• nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 days ago

    Talk about inflation! These atomic rings were only $0.15 in 1947! And those disks for polonium210 are $120

    Kind of cool but i wouldn’t know what to do with it and i don’t need an expensive hobby lol

    • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      you can make a cloud chamber with clear plastic containers, a really cold frozen thing, high proof alcohol, and hot water (example)

      these can visualize cosmic radiation, or you can always hold a smoke detector next to it to see it really pop off

      so you can literally have an inexpensive hobby involving nuclear physics haha

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        I like to imagine radiologic security checks are done by border agents with cloud chambers. Not fancy electronic detectors, just literal cloud chambers. Just imagine there’s some customs guy at a port in LA. He’s standing outside a shipping container. In his hands he has a giant glass dome filled with fog. And he’s just awkwardly waving this giant impractical object all over the surface of a shipping container.