DIY cloud chamber: no dry ice required - how to make, how it works!

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Cloud chambers are very useful resource to study high energy charge particles, either from radioactive decay or from cosmic radiation. This video summarise how a cloud chamber works and provides simple instruction you can make your own. Unlike many DIY cloud chambers this one does NOT require dry ice and so will make it easy to use without having to order and store dry ice.
The idea came from Simple cloud chambers using gel ice packs
Masahiro Kamata and Miki Kubota 2012 Phys. Educ. 47 429
For a source of of the heatsink, I purchased it here - www.rs-online.com
RS Stock No.189-8612 for the 200x200x25 which is the one I used.
See also the great resource on other ideas from Scool Lab at CERN written by Julia Woethe
scoollab.web.cern.ch/sites/sc...
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Physics High is committed to producing content that teaches physics concepts at a level a high schooler can understand.
See www.physicshigh.com for all my videos and other resources.
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Опубликовано:

20 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 374

@cannibalholocaust3015 2 года назад

This should be a demo in every school teaching basic science. I’ve done physics and the toughest thing is trying to imagine things you can’t see with your own eyes.

@john117950 2 года назад

They actually brought one to my high school! I remember it very clearly as i was already interested in physics and i was the coolest thing ever to happen in that school

@shomonercy 2 года назад

Yea, imagining "Cannibal Holocaust" is pretty hard,- but I bet it's easy when you've seen it with your own eyes.

@haroldhenderson2824 2 года назад

Something I noticed about my "proof of concept" chamber from two years ago. Height: you NEED distance (15-20cm) between the felt (alcohol vapor source) and the cold plate. If too close, the cold plate will quickly prevent alcohol from evaporating. Mine was made with a "pint" canning jar. Later changed to a "quart" jar (for distance). The chamber NEEDS to be warm on the top, but very cold on the bottom. Which why he is using a warm water tank.

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

correct, you need that differential

@OtterLakeFlutes 2 года назад

awW! the store they had two of, literally, the exact container he has on top and no taller ones. I have 11 cm clearance and just completed the coupling. I guess I'm hosed. Unless maybe I have more area and volume than you had, because this shortie is a quart, but that probably just hurts and helps equally... The first part went so well having a little milling machine to get the bottom/top out with nicely in minutes. Sealed it on with the tape and then read the 15-20cm update :( lol... guess I'll try it... dunno if size of felt or sponge will help... thinner=all closer to the warmth, larger=more with more intertia but closer to the cold...

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

@@OtterLakeFlutes I think it will still be ok. The original concept came Japanese researchers and they used two plastic cups.

@steventhompson3507 2 года назад

OK i ready our comment about distance thanks.

@mr8832 Год назад

Please make a video

@ColinTimmins 2 года назад

What a great idea with the heat sink and gel. I can’t get dry ice very easy around here and I’ve been wanting to do this experiment with the kids. Thanks for the video and the person who came up with the idea. =]

@originalsubwayjones 2 года назад

I can’t thank you enough. I attempted to make one of these years ago using the dry ice method, I didn’t have much success. My kids are a little bit older now, but I bet they will still like this, I’m going to give it a shot, thank you again.

@ChrisSmith-lk2vq 2 года назад

Love this video!! We have a giant cloud chamber in school but this is somewhat way cooler! Will try this with my pupils one day. Thanks a lot!!

@Arrowed_Sparrow 2 года назад

I can't thank you enough, this is such an easier and more manageable setup.

@-HustleUnion- 2 года назад

man i've been watching a few videos now about this because i wanted one. people make them and they are so expensive. i can do this right here today. love it. great video

@MrWhateva10 2 года назад

@@MadScientist267 ... that you're keeping secret?

@jholsapple2918 Год назад

I'm off to build one! My grandsons will be amazed --- and so will I! SO AWESOME.

@MennoY0uTube 2 года назад

Thanks for the video! Making a cloud chamber been on the bucket list for ages, and you've made it possible!

@kepli16 2 года назад

yeah he is making a video so the diy gets out but he didn’t invent this design.

@ParticularDesigns Год назад

Dope video! Haven’t seen a cloud chamber with out dry ice … like that you link the history too👏

@Messier.42 2 года назад

This is such a great way to build a cloud chamber that is safe and effective. I’m absolutely using this method with my kids. I have a small piece of Trinitite that I want to observe to see if it’s still active, though I’ve been told it isn’t.

@esnam6557 2 года назад

Thank you, I really enjoyed it, did not notice how the 16 minute wideo gone. Looking forward the most batiful part: Another video about the Physics of particles making the traces

@ArmanBaig 10 месяцев назад

thank you so much. this was incredibly helpful as i’d made the mistake of trying to figure it out myself. much appreciated.

