Pitchblende&Americium241.avi

Some experiment with a Wilson cloud chamber (cooled with peltier)
An uranium ore, contain some Thorium 232 which produce Thoron (220Rn) trough the decay of 224Ra.
Thoron is in gaseous form and is floating in the chamber.
It has a period of 55 second, then decay with an alpha to 216Po, which have a half life of 0.145 second and decay to 212 Pb with the emission of an other alpha.
In this video with the uranium/thorium ore you may see some L or V shape, it is the simultaneous decay of thoron and polonium. At the beginning, thoron decay to one point in the chamber, making polonium and an alpha. The polonium nucleus unstable, disintegrate immediately once created into lead and emit an alpha which go in various direction : we see a L or V shape of ionisation. The lead 212 has a too long half live (10.6h) to see the electron emitted .

Second part of video show a source of an americium 241 source which come from a smoke ionisation detector. We can see some alpha (3 or 4 cm range), and some electron which have an erratic path.
For more information about the construction of this cloud chamber, go to wilsoncloud.wordpress.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• americium
• wilson
• diffusion
• cloud
• chamber
• uranium
• ore
• pitchblende
• thoron
• radon

[MrMicromeow]

see my US homolog watch?v=iFizFjlIA4A

peltier cooler are standart one (such as 130W for example)

[gardiendelanuit]

Nice! +1

[Flachzange1337]

this is a continuos cooled cloud chamber and not a Wilson cloud chamber.

A Wilson cloud chamber works with a fast decrease in pressure, therefore the tracks can be seen just for a second.

[IronWolfWood]

Hey! Can dou say me how power peltier cooler elements did you use?