Recent content by doggonemess

It's funny that you mention Americium, as I do have a sample of that. But I have a better sample - Fiestaware. Judging by my Civil Defense radmeter, it should be spitting out beta particles like crazy. I think the problem was my setup. I plan to do much better next time.

Not my original one, but I found a cool instructable at https://www.instructables.com/id/Peltier-Cooled-Cloud-Chamber/ about how to build a Peltier device cloud chamber and I'm going to try that next. A smaller chamber would probably be more effective anyway.

I'm happy with making some assumptions and getting a ballpark figure. I suspect they were going faster than 25 mph due to the airbag deployment. I'm wondering if they were going much faster than that.

Greetings, It's been quite a while since I had to do anything with velocity, friction, mass, and practically any physics over simple calculations. My car was hit yesterday while parked. There were no injuries, and it still drives just fine. The collision was hard enough to deploy the other...

I uploaded a low-res copy of the video here: The plate at the bottom of the tank is Fiestaware. I figured I'd give myself the best shot I could at 'seeding' the chamber with radiation. It is absolutely the most energetic beta source I have - it makes my Geiger counter go nuts. Still nothing...

Greetings all, I finally made a cloud chamber using an old aquarium and dry ice. Now, I got the expected result to happen, with a fine mist falling from the top like snow, but didn't see a single particle track. Any ideas why this might be? I have some guesses, but wanted someone with...

In astronomy, for example, you're trying to figure out how planets interact with the sun. The dominant force is gravity, and in some cases the gravitational interaction is so strong you need Einstein's theory of gravity. But if you're trying to understand how black holes interact, gravity is so...

Another thought - when we talk about arrows, are we talking about modern carbon fiber arrows with fletching attached perfectly by machines, or are we talking about the kind of arrows I make? If you use natural materials (wood, reed, bamboo, etc.) there are always going to be differences from one...

There seem to be a lot of overly complex responses here that are more questions than answers. I make wood bows and arrows, so I'm very familiar with the way the arrow behaves after leaving the bow. In simplest terms, the arrow tends to get more accurate as it gets heavier because the mass...

robphy: No, that's not it. But thank you for those, I'm looking forward to watching them!

Greetings, my name is Jamie. I'm a web developer in Maryland, working for a community college. I've been interested in science my entire life, and love learning new things. I graduated HS in 1995, and have managed to forget just about everything I learned about math, so it unfortunately limits...

Nope, that's not it. But thank you! Incidentally, I just realized that every 'wrong' reply will actually include a cool science video I might not have seen before. Best thread ever!

This is a desperate attempt to find a set of videos I saw about a year ago on YouTube. It was not one of the big, well known guys like Veritasium or SciShow, it was just one middle aged guy. He explained scientific advancements through history, and gave really, really detailed accounts of how...