@salomonsandoval5919 2 года назад

You are my hero, I’m gonna try this thanks !!!

@garyberger Год назад

I made this on a smaller scale, with a 4" square heatsink and 3-1/2" square containers. I had to make one modification- I stapled the felt to the aluminum tape as the alcohol was dissolving the adhesive holding it in place (both the double sided tape and the aluminum tape). It worked perfectly the first time. Great experiment, thank you. I obtained all the components except the alcohol and flat black spray paint (for the surface of the heatsink) from Amazon, if anyone is interested I will supply my shopping list.

@羽衣甘藍奧頓 Год назад

You did it! Awesome. That magic of seeing these tracks after your own construction must have been a special moment. Sure, a lot of us could just purchase a cloud chamber, but actually MAKING one must have taught you so much more. True science. God bless brother.

@garyberger Год назад

@@羽衣甘藍奧頓 Yes, seeing that first track was pretty cool. I was sitting there thinking there's no way this is going to work, not the first time. Then bang... there it was. I almost jumped out of my chair. I'm 71 years old and still love doing this stuff.

@ArifGangji Год назад

On my 2nd attempt and still can't get it to work :/

@羽衣甘藍奧頓 Год назад

@@ArifGangji Keep trying, don't give up & good luck my friend! Will be awesome to see these amazing particles fly through something you've created. It IS possible to achieve.

@devoidsloth Год назад

Hey, if you still have it can I get your list?

@chrisbarnes4383 Год назад

Thanks for this video! I wish I had seen this a few days ago. I went through 10lbs of dry ice over the past few days trying to get that version to work. Never could get it working (i couldn't get the saturation layer). There are no dry ice suppliers in my town so I have to drive 40 minutes to the city for it. I'm going to order the materials for this one and give it a try!

@steventhompson3507 2 года назад

Just to assist by way of clarifying about materials the welding rod that you specify is actualy a tungsten rod, however they are sold as 1.5% and 2% thoriated or as some with an interest in transistors would say the term is doped with thorium. They are used for tig welding of carbon steels primarily. Hope that helps.

@nicholashylton6857 Год назад

I think I know what project I'm going to do this summer. Great video!! 👍👍👍

@penguinhubbard1597 5 месяцев назад

This was so awesome. I can't wait to build my own. .I'm happy I found this

@mmicoski 3 года назад

I saw many videos using dry ice, this is the first without it, very nice way to experiment. Thanks for the nicely explained video!!

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

Glad it was helpful!

@jackallread 2 месяца назад

Very nice demonstration! Thank you!!

@seanwilson6729 3 года назад

Brilliant!! Will see if I can make one with my students.

@haroldhenderson2824 2 года назад

Don't use under a metal roof or on thenground floor (with additional floors above you). The less mass between you and the sky, the better. Otherwise, you are forced to use an internal radioactive source. Thoriated rods from a TIG welder will work.

@informatimago 2 года назад

Great! And now, let's turn a few loops of electrical cable on each side, to produce a magnetic field and try to identify the particles! :-)

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

I wish. I did a calculation on what magnetic field is need to get a noticeable radius. Let’s just say a few coils won’t cut it. There a reason why ATLAS and CMS have superconducting magnets in the order of 8T plus. 🤓

@glenliesegang233 3 месяца назад

A couple of neodymium magnets stacked, 2 on each side, on either side of the source might set up enough of a field...

@gustavgnoettgen 2 года назад

These are so beautiful

@smngeldof 2 года назад

connection t-shirt and cloud chamber: Cloud chamber was first used to find a anti elektron by Anderson starting the hunt for the remainder of antimatter which is done in Cern. I believe your T-shirt is a seethrough of the LHC at CERN

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

🤓 good pick up.

@milztempelrowski9281 2 года назад

dammit, one day late:p

@Wtfinc 2 года назад

@@milztempelrowski9281 I'm way late but answered anyway. Nice to see I was right. Not often it happens. I coulda won something if there were a prize. my answer: A2Q@0:50-0:55 Your t-shirt is a particle map* from the LHC demonstrating the GOD Particle maybe? When two particles collide they emit a shower of radiation, radiation that is demonstrated with our cloud chamber, similar to the LHCs(particle collider) detector. Do I win a prize?

@MyNameIsDylanBrown 2 года назад

So cool! I’m gonna try this thank you for the video brother!

@theknightofdoom260 2 года назад

This has feaked me out....I only wondered yesterday how to make one of these (Only in my head no searches nor speaking to anyone about it) and this video pops up as my suggested watch......Are google reading minds now?. Also cheers dude gonna make one.

@manuelsgm8327 2 года назад

Thank you very much. I'll try it as soon as possible.

