Honestly, that alcohol rain is stunningly beautiful even without the radiation. I feel I could watch it for hours. I seem to recall seeing one that was several feet on each side for kids to stand around at a science museum, and I've wanted my own ever since.
It'd be cool if you could set one up like in a vacuum flask, so that you could use just a little bit of power to keep it going and just have it as a display piece.
Your Autunite vial is blocking the Alpha particles (and probably a good amount of the Beta particles as well). Your Alpha emitters need to be directly exposed to the chamber atmosphere for best results. You can try a source from an old ionization smoke detector. Most of them use Americium, which primarily undergoes Alpha decay.
Take the lid off the container. You'd get a directional effect then, which would visualise the blocking effect the glass has on alpha and beta radiation.
It's interesting how big the world of science is, and how hard it is to know everything. I say that because as a 35 year old engineer I'm constantly in awe of your projects, yet I built a cloud chamber for my 8th grade science fair.
Making a snowman on the beach would be such an insane flex, especially in Florida. You should really get on that, because that's the kind of thing that gets you news coverage. Best DIY channel on youtube hands down
I've long wanted to build a sealed, "permanent" cloud chamber as an art installation. Expertly blown glass parts with a beautiful wood pedestal. I thought it would be neat to have a small Farnsworth reactor in the middle of a big vapor chamber.
The magnet you used to try and see a curved Beta particle was ((probably)) too strong. In a field of that strength, the cyclotron radius would be extremely small, like
Peltier coolers CAN cool large areas if they are used correctly. I reached -26°C on my 20x20 cm, 4 mm thick cold plate with my chamber measured in similar conditions where you measured "only" -23.4°C. Also, after a while I could even reach -28°C. Service life is also not a problem nowadays. I worked with an electron microscope for more than half a decade where the X-ray detector was cooled by a Peltier unit and there were never any issues with it. Yes, they are inefficient, but 300 W in this case is pretty OK in exchange for the spectacular traces. I will soon finish "Part 2" of my Peltier-based chamber, feel free to check it. A huge advantage of the Peltier coolers for cloud chambers is that you can actually build it at home on your desk, which is definitely not true for a compressor-based system.
Nice cloud chamber, the reason why the uranium sample don't emit alpha particles is because alfa particles can be blocked by a paper sheet, so the bottle material blocked the emission of alpha particles.
I’d be very interested in looking at the snow made in the cloud chamber or the snowmaker you talked about under a microscope - the shape of snowflakes you get depends on humidity and temperature so you could probably get interesting results by tuning your system
Cool. Another way to get the vapor was to reduce the pressure in the chamber, such that a vapor is formed. At least, that is what I remember from the kit I got when I was a kid. But that was over 50 years ago. I really like your videos, for many reasons.
For the autunite demonstration most of the alpha particles that it would give off are blocked by the thin glass of the vial, while the beta and gamma particles are able to escape with relative ease.
takes me back to my second year in uni when i was building a cloud chamber for a physics project with a friend we got it to do the "rain" effect consistently but only ever saw maybe two particle trails
Hi HP, Loving your content. Since you mentioned you spend a lot of time watching different DIY science channels I would love too see some featured on your YT-Page. I am always on the hunt for new good channels.
I was having dinner in a fancy restaurant in Palo Alto last night and your channel came up in the discussion. After dinner I check the RUclips notifications and there it is a new vijeo! Thank you
My dad was a science teacher and I remember him making one. His ion source was a small piece of radioactive material on the head of a pin stuck in a cork. Have you looked at vortex coolers for cooling. They probably wouldn’t be easy to control Since they make a cold steam of air
That was really interesting seeing the camera lens in the chamber. I've always been curious to see an old thoriated coleman lantern mantle in one of these chambers to see just how radioactive they are.
Man a snowman on the beach would be a dream cooler project Its not only cool sience, but one thats especially flashy to show off (though less flash projects are often cooler)
Presumably you could crisp up the definition by ensuring that the inside of the container was extremely clean and wasn't off gassing anything (like the paint or the caulking). I'm not sure if it would be worth the trouble.
