Radiation and penetrability of materials

[SmileyMan]

Is it possible to calculate whether or not beta decay from a given beta-source can penetrate a material of a certain thickness? I'm thinking something along the lines of first calculating the average eV of the decay (What do you need to know about the source to do this?), and then looking up/calculating the penetrability of the shielding material per millimetre. I imagine the end theoretical product to be in the following format:

This beta source emits beta particles with an average energy of x eV each. The shielding material has a penetrability of y KeV/mm. Given the thickness of the material in my experiment, the beta decay with x eV will therefore not penetrate the layer of shielding material.

These calculations do not need to be super accurate; I just want to put my cloud chamber to good use.

[SmileyMan]

Do you need more information to answer my question, or did I place this in the wrong section?

[QuantumPion]

I googled around a bit and came up with two useful links that may help you:

http://health.phys.iit.edu/extended_archive/0205/msg00176.html

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scdiroff/lds/QuantumRelativity/PenetrationandShielding/PenetrationandShielding.html

[Drakkith]

Beta radiation should be stopped by almost anything solid. Even your skin, which is only mm's thick, will stop Beta radiation. Unless you have some materiel that is just ridiculously thin you should be fine.

[SmileyMan]

I googled around a bit and came up with two useful links that may help you:

http://health.phys.iit.edu/extended_archive/0205/msg00176.html

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scdiroff/lds/QuantumRelativity/PenetrationandShielding/PenetrationandShielding.html

Thank you very much. Those links are definitely useful.

Beta radiation should be stopped by almost anything solid. Even your skin, which is only mm's thick, will stop Beta radiation. Unless you have some materiel that is just ridiculously thin you should be fine.

Righto, I would just like to be able calculate this. :biggrin:

If anyone has more sites that explain the units and the math step-by-step, please, don't hesitate from sharing.

[Drakkith]

Thank you very much. Those links are definitely useful.



Righto, I would just like to be able calculate this. :biggrin:

If anyone has more sites that explain the units and the math step-by-step, please, don't hesitate from sharing.

Ah ok.

[SmileyMan]

When calculating the kinetic energy of an alpha particle I use the mass-energy equivalence. First I find the difference in mass between mmother particle and (mdaughter particle + malpha particle), then by inserting this into Einstein's formula I can calculate how much energy is released in the decay-process. I assume that this quantity has to be split between the daughter particle and the alpha particle, seeing as they both gain kinetic energy in the decay-process. How is this done?

[SmileyMan]

Right, I don't know how I could miss this sub-section when deciding where to place my thread. My apologies.

[SmileyMan]

Never mind this topic. I just realized that there are some pretty big theoretical holes in my attempts.