@MAGnetICus_Attractus 2 года назад

I made a cloud chamber with a ultrasonic mist maker and a water pump. The cold steam wants to sink so the pump manifold makes use of the vinturi effect to pull the cold steam into a 14 liter chamber. One thing I noticed was the plants growing underneath the chamber. Not sure why they started growing towards the angle of the chamber. Because my setup is outdoors I get a lot of green water condensation on the plastic.

@a-c0rn 2 года назад

I can think of improvements, such as having the top container be made of metal and using a thermal adhesive to bind them. Also, if you add more felt strips or loops, you could get more surface area to vaporize the alcohols, and produce more vapor. Maybe you could run a liquid through a heatsink on the top, and produce more thermals up there for longer? You might also be able to run this for awhile just using peltier modules. Who knows, I should try this out myself! Great video!

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

You could do that. See how you go. As long as there is a good temperature difference so that you can create a good supersaturated cloud of alcohol vapour, and maintain that so that you can have a decent time trying to observe tracks. I think there could be a number of variations I could still work. The original Wilson cloud chamber simply used water.

@flakmoppen 2 года назад

Great video. Definitely doing this with my kids. :)

@Fomites 2 месяца назад

Fantastic! Thanks.😊

@Undy1 2 года назад

"Dry ice is easy to come by" Unfortunately in Poland dry ice is almost impossible to get. You can order some on the Internet but it's pretty expensive. So this design is really helpful and I will be making this soon! Thanks!

@Freezone7 2 года назад

you can use an co2 fire extinguisher to make dry ice if its easier to come by

@Undy1 2 года назад

@@Freezone7 Yeah a 5kg CO2 fire extinguisher costs like 12% of my monthly paycheck. And considering how little actual dry ice you can produce with the extinguisher it would be cheaper to just order the dry ice online. The cheapest I could find is 5kg for 3% of my monthly paycheck but it's expected that around 2kg of that will sublimate in transit and the rest will last 1-2 days. It's an okay price for one time events like parties and stuff but buying that every time you want to play with a cloud chamber is not a good solution.

@chakshupunj5943 2 года назад

Did you make it? How was it. Did it work?

@Undy1 2 года назад

@@chakshupunj5943 Yeah, never got around to it, had a lot of other stuff going on. Maybe some day.

@chakshupunj5943 2 года назад

@@Undy1 oh okok

@patrickoneill1011 11 месяцев назад

Astrophysics has pulled me in. Can't wait to do this experiment!

@ramzyramzy1790 Год назад

That is the easiest one , thank you for your hard work

@bdjm8595 2 года назад

Gotta try this!

@christinley5213 2 года назад

that was badass!!! and useful!!

@羽衣甘藍奧頓 Год назад

Yet another way of making a cloud chamber! Thank you. I've had partial success with peltier's at surface temp of -40°, but didn't warm the alc. I've recently seen designs with a high voltage mesh - what's that about? I know strong magnets can deflect particles to aid in identification, but H/V? Many, many thanks for the upload, subscribed.

@danielstrobel3832 2 года назад

Supercool! I build one asap!

@sssdeecee Год назад

Fantastic project. Thank you for reminding me (all of us) that doing science doesn't need to cost a lot of money. About 10 years ago, I built a cloud chamber using dry ice... but I am curious, Why did you choose to place the felt and alcohol on top, rather than below (on the cold surface)? If the alcohol-soaked felt is placed at the top where it's much warmer, I expect that the alcohol will evaporate too quickly and will not create the necessary supersaturated conditions in the chamber... at least that is what I thought I knew.

@PhysicsHigh Год назад

You need the alchohol to quickly evaporate. You then have a large temperature gradient to develop a super saturated region above the plate. (-18 - 60 degrees) In the case of dry ice versions you don’t need hot water but your temp gradient is now -78 to 20 degrees approx ) So probably a little better but limited by the fact you need dry ice

@anullhandle 2 года назад

Because of the current logistics issues high strength isopropyl alcohol is harder to get in some places. You could try salting out lower concentration to get the water to drop out. Note salt won't work with ethanol.

@deathshaker0026 2 года назад

Cool!!!! I so want to make one now. TY

@keithbrown2458 2 года назад

Fascinating thank you

@jameskung9808 2 года назад

This is pretty cool

@dunther 2 года назад

This is great! Out of curiosity, would firing a simple semiconductor laser through it result in anything... interesting?

@cameronlapworth2284 Год назад

Thanks heaps, I'm a science teacher and will be making one our current unit it radiation.

@drakekay6577 2 года назад

Your shirt is an artists depiction of the collisions occurring within science devices like the Large Hadron Collider.

@haakoflo 2 года назад

I wouln't be surprised if this is an actual reconstruction from the Atlas detector of the LHC, maybe a H->ZZ or H->WW decay going into 4 jets, with the jets reconstructed as the red vectors.