I adore how you hate peltier coolers, they are certainly one of the least efficient conductive but thermally isolating ceramics, and a very poor way to transfer heat, which theoretically has no upper bound on efficiency. Maybe if we used superconductors and a vacuum gap we could improve on the efficiency of conductive heat transfer in the ceramics. That or use some other zero-loss mechanism that can uptake and depart phonon motion while regenerating the energy lost by the phonon transport particle we put in.. 🤔 Maybe there's a better phase change transition besides RF-11/fluorocarbons (strong bonds, doesnt want to have van der walls or Hydrogen interactions) or ionic chemical refrigerants.
This proves the world is not as we see it... I could watch this process for days. Would love to see a piece of Vaseline glass in there, or a piece of Fiestaware, or better yet, an old wristwatch with radium dial... Awesome build man ..
This feels like an excellent background and central prop for a horror movie. The cloud chamber is the only source of gieger counter as they figure out a stressful radioactive situation.
Can I suggest putting the magnet back in, dropping the voltage to a reasonable level and putting in a banana, some fertilizer or any other sample of Potassium? With a bit of luck (and math to see how much Potassium you need) you'll be able to see a positron.
Calling all your components “thing” is a very relatable struggle of knowing how to make stuff but not knowing the industry-standard names for these… things
Use an electromagnet...once you are seeing particles energize it...either small enough to have less effect inside the chamber or strong enough and the ability to turn it on and off may help. Thank You For Your Time And Effort!
I was lucky enough to see one back in my undergrad days. They're initially underwhelming, but when you think about it, they're blazingly cool. Watching things zip by or spiral away was such a great experience. And if you're into things that sound cool, end up underwhelming, then get cool again, have you ever heard of a "neutron howitzer?" Good memories.
I knew of them, but only the water vapor based ones that operate one pulse at a time. Now I want one running full time just displaying background radiation.
Out of anyone on RUclips, YOU seem like the kind of person who would come back a decade after we thought you died to one of your experiments, and then tell us, "so I found this toroidal fusion reactor in a scrap yard..." 😂😂😂
Propane as a fridgerant? "You there need some propane and propane accessories.", "Bobby! Get ready to light it up!" "Okay dad! All ready to light 'em up!"
You might be able to take an exposure from when nothing was happening and subtract that frame from further photos to make the results artificially more visible for analysis purposes.
Nice experiment. I wonder how a thoriated TIG electrode would look in there. The thingy that sits in a handheld torch and is often ground in front of ones face to make a sharp tip :)
Well for all its pitfalls, thorium is not so scary. And having to move away from it has caused the optical industry no shortage of headaches. Thorium has a great spectral range and awesome bonding properties making is really good for thin film applications.
Your initial description of the cloud chamber had me thinking: "oh... so it's like a bong, but for alcohol. Do people actually do that?"... lol. Have seen these before in radioactive particle demonstrations but didn't know they were called a 'cloud chamber' or how they actually worked. Now I kinda want to build one so I can take long exposure photos of the particles...
How about an actively cooled snowman? Some kind of metal core with a compressor based cooler which keeps it snowy. Would probably need some insane cooling power but you are smart, you will figure it out.
I haven't searched if other videos have done it, but it would be interesting if you could put a sheet of lead or other metals to see how it changes the radioactive particles from your lens.
If you look into the "moon pool" of a neuclear reactor, you can see "radiation". The blue glow is electrons, neutrons and protons colliding with water. There are several radioactive elements making this glow.
The reason for your less-than-perfect results is that your temperature is too low and your high-voltage is too high. CERN recommends about 100V/cm for the Ion scrubbing. Temperature should be at least -28C to work reliably - the colder the better! You also want a good seal at the bottom of the cover to stop any draft. The fly swatter transformer would have worked perfect - it provides around 4000V.
