On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 5:20 PM, John Berry <berry.joh...@gmail.com> wrote:
Well this has to be testable. > It looks like there are ways to do this at home, including using a home-built scintillation counter or cloud chamber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnpNb4Plt1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sejvogRVmZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGvTHC9hK4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGYiiLC0aKA The trick would be differentiating between electrons from the expected Coulomb explosion and the relativistic electrons coming from ~ MeV beta decays. The mean free paths of the latter would be further, I suppose. They might deflect less under a magnet as well. (Electrons have a random trajectory at slower speeds due to their strong interaction with the electrons of atoms they pass by, but I'm not sure to what extent this is true at higher energies.) It's tempting to think there are direct-to-electricity applications that could be derived from both controlled beta decay and alpha decay. Eric