@drakekay6577 2 года назад

@@haakoflo The red lines past the casing as if to mark their trajectory if it continued? Not a bad conclusion. :D Those red lines are what prompted me to think artists depiction, but it is possible that its an actual scan.

@marcv2648 3 года назад

Well done!

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

thanks

@bogibull 2 года назад

Hey there, thanks so much for this tutorial. I've tried it 3 times now with no complete success. I followed your instructions to the T and I went and purchased a high lumen work light to help with the illumination of the vapor. I was able to see the vapor, but only to about 5cm above the heatsink. Is this what you'd expect? For some reason, I envisioned the entire chamber saturated with the vapor. If so, do I only need to focus light on the bottom half of the chamber? Also,can the water temperature be too hot for this experiment? Thanks for your help!

@mirskym 2 года назад

Did you ever succeed? I got no fog at all

@loeblt Год назад

Would you say the heat transfer from the hot water to the lower chamber is enhanced by not using the aluminum between the two chambers and just using the bottom of the upper one to transmit the heat? It does appear to me that the aluminum material there would cause the heat to be reflected back to the water side rather than down toward the felt.

@rockapedra1130 4 месяца назад

Nice!

@liquidbraino 11 месяцев назад

Love that shirt! It looks like an image of a high energy particle collision.

@PhysicsHigh 11 месяцев назад

That’s exactly what it is. I got it at CERN.

@zeropain9319 2 года назад

Nice video to explain the concept and without dry ice. How did you cut the plastic???

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

I used a dremel

@robinoliverjenal1785 8 месяцев назад

Very good..very cheap.. very easy..and superinteresting

@badrallach4792 Год назад

So cool.

@blazejbch 2 года назад

amazing, thanks a lot

@dinalab 2 года назад

Rad! Do you think a Peltier and a heat sink could get cold enough?

2 года назад

is there a technological limit to the size of cloud chamber?

@TheMemesofDestruction Год назад

Love it!

@PhysicsHigh Год назад

Thanks!!

@lambda4931 2 года назад

Thank you!

@florinpetrache7834 11 месяцев назад

do you have any idea how long it takes for the thorium in the electrode to disintegrate?

@jameshicks7125 11 месяцев назад

This is a fantastic project! I follow Tesla555 due to my interest in Vacuum Tube Tesla Coils. He presented an elaborate, nicely built cloud chamber using TEC coolers on a big heatsink, and some resistors to heat the ethanol under a bell jar. This is a great low cost simple and approachable version.

@Cappurniggas 2 года назад

The intro just about blew my speakers up then I have to turn it up to a ridiculous level to hear you speak, then you insert more loud as hell bits. Thanks for that.

@Dylfunkle 2 года назад

I'm slightly annoyed that I'm only now finding your channel. There's an incredible lack of science content creators that are tolerable for Australian viewers. I'm so happy right now.

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

thanks so much

@MrWhateva10 2 года назад

What makes a science teacher tolerable for Australians?

@Dylfunkle 2 года назад

@@MrWhateva10 the common complaints I hear are that American educators seem to over simplify their content and underestimate their audience. Of the people I've spoken to at length, a stronger portion of them definitely feel like they're being spoken down to like a child when watching a lot of online content, or content aimed at lay masses.

@MrWhateva10 2 года назад

@@Dylfunkle Interesting, thanks. I haven't had that experience, but I haven't been looking for it either. Maybe it's the accent? Americans are pretty famous for blunt and simplified names for things... "Fall" because the leaves fall instead of "Autumn", that kind of thing. Does that make us intolerable though? PBS SpaceTime is an American channel with an Australian-native speaker that certainly covers some pretty advanced subjects if it's just the accent. But, conversely I find the British Royal Institute's videos to be bare-bones populist science that skims over the top of most subjects without getting any details at all, and yet still enjoyable presentations. Are you familiar with Tech Ingredients channel? That may be an example of an American educator that's covering some reasonably advanced topics but has a tendency to spend a lot of time covering them, building up for layperson understanding. If you're already familiar with the subject you can get quite bored. I definitely have not found there to be a shortage of deep science content out there though, so I encourage you to shake up the RU-vid algorithm and see if it can't get you better recommendations.

@Dylfunkle 2 года назад

@@MrWhateva10 I feel I may have come across poorly, or perhaps too harshly spoken, and for that I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that all Americans are intolerable, certainly there are some fantastic speakers and communicators from the American circles. I do quite enjoy a large amount of PBS media, particularly Eons, I'm something of a paleo-dork and the hosts there are largely quite charming and visibly smarter than the concepts they're talking about. I think you found exactly the right word to capture my intent when you mentioned "populist science", and that could very well be my problem. The kind of short repetition and horrible fast cut editing in the style of histories greatest warrior, or any list of "deadliest" creatures, (I know these aren't exactly scientific, but they're the most extreme examples of the genre I'm trying to explain), that's the part I struggle with. It takes a five minute clip, cuts it in a way that it can be narrated for fourth five minutes with commercial breaks, and then is spoon fed to the audience with no faith in their ability to retain the information. The movie Idiocracy is another exaggerated example of my sense of frustration. I see myself as incredibly average in intellectual areas, and even still I find a vast amount of media to be targeted beneath my level. At the end of the day, I'm just an idiot with an opinion, but you've given me some points to consider, so thank you for that.