HP: time to see radiation with the naked eye. Me: you mean some ocular solution that makes cool colors when irradiated? HP: no, just a cloud chamber. Me:fuckin' damnit
Im curious if there exists some sort of efficient method to collect the falling alcohol vapor and basically automatically recycle it so that you could basically have a service-less cloud chamber. I would love something like that and turn it into a coffee table.
the water in your alcohol should be distilled - so it won't conduct. As I'm sure you know water itself is an insulator - the stuff dissolved in it is what conducts. I dunno if the water could still cause you misting issues at !8:36, I's lean towards the towels. as you suggest.
If you wanna see something extremely cool take some of your Autunite. Put it into a glass jar with a lure port, so that you can syringe the radon gas out so that you can squish the gas into your cloud chamber. you’ll see V shaped formations because it’s decaying so fast that you see the original particle stream and its decay progeny at the same time.
Put a am 241 source from a smoke detector in there, you'll get lots of trails. Also if using a naked uranium ore chunk it will create several kinds of trails. ❤
For a Hyperspace Pirate you seem incredibly preoccupied by science stuff rather than, you know, going to hyperspace and raid other hyperspace ships. I'm all for it though, as science stuff is really my thing, and I'm fully supportive of your move away from a life of crime.
I have seen proper cloud chambers before... But i also found a way go get an impromptu cloud chamber thats really cheap. Just make some tea. The tiny droplets that rise act very similar to this alcohol vapor
BTW I'm still working on the J/T Cryocooler but I got a little behind after a fire and an explosion...next vid should be part II.
A fire and explosion?!?! I hope your alright.
Must be the doing of Tom from explosions and fire.
Fire and explosion you say, please include it in the video if possible
I think after a fire and explosion, this is a well deserved break in the action. God bless, I hope you didn’t get hurt too badly.
my guy blows up his cryocooler and still continues to work on it... true chad
Honestly, that alcohol rain is stunningly beautiful even without the radiation. I feel I could watch it for hours.
I seem to recall seeing one that was several feet on each side for kids to stand around at a science museum, and I've wanted my own ever since.
id like just a little box of rain like that, would be cool as
It'd be cool if you could set one up like in a vacuum flask, so that you could use just a little bit of power to keep it going and just have it as a display piece.
Actually it looks more like drizzle
And it crushes the RUclips video compression algorithm >.
You can make your own with a couple of peltiers. You don't need a refrigeration unit like this guy.
Did not expect the radiation arc from this channel, yet I am voicing not a single complaint.
Next video: Converting Americanium from smoke detectors into Plutonium.
Your Autunite vial is blocking the Alpha particles (and probably a good amount of the Beta particles as well). Your Alpha emitters need to be directly exposed to the chamber atmosphere for best results. You can try a source from an old ionization smoke detector. Most of them use Americium, which primarily undergoes Alpha decay.
Take the lid off the container. You'd get a directional effect then, which would visualise the blocking effect the glass has on alpha and beta radiation.
Remind me of the radioactive boy scout who stole a bunch of fire alarms for the Americium and a radiated his neighborhood
@@How_To_Drive_a_TARDISweirdest superhero I heard about
It's interesting how big the world of science is, and how hard it is to know everything. I say that because as a 35 year old engineer I'm constantly in awe of your projects, yet I built a cloud chamber for my 8th grade science fair.
Making a snowman on the beach would be such an insane flex, especially in Florida. You should really get on that, because that's the kind of thing that gets you news coverage.
Best DIY channel on youtube hands down
I was thinking, open a sno-cone stand but the gimmick is, it's made with actual snow. Blizzard in a box ?
Well now he can build a snowman on the beach it snowed in Florida today,up by Pensacola Florida
Dude that little bit at the end where you describe the snow machine is just brilliant. You’re seriously clever with this stuff! Amazing to watch 😊
I've long wanted to build a sealed, "permanent" cloud chamber as an art installation. Expertly blown glass parts with a beautiful wood pedestal. I thought it would be neat to have a small Farnsworth reactor in the middle of a big vapor chamber.
