Americium - A Metal, That Can VISUALIZE RADIATION! 

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In Australia, we are allowed to put no more than 10 radioactive smoke alarms in our bin at once. If we have more than 10, we have to treat them as radioactive waste, or alternatively put the excess units in a different bin. There is no limit when placing them in a neighbour's bin.

This is the most American metal I've ever seen

What's really interesting is when you rip one open but keep it powered, and then put an oscilloscope on the output of the detector section. You can literally see the voltage levels drop as air gets more and more blocked by particles like smoke. That in itself isn't particularly astonishing, but then when you think of that crazy shower of particles flying off the Am241 sample getting interrupted by teeny tiny bits of carbon in the air causing a high voltage ionized air path to disrupt... Yeah... it's just totally cool. :-)

The tracks through the ethanol vapour are beautiful!

What a brilliant documentary. Your content is consistently fantastic.

I want one of those crazy Plutonium 238 smoke alarms. :D

Excellent shots you've captured here. What lens do you use for the tight macro shots?

Truly one of the only good science/chemistry based RU-vid channels left on RU-vid. My own channel doesn't even add up to near the greatness of this channel. Thank you for not selling out or changing to get more views like most other science based channels have done. Keep up the great work!

Now you tell me. I've done this cloud chamber experiment. The spark gap is quite beautiful.

Top shelf visual explanatory lectures. Much appreciated.

Thoisoi is back on his English channel after a month.

I recently got some old radium watch hands, and a small sample of ThO2 for my element collection. The watch hands don't glow brightly, but if I let my eyes adapt to the dark for an hour, I can see the super dim glow, with crazy sparkling all over. For the ThO2, I bought a ZnS(Ag) screen to place on top, and it is also a super dim and sparkly light show. This is another cool way to visualize alpha radiation, although it is unfortunately difficult to capture on camera.

It's amazing what your doing here. Very few other chemistry channels I've seen talk about the radioactive elements in such detail and in a captivating way!

My Grandkids are about to get educated by knowing more science and chemistry by watching your channel.

Waiting for you to complete your playlist on Elements.🙏🤩

incredible... another awesome video about an every-day-appliance i never bothered to think about really glad i found this channel in the past!

Very good! I couldn't wait until you would upload. I watched in Russian first because of being very impatient. Your chemistry videos are excellent. 👋 from 🇨🇿

Videos like this remind me why I subscribed to thoisoi in the first place👍🏽

I'm incredibly fortunate to have toured the 'back end' of the TRIUMF Research Particle Accelerator at UBC. When I toured I was in an area that was still contaminated with radioactive oxygen which had blown about. They had mostly cleaned up however you could also see black smudges of contaminated Carbon on the ventilation system. That's what you can do with a chem degree and a girlfriend whose father worked there for 20 years. :D (I didn't get a job when I applied, sad)

Great video. Lots of important information! I've been wanting to see a video on this subject for a long time.

A particularly good episode this, thanks for all the hard work you've put it to it, ^oo^

Don't know how I missed this channel all these years. I've only been following for a few months and you always deliver excellent, consistent content.

your videos are so well explained and produced. I can see you put lots of work into each one. I'm really grateful for your work!

Truly amazing video. You always make great videos, but this was exceptional. Keep up the good work.

You’re the one that got me into chemistry, I had zero interest in this subject since I only cared about physics but you’ve sparked something big in me. Thank you for all that you do, I hope you make a lot of money off these videos.

I love your content. I’m actually shocked you don’t have more subscribers. The level of detail you go into it great.

I came to know about application of Americium during a project. Americium was used there to determine thickness of the metal sheet. It was amazing to know how the radioactive property is used to determine metal thickness. Your videos are really informative and useful. Thank you.

Americium, the United State's response to the dread alloy known as Stalinium

This was fascinating! I saw my first cloud chamber on TV back in the very early 60's on a Mr. Science type show. My whole life I have wanted my own cloud chamber, and yours looks quite attainable. Thanks for the facility tour, also. I've wondered what happens to old smoke detectors. A truly wonderful science channel.

14:17 Our man has created minilightnings. Hence, he'll be known from now on as Thorsoi2.

I went to Griffith Observatory today. They have an exhibit there that showed something I had never seen before that really intrigued me. It showed a cloud chamber and a spark chamber detector and they were being used to detect secondary cosmic rays. And then I come across this video later today purely by coincidence that showcased the same type of cloud chamber and the spark chamber detector. I don't know what to think now...

If you open a source chamber on a smoke detector stop when you see the tiny piece of gold. The Source is safe to handle at this point. It is still in a protective and shielded container with only the one window. The ionization chamber (cover) makes a great cap to control radiation. I always store mine above head level pointing upwards. Alpha radiation is used industrially to control static. I used to play with a source used during newspaper printing to control static cling.

Brilliant, fantastic. Loved every moment of it.

Great video! As usual! I watch all of them! Keep up the good work!

Great video. I used my home smoke detector to check my first Geiger counter before getting a test source and some uranium ore samples which I use now. I never saw a spark detector before, thanks for the all your effort in making yours work.