@heathermcclure1218 2 года назад

Thanks for the tutorial! Dry ice is alway a pain to get a hold of. I have just finished building it. Do you have suggestions for keeping the bottom chamber walls clear. I can’t see through into the chamber as there is too much condensation on the walls.

@nathanimperatrice1064 2 года назад

Maybe seal the bottom, I think he recommended vasaline around the rim, so water can't get in and condensate on the walls and base. If you've already done that then I'm at a loss

@sheafromME 2 года назад

What purity rubbing alcohol are you using? If it's off-the-shelf stuff I'd recommend getting 99.9% so there isn't any water vapor being created.

@juanpepe1234 2 года назад

Well, after seeing your video I ordered 10 small aliminium heatsinks and they are right now on the freezer, hope I can see at least som emuons tomorrow 🤞

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

Fingers crossed!

@juanpepe1234 2 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh it didn't work, maybe my heatsinks weren't cold enough or the water hot enough, i Will let it sit in the freezer for 24 hours and i'll add boiling water Just to ensure that the temperatura difference is achieved and i Will be using a smaller amount of 99% isopropanol, because this time the felt that was too wet. Any other advice?

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

was there a good seal between the container and the plate? Make sure plate is free of water crystals too. Are you just looking for muons. They not common and dependent on local conditions. I assume plate is well prepared with no bubbles. In gel. And well frozen.

@juanpepe1234 2 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh well, today I had better luck, mist was formed and it lasted for several minutes but unfortunately i couldnt see any traces, so I'll wait till tomorrow night and go to the balcony with the cloud chamber to have a better chance of detecting anything as i am not shielded by the roof and walls of my house.

@chanakyasinha8046 2 года назад

@@juanpepe1234 put banana nearby they emit something

@bogibull 2 года назад

I managed to catch one particle! Encouraging to keep going. Still having a hard time either generating sufficient saturation of the vapor or maybe my light is not appropriate? I tried using a strong flashlight as well as a 1200 lumen work light. It seems that fleshlight works better as it has a more concentrated beam of light, but I am only able to see the mist alongside the light beam. Any way to illuminate the entire chamber?

@dallaslane6927 2 года назад

Weird way to use a fleshlight...

@bicivelo 9 месяцев назад

Fantastic!! I hace a 1" thick chunk of metal the same the same dimensions as the heat sink you made. Can i put that into the freezer overnight and use that instead? Thank you!

@PhysicsHigh 9 месяцев назад

It may work but it will most likely heat up quicker. So you will have a more limited time. No harm in trying

@bicivelo 9 месяцев назад

@@PhysicsHigh thank you!!

@willerwin3201 9 месяцев назад

I wonder if I could use a cold plate freezer to keep this thing going for longer periods of time?

@steventhompson3507 2 года назад

Im not fluid in my understanding or in the terminology regarding many areas of physics. Love your description and use of materials to achieve a result by the way, great stuff. Ahh now I see after watching again you put your isopropynol alcohol in the felt ugh. I missed that the first time I watched and couldn't understand why you would put an insulator in the top of your chamber lol.

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

The purpose of the felt is simply to hold the alcohol And since it’s a very fibrous it has a very large surface area and thus when it gets warm the alcohol vaporises very quickly

@florinpetrache7834 11 месяцев назад

What kind of protection do you have against radiation? is it healthy to touch the electrode with your hand?

@milztempelrowski9281 2 года назад

great vid!

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

Thanks

@gooe9561 2 года назад

Is there a reason an evaporator from a refrigeration unit cannot be used for the cold "source", and a heater with a thermal regulator to maintain the temperature of the upper container?

@OtterLakeFlutes 2 года назад

they do that... like, commnercial-grade, inevitably a larger project than you first envision, like many things. one guy tried different things and it had to be cold enough it was like the element om the freezer quickly freezing water crystals onto it before the field would saturate... this on the other hand I'm half done already in a half hour (I have a benchtop milling machine and a 1.8" endmill and made cutting the top so easy I almost felt guilty. I just don't have the liqui-gel cellulose so I'm thinking of trying some 25% antifreeze / 75% water, suspended in sodium polycarbanate "gel" crystals all of which is in the garage. And a mean heat sink from a transmitter. If it doesn't work I'll dig out the gel and try again. I think I have enougfh head room... I have two of the bins he has on top and not the taller one... he says 15-20cm at least... Crap I've got 11 I'm hosed :( ...they didn't have the taller one... they had literally the exact one he has on top at Dollar General.