Imma steal that project idea for my list of projects that I'll never manage to do
A fusor produces fast neutrons tho... I don't know if even lead glass is sufficient enough for that..
I really need to build a cloud chamber myself. I saw one at the exploratorium as a child and it was life changing.
That place is amazing, probably one of my favorite museums ever.
The magnet you used to try and see a curved Beta particle was ((probably)) too strong. In a field of that strength, the cyclotron radius would be extremely small, like
Peltier coolers CAN cool large areas if they are used correctly. I reached -26°C on my 20x20 cm, 4 mm thick cold plate with my chamber measured in similar conditions where you measured "only" -23.4°C. Also, after a while I could even reach -28°C. Service life is also not a problem nowadays. I worked with an electron microscope for more than half a decade where the X-ray detector was cooled by a Peltier unit and there were never any issues with it. Yes, they are inefficient, but 300 W in this case is pretty OK in exchange for the spectacular traces. I will soon finish "Part 2" of my Peltier-based chamber, feel free to check it. A huge advantage of the Peltier coolers for cloud chambers is that you can actually build it at home on your desk, which is definitely not true for a compressor-based system.
Tech Ingredients made a great video on making on of these too. The title is "you're swimming in radiation and you don't even know it".
Nice cloud chamber, the reason why the uranium sample don't emit alpha particles is because alfa particles can be blocked by a paper sheet, so the bottle material blocked the emission of alpha particles.
I’d be very interested in looking at the snow made in the cloud chamber or the snowmaker you talked about under a microscope - the shape of snowflakes you get depends on humidity and temperature so you could probably get interesting results by tuning your system
Cool. Another way to get the vapor was to reduce the pressure in the chamber, such that a vapor is formed. At least, that is what I remember from the kit I got when I was a kid. But that was over 50 years ago. I really like your videos, for many reasons.
For the autunite demonstration most of the alpha particles that it would give off are blocked by the thin glass of the vial, while the beta and gamma particles are able to escape with relative ease.
extreme strong connections about the examples of an specific individual and yours experiments
Always nice to hear about new installations from your hyperspace.
takes me back to my second year in uni when i was building a cloud chamber for a physics project with a friend
we got it to do the "rain" effect consistently but only ever saw maybe two particle trails
Hi HP,
Loving your content. Since you mentioned you spend a lot of time watching different DIY science channels I would love too see some featured on your YT-Page. I am always on the hunt for new good channels.
wow its been a while since ive watched you channel, i remember bsck when you were at around 30k, love to see that you have grown
I was having dinner in a fancy restaurant in Palo Alto last night and your channel came up in the discussion. After dinner I check the RUclips notifications and there it is a new vijeo! Thank you
Wow that is just so beautiful. Great work on the chamber and thanks for showing us your results!
My dad was a science teacher and I remember him making one. His ion source was a small piece of radioactive material on the head of a pin stuck in a cork. Have you looked at vortex coolers for cooling. They probably wouldn’t be easy to control
Since they make a cold steam of air
That was really interesting seeing the camera lens in the chamber. I've always been curious to see an old thoriated coleman lantern mantle in one of these chambers to see just how radioactive they are.
I appreciate your love for phase change cooling
This is impressive amount of work done. I geniunly inspired by your work, thank you very much for sharing
Man a snowman on the beach would be a dream cooler project
Its not only cool sience, but one thats especially flashy to show off (though less flash projects are often cooler)
this video brought a smile to my face
Presumably you could crisp up the definition by ensuring that the inside of the container was extremely clean and wasn't off gassing anything (like the paint or the caulking). I'm not sure if it would be worth the trouble.
