcohol, cloud chamber, peltier, radioactive, vapor
Categories : chemistry hacks

http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/active-cooling-for-a-cloud-chamber.jpg

This cloud chamber is designed to keep the environment friendly for observing ionizing radiation (http://wiki.lvl1.org/Cloud_Chamber) . The group over at the LVL1 Hackerspace put it together and posted everything you need to know to try it out for yourself.

A cloud chamber uses a layer of alcohol vapor as a visual indicator of ionizing particles. As the name suggests, this vapor looks much like a cloud and the particles rip though it like tiny bullets. You can't see the particles, but the turbulence they cause in the vapor is quite visible. Check out the .GIF example linked at the very bottom of their writeup.

The chamber itself uses a Peltier cooler and a CPU heat sink. The mounting and insulation system is brilliant and we think it's the most reliable way we've seen of putting one of these together. Just remember that you need a radioactive source inside the chamber or you'll be waiting a long time to see any particles. They're using a test source here, but we saw a cloud chamber at our own local Hackerspace that used thoriated tungsten welding rods which are slightly radioactive.

[Thanks JAC_101]

Add a comment to this post: http://hackaday.com/2012/09/24/an-actively-cooled-cloud-chamber/#respond

--
WordPress.com | Thanks for flying with WordPress!