@scottfranco1962 2 года назад

Or use a Peltier plate.

@melody3741 2 года назад

@@OtterLakeFlutes F whatever item you were using has a freezing point just slightly above the temperature you’re going to bring it down to, you can actually get a little more energy out of it that way and it should theoretically last longer.

@ArifGangji Год назад

Thoughts on troubleshooting steps if it didn't work? Thanks! Using 91% isopropyl

@markbanash921 Месяц назад

The gel pack is genius

@aarondavis8943 2 года назад

I want to just buy a plug in one that looks as amazing as the Veritasium video. What would that set me back?

@andrewjames7150 2 месяца назад

That's cool

@aquahood 2 месяца назад

It shows the decay of radioactive isotopes which is what your Cloud chamber is also showing that's a collision inside of the Large hadron collider if I'm correct?

@leppad Год назад

I have not tried to build this yet but can someone who has please comment on the orientation of the tracks originating from cosmic rays? Are they always vertical or near vertical? Are the traces always a straight line, or is there evidence of curving or collisions?

@willerwin3201 9 месяцев назад

No, they come in at all kinds of angles. Cosmic rays (think nucleus of a heavy atom going near the speed of light) smack neutrons loose from air atoms in the upper atmosphere. Those neutrons are what make it down to where we live. Most of the tracks you see come from those secondary neutrons that have bounced around enough to be coming from just about any direction. When a neutron smacks into a nucleus, that nucleus becomes a heavy charged particle, which makes the bright, straight tracks. You'll also sometimes see paler, multi-directional tracks from beta particles and gamma rays/x-rays.

@spvillano 11 дней назад

Knew I should've calculated the temperature difference curves! Was considering making a refrigeration system for a cryo based unit, largely out of being cheap and a bit lazy to run out for dry ice. Then, ran across this which I had considered and dismissed without calculating it. Might go with a multistage peltier cooler for the cold base still, for on demand purposes, but likely will go with the cold gel first. Been looking into this because well, had a smoke detector fail and when it was replaced, maintenance handed the defective unit to me. Needed a resistor out of the unit for something else, so while I was there, ripped it the rest of the way down. So, got a nice Americium source button that needs a proper display as a conversation piece. I'll also be building a nice radiation spectrometer from plans on CERN's educational site. Comes with a nice database of readings from that photodiode scintillation detector, again, good conversation piece. Toss in an alcohol fueled steam engine and sterling engine on adjacent shelves just for giggles...

@lars357 5 месяцев назад

Is there a specific reason to use a heatsink with gel compared to a block of steel or brass?

@bethlewis8688 2 года назад

I just made this, as you directed in your video above, and it worked exceedingly well! We did have a question about the tracks we observed...some were very thin and straight, some were thin and curved and some were much thicker and longer...I'm assuming that the different tracks made were due to different types of charged particles with different energies...do you know what the basic difference is between the shorter, thinner tracks and the longer, thicker tracks? Is that just due to particles with higher energy? Or are we seeing different types of particles? Thanks for the clear directions in your video - I'll be doing this in class this next school year with my students!

@grusio_der_kosmonaut Год назад

Different particles leave different tracks

@owlredshift Год назад

@@grusio_der_kosmonaut ... Yes, they implied that; and of COURSE that's what they represent. What else could different tracks possibly represent? Were they to assume that different tracks are all the same types of particles?? What an astoundingly unhelpful, patronizingly ignorant contribution you spent your time to type out to this genuine person. I'm not even 100% on why this rubs me the wrong way as much as it does, I think because descending to the depths of mind needed to imagine what you were thinking is almost painful.

@owlredshift Год назад

Alright I took a short walk to cool off, sorry I went ham on that dude up there ☝️ *ahem* Particle identification may be carried out by the differences in the geometry and thickness of their tracks. • Short thin zig-zag › Low energy electrons (beta-particles) • Long thick straight › Heavy charged particles › Protons › 4He++- ions • Thinner / slightly curved › Muons › Similar to the latter type * (Quantitative evaluations for γ-radiation is quite difficult in cloud chambers) Energy of the particles can be determined measuring track length. Energy distribution and range-energy dependence can be calculated from the data. From the thickness of the tracks the stopping power of the particles can be deduced. Another way for particle discrimination and energy determination is their different absorption in various materials.

@grusio_der_kosmonaut Год назад

@@owlredshift Shit went from 0 to 100 real fucking quick

@aksa628 3 года назад

Your shirt shows the large hadron collider at CERN 🙂

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

😎. Yes. It’s the particle traces from ATLAS, one of the 4 detectors on the LHC. In many respects the descendent of the cloud chamber.