Great video, and inspiring. I learned a lot from this one. I'll for sure be watching more from this channel.

Excellent production! I enjoyed this a great deal!

Happy to see new element videos :)

This was one of the best videos you have done! AND IT ENDS WITH A FLASH! As all good stories should.

Excellent explanations and a passionate attitude to help others understand. Keep at it!

Excellent video! Keep up the fantastic work!

The tour of the Estonian radioactivity disposal site was a very welcome surprise. Thank you!

Love your videos bro I have learned so much from watching your stuff. Thanks.

If I'm not mistaken, also, alpha particle emission takes place over a range of energies depending on several factors so some can penetrate paper. (Also the type of paper is a factor too)

great video. I always learn things on this channel I've never heard of anywhere else

Really amazing demonstrations and information. Thank you!

Just love your vids on chemistry.

This channel is great! Thank you for the education.

Thank you for this excellent presentation!

Amazing demonstrations

Fantastic video. Thank you very much.

As expected , above the level🤩👍

Thank you, Sir! You are a remarkable scientist.

Literally one of the best channels on RU-vid!!!

I liked this channel, all videos and content were recorded amazingly. Nice teamwork. I am using these videos for my students to increase their curiosity or chemistry. Keep it Up

Great vid. Totally fascinating!

Thanks for the class!

Amazing stuff!

Another amazing video, thank you for this.

wow,very fascinating!! best education channel, thank you!

This is one of your best videos ever. Thank you.

Thank you for providing an actual true explanation for how lightning is formed by ionization of the air. It makes far more sense now how lightning is formed by this process. Also your demonstration was great enjoyed this, Thank you.

One of the best Thoisoi videos!

Brooo great video, one of my favourite channels mannn!! no science fiction bullshit, always valuable content

awesome!! Good luck with the channel your getting close to 1M subs!

Glad to see you again

Can you please provide the link to the site with the 3d step files for the spark detector? This episode is a very interesting contribution. Thanks for making us smarter!

With a RTG, it will last longer using a longer half life element, but at a much lower power density, that's the trade-off - you need a much larger and heavier unit.

Professional video shots. Excellent diagrams and explanation.

It would be ironic if the only reason some facilities were top secret in the past was because the officials didn't want the world to see how irresponsible dangerous materials were being handled.

I am a computer science major and don't understand most technical details about chemistry, but your videos make it so easy to understand. Thank you.

Love the video and love this channel :)

Wow! Thank you very much for the video! *i found the homemade alpha particle detectors quite fascinating!* 😎🇺🇸

amazing content as always. thank you for this top quality informative video

Great video, great channel !👍

Thank you, excellent channel

This video was very enlightening! 👍

oh why he got dislikes! This channel taught me about almost every element in the periodic table. Great explanation. This channel must get more support❤️

Another great video thanks.

great channel , one of rare people whose english gets worse while speaking it more often ..... great work , love it

Best Thoisoi2 Video so far. 10/10

The tour was such a bonus!

It seems like the Americium sample could also be used to recharge the battery or power smoke alarms, but we're forced to buy disposable devices which don't allow the battery to be replaced. More planned obsolescence.

I have also taken the button out of a smoke detector to do experiments with orchids and cacti. You can glue the button to a copper wire and position it on the flower of a plant to try and create new breeds. Radiation breaks apart the DNA in exposed pollen when you are fertilizing manually with a paint brush so the seed that forms can be a mutant plant. Most are infertile or die after germination but I've created a few new orchids that have leaves that grow like a corkscrew. Pretty neat.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this video. It's in smoke alarms...what else can you talk about?? But it turned out to be one of the most interesting and favorite videos from you! I've seen Cloud Chambers before, but have never made one...I need to try this! That was fascinating seeing the atomic particles shooting thru the mist vapor! Thanks so much for such a cool presentation.

this is one of the most informative of your of your very informative videos

I liked seeing the alpha perticles, visualised in the alcohol vapours. Very good demonstration.

Great vid!

Seriously, this is attracting such attention it cannot be just skipped by

Well done, dude. Very informative, thank you!

Thanks this is wonderful stuff :)

Amazing footage

I have seen cloud chambers before but never have I heard about spark chamber detector. Thank you so much

What to do with Americium, take #2: 1)Get a bunch of ionising chamber detectors. Scrape off the gold layer. If Am²O³ stays on the plate, skip to step 4). 2)Seperate Am²O³ from gold by dissolving it in a drop of acetic acid or melting off the gold. 3)Reduce Am (|||) from oxygen, turn it into hydroxide or just heat it to dry out. 4)Dissolve it in small drop of acetic acid, then in diluted citric acid and put in the syringe with a long, strong needle. 5)Travel to Altai Pukin',s unofficial castle residence. Find his favourite wine or other sour beverage. Bribe the distributors of this beverage to let you deliver them. Lace the bottles with Americium by injecting it equally trough corks. 5)Sit back, and enjoy the irony..

So much better now we have a face for the voice. That 1 million subs is so close its exciting.

Very nice, thank you.

Fascinating vid thanks ☺️❤️

Thank you for the assem video again.

The simple cloud chamber is so cool!