I adore how you hate peltier coolers, they are certainly one of the least efficient conductive but thermally isolating ceramics, and a very poor way to transfer heat, which theoretically has no upper bound on efficiency. Maybe if we used superconductors and a vacuum gap we could improve on the efficiency of conductive heat transfer in the ceramics. That or use some other zero-loss mechanism that can uptake and depart phonon motion while regenerating the energy lost by the phonon transport particle we put in.. 🤔
Maybe there's a better phase change transition besides RF-11/fluorocarbons (strong bonds, doesnt want to have van der walls or Hydrogen interactions) or ionic chemical refrigerants.
This proves the world is not as we see it... I could watch this process for days. Would love to see a piece of Vaseline glass in there, or a piece of Fiestaware, or better yet, an old wristwatch with radium dial... Awesome build man ..
Cloud chambers rock!! You would he surprised at what is in fact, radioactive around us daily
Great video. Making a cloud chamber is one of the many things on my never-ending to-do list.
This feels like an excellent background and central prop for a horror movie. The cloud chamber is the only source of gieger counter as they figure out a stressful radioactive situation.
I can't. Your humor. Thanks bro. Made my day
I have pure confidence in our ability to understand our electric universe within our lifetime. This is fascinating
Can I suggest putting the magnet back in, dropping the voltage to a reasonable level and putting in a banana, some fertilizer or any other sample of Potassium? With a bit of luck (and math to see how much Potassium you need) you'll be able to see a positron.
Calling all your components “thing” is a very relatable struggle of knowing how to make stuff but not knowing the industry-standard names for these… things
The 60's were the best time to be alive. If you know, you know...
Use an electromagnet...once you are seeing particles energize it...either small enough to have less effect inside the chamber or strong enough and the ability to turn it on and off may help. Thank You For Your Time And Effort!
That's way more voltage than you need. 1kv should work. I think you are getting tons of corona discharge.
This was great! I love all the experiments!
I was lucky enough to see one back in my undergrad days. They're initially underwhelming, but when you think about it, they're blazingly cool. Watching things zip by or spiral away was such a great experience.
And if you're into things that sound cool, end up underwhelming, then get cool again, have you ever heard of a "neutron howitzer?" Good memories.
@user-yb5cn3np5q Ooh, good choice!
You can see it in a cat scan, when they go over your eyes. It looks like sparse static.
Ok, that is just cool. Nicely done! Agreeing with others: i could experiment with it and stare at it all day. Beautiful!
This is why I started watching your channel, I want to build one of these and I'm trying to work out how to do it.
Fantastic. You have increased my knowledge again.
I knew of them, but only the water vapor based ones that operate one pulse at a time. Now I want one running full time just displaying background radiation.
Jimmy Hoffa memorial landfill. Now that's funny! 👍
Dayum; This was a fun usage of my time at 5am. Thanks!
Out of anyone on RUclips, YOU seem like the kind of person who would come back a decade after we thought you died to one of your experiments, and then tell us, "so I found this toroidal fusion reactor in a scrap yard..." 😂😂😂
Very nice build 👌 👏 ❤
Thanks for another great video!
Absolutely interesting effects by the electric fields
Its a good day when i see the HSP notification pop up
Dude this is so cool it actually looks unreal
Black 3.0 Paint, for the background, would help the contrast immensely!
It boggles my mind how wind can be created from a corona discharge.
Propane as a fridgerant? "You there need some propane and propane accessories.", "Bobby! Get ready to light it up!"
"Okay dad! All ready to light 'em up!"
You might be able to take an exposure from when nothing was happening and subtract that frame from further photos to make the results artificially more visible for analysis purposes.
Man that was genius!
And the memes are hilarious
Beautiful shots!
Nice experiment. I wonder how a thoriated TIG electrode would look in there. The thingy that sits in a handheld torch and is often ground in front of ones face to make a sharp tip :)
Well for all its pitfalls, thorium is not so scary. And having to move away from it has caused the optical industry no shortage of headaches. Thorium has a great spectral range and awesome bonding properties making is really good for thin film applications.
Woe now, I damn nearly subscribed. This is good stuff......can it really get better?!?!?
12:20 I think that's the Ozone Hole we were supposed to be afraid of a few years ago. Just smaller. Be careful.