@aldaa2528 Год назад

Thank you for the great explanation. I still have a question though. What distance is better to have between the heatsink and the felt? 14cm or 21 cm?

@PhysicsHigh Год назад

I had success with both. Are you might get a stronger gradient of temperature with the shorter amount which may result in better results. Are the original design based on the Japanese paper used two plastic tumblers so much shorter.

@aldaa2528 Год назад

@@PhysicsHigh Thank you for the Quick answer!

@cuntbag 2 года назад

I wonder if microfibre cloth would work better than felt because of it's far greater surface area

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

Might work though all the methodologies I’ve seen have used felt.

@gwenturo9550 2 года назад

At first glance your shirt appears to be a cross section view of particles detected in a particle accelerator collision. The most interesting of these particles imo must be the Higgs Boson. Can't wait for us to figure out how it gives fermions their mass!

@viola_case Год назад

Did CMS/Atlas not solve that?

@gwenturo9550 Год назад

@@viola_case I'm not sure. I know CMS/ATLAS was the experiment resulting in the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012, and as far as I I'm aware, the mass comes from an interaction with the Higgs Field, not actually the Higgs Boson, as it also gets it's mass from the Higgs Field, but I don't know if there's science describing how the interaction actually induces mass in a particle. I'd have to do some research. I'd love to see Feynman diagrams of the different Higgs interactions! Edit: The wikipedia page about the Higgs Mechanism is, fairly, mostly beyond my understanding, but I _think_ it's answered my question. I had suspected it might have something to do with symmetry breakings, and I _think_ this _maybe_ confirms it? Probably not, because it only talks about bosons, and the spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism apparently seems to contradict some other well corroborated theorems. There's also the issue of whether or not we try to involve gravitational attraction. Idk, as much as I wish I was a particle physicist, I'm definitely not yet :D and there's much more for me to look at besides a Wikipedia page lol

@wayneschmidt490 Год назад

I made a large cloud chamber using a 10 gallon aquarium and with dry ice and it worked great. When I watched your video about using freezer gel I got excited, but then ran into a problem. You stated that your freezer gets down to -18-degrees C. I'm in the USA and our freezers rarely get below 0-degrees C, which isn't cold enough to run a cloud chamber. Are UK freezers that much colder than ours?

@PhysicsHigh Год назад

Are you sure? Here is Australia freezers are set to -18 Celsius. That’s 0 F. 0 degrees C is not cold enough for anything

@wayneschmidt490 Год назад

@@PhysicsHigh It seems I had an equipment malfunction. I measured the temperature with an infrared thermometer, which I have now determined to be malfunctioning. Switching to a different thermometer now gives me a temperature of 2.0-degrees F. I apologize for bothering you. Thank you for an interesting video and replying so quickly. I also apologize for thinking you were in the UK. I'm in Southern California USA.

@PhysicsHigh Год назад

Not a problem at all 🤓. Happy to help

@epiclord7039 7 месяцев назад

Is the custom ice block on the bottom needed or can I just use store bought ice packs, gel already inside? I suppose the thin layer of metal will conduct heat better than the ice pack’s plastic but is that difference significant enough?

@PhysicsHigh 7 месяцев назад

You first of all need a smooth surface - you need to be able to seal the cloud chamber. Hence the metal plate. You could place a flat plate on frozen gel packs, but you will get inconsistent temperature gradients, and it will warm it significantly quicker, limiting it's usefulness

@pmate95 3 года назад

Good idea, but what do you think, is it possible to create "cloud" with an ultrasonic humidifier and isopropyl alcohol? Most cloud chambers based on temperature differences, is another way to do that? Thank you for your video, I will try yours. :)

@OtterLakeFlutes 2 года назад

This is a good idea for an experiment. I've seen those little ultrasonic compact elements inserted into a little dish producing visible water vapor. Could it work with alcohol? Uh oh, though... flamability! Vaporized alcohol is very volatile!

@pmate95 2 года назад

@@OtterLakeFlutes Yepp, alcohol is very flammable. Otherwise, I watched a lot of videos about cloud chambers, but half of them used dry ice (which I don't know, where to buy in east Europe), or Peltier cells with large power. I think, humidifier won't work, because the key is the oversaturated air with alcohol, but this wouldn't have particles small enough for this. If someone tries it, I would be curious to result.

