SELAMAT DATANG DAN SALAM SEJAHTERA!
Matlamat jangka panjang projek ini adalah berikut:
- Siapkan sekurang-kurangnya dua jenis kebuk awan (jenis ruapan dan kembangan) yang boleh "melihat" runut sinaran dengan jelas sebelum tahun 2021.
- Merakam video atau mengambil gambar runut sinaran sumber semula jadi seperti bahan radioaktif atau sinaran kosmik supaya maklumat saintifik seperti jisim dan momentum zarah boleh ditentukan dengan