14:27 should do a snow ❄️ video, I'd definitely watch
I was wondering why there wasnt an update on the cooler. Only the best can get nerd sniped this hard. Great video!
Amazing video, as always. Extremely interesting
This video is amazing!
Your initial description of the cloud chamber had me thinking: "oh... so it's like a bong, but for alcohol. Do people actually do that?"... lol. Have seen these before in radioactive particle demonstrations but didn't know they were called a 'cloud chamber' or how they actually worked. Now I kinda want to build one so I can take long exposure photos of the particles...
You should have covered the cold plate with a layer of alcohol to make the contrast of the condensed alcohol trails and the black paint better.
How about an actively cooled snowman? Some kind of metal core with a compressor based cooler which keeps it snowy. Would probably need some insane cooling power but you are smart, you will figure it out.
If you want a particle accelerator, small cyclotrons are within the reach of DIY...
I haven't searched if other videos have done it, but it would be interesting if you could put a sheet of lead or other metals to see how it changes the radioactive particles from your lens.
If you look into the "moon pool" of a neuclear reactor, you can see "radiation". The blue glow is electrons, neutrons and protons colliding with water. There are several radioactive elements making this glow.
Americium from old smoke detectors is also a fun test emitter for cloud chamber experiments.
Saw this pop up in my notifications and immediately said "Cloud chamber!"
Brilliant work.
What's the name of the character you use (seen at 0:43)? I recognize it but cant find it for the life of me
10:01 Whaaat? That looks so dope!!
The reason for your less-than-perfect results is that your temperature is too low and your high-voltage is too high. CERN recommends about 100V/cm for the Ion scrubbing. Temperature should be at least -28C to work reliably - the colder the better! You also want a good seal at the bottom of the cover to stop any draft. The fly swatter transformer would have worked perfect - it provides around 4000V.
HP: time to see radiation with the naked eye.
Me: you mean some ocular solution that makes cool colors when irradiated?
HP: no, just a cloud chamber.
Me:fuckin' damnit
Thanks for sharing!
Stellarator would be nice to see on your channel 😊
Should try putting a smoke alarms chip sensor in there. They use a radioactive element to detect smoke.
Getting your mits on a Stellerator will be tricky, but I keep my fingers crossed :D
I think you def found the elusive room temp superconductor called HP-99 with that magnet and weird patterns .
Im curious if there exists some sort of efficient method to collect the falling alcohol vapor and basically automatically recycle it so that you could basically have a service-less cloud chamber. I would love something like that and turn it into a coffee table.
Cloud chambers 4-6 were nice.
the water in your alcohol should be distilled - so it won't conduct. As I'm sure you know water itself is an insulator - the stuff dissolved in it is what conducts. I dunno if the water could still cause you misting issues at !8:36, I's lean towards the towels. as you suggest.
How do you know the consistency of natural snow, Florida Man? 😂
Love your content man!!
Thank you for not saying 'on accident'!
If you wanna see something extremely cool take some of your Autunite. Put it into a glass jar with a lure port, so that you can syringe the radon gas out so that you can squish the gas into your cloud chamber. you’ll see
V shaped formations because it’s decaying so fast that you see the original particle stream and its decay progeny at the same time.
Put a am 241 source from a smoke detector in there, you'll get lots of trails. Also if using a naked uranium ore chunk it will create several kinds of trails. ❤
This is great. Is there anything that inhibits radioactive decay.
REALLY quality content
Instead of LEDs I found that using a softer light inside the chamber like a candle works well.
For a Hyperspace Pirate you seem incredibly preoccupied by science stuff rather than, you know, going to hyperspace and raid other hyperspace ships. I'm all for it though, as science stuff is really my thing, and I'm fully supportive of your move away from a life of crime.
I have seen proper cloud chambers before... But i also found a way go get an impromptu cloud chamber thats really cheap. Just make some tea. The tiny droplets that rise act very similar to this alcohol vapor