@OtterLakeFlutes 2 года назад

@@pmate95 yeah come to think of it, it would be its own agitator like the particle that flies through...even if it managed to truly vaporize the alcohol (which is dubious) it would probably instantaneously re-precipitate from harmonic vibrations anyway. Esp. cheap ultrasonic elements are noisy with harmonics. I got a "fat burning" ultrasound probe to do, instead, therapy on my shoulder. It helps alright, and it's probably an illegal (unlicensed) level of ultrasound (unlike hokey, weak gimmicks) but I worry about it giving he hearing damage, lol. Unlike the medical probe at the clinic, this one works similary except the harmonics squeal loudly in my ears like some aquatic alien! Couldn't believe it that much noise could make it through a foot of meat to my ears. And right over my shoulder blade bone, wow. Then it's like my heat is going to explode with audible harmonics. Never happened at the clinic, but I can tell this probe does have powerful ultrasound (and no just sonic) because of my experience with the sensation, effects, and you can vaporize a water droplet on the pad. I don't think my wife will let me use if for a could chamber though, lol, she paid $275

@andm6847 2 года назад

can you use a standard geiger counter test card (around 15 bucks on amazon) to test this and get a lot more trails?

@KarryKarryKarry 2 года назад

Didn’t know they sold that on amazon.. gotta check that out. But yeah! you definitely can use one of those and the cool thing about the different types of radiation is that you can tell the difference between it by watching it in a cloudchamber. However a large surface area cloud chamber is preferable for telling the difference.

@CaseyConnor 2 года назад

Thanks! Maybe I missed it, but: what's the point in using a heatsink + gel rather than just a thick plate of solid metal? Wouldn't steel have overall better thermal mass? Or does that gel actually do better?

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

The thick metal plate would warm up quickly limiting the time you can perform the experiment

@CaseyConnor 2 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh thanks, i didn't realize how much better than steel water is for specific heat capacity. Still, it would seem that the volumetric heat capacity of steel is about 75% that of water, so you might get a useable amount of time from a simple steel plate of the same volume?

@CaseyConnor 2 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh also, given that the plate in the video is only about half water, and the (presumably aluminum) metal has less heat capacity than steel, maybe a steel plate of equivalent size would be even closer in performance than 75%? And if you are going to spend $40 you can probably get a thicker plate of steel anyway? Might simplify this already simple design even more?

@raass9316 2 года назад

thank you very much

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

You’re welcome

@gaeloni7775 3 года назад

Hi Paul I have some questions: How did you cut the plastic? and How do you have to distribute the gel? Thank you!

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

Used a dremel to cut the plastic. It depends on what you use. Clear plastic cups can work too. But since my containers were thicker, the dremel worked best. You could drill a hole and the use a small jigsaw blade. Re the gel is simply pushed it in between the fins of the heatsink. You could use a syringe but using a piece of paper wiping it over, forcing out air bubbles, worked fine. If a little messy 🤓

@gaeloni7775 3 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh Thank you! So this chamber is as usefull as the dry ice one right?

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

correct - the only limitation is that its a bit smaller ( I couldn't find a very large heat sink) and if you use it in the classroom, less students around it. But as the video shows , I get good tracks

@JodiFCobb 2 года назад

I would introduce a small air current! Rolling Rains! Can you creat mini lighting ⛈? Thank you 😊

@charlesvh6194 2 года назад

Alcohol and lightning go boom 😆

@florinpetrache7834 11 месяцев назад

will it work if the aluminum plate is round with a diameter of 7cm and a height of 3.7cm? is it ok without gel, if it is raw aluminum without space for gel?

@PhysicsHigh 11 месяцев назад

The purpose do the gel is to help keep the temp as low as possible. A solid piece of aluminium should work but it will heat up quicker

@charlenejandik6587 2 года назад

Instead on a hot water reservoir on top, could I use a heat lamp with similar efficacy?

@PhysicsHigh 2 года назад

I would argue it’s riskier. The heat lamp would be much hotter that 100 degrees and so you could over heat the plastic

@kaiser87pappo Год назад

At the beginning of your video you maybe refer to the discover of the kaon in 1947 using a cloud chamber?

@drakekay6577 2 года назад

Thorium rods are Emissive without electricity?

@andrewmasters5020 2 года назад

Yes. The radioactivity just happens - can't be switched on or off. We use these now in our cloud chambers - you get nice alpha-particle tracks of a couple of cm (just as in the textbooks). You also get a sense of the speed that the particles are moving.

@Ion_thruster 3 года назад

Very cool idea! I think I will try that. Can you send the links where to purchase the things you showed in the video? That would be really nice!

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

Sure Heat sink I got from au.rs-online.com Containers from Kmart. Brand is Anko Aluminium tape on Amazon Electronics stores will have high purity propanol since its used in cleaning electronic components. Gel from any pharmacy

@Ion_thruster 3 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh Thanks a lot!

@PhysicsHigh 3 года назад

Hi Sharon. I bought the 4.8 cm wide on Amazon.

@gaeloni7775 3 года назад

@@PhysicsHigh and the dimensions of the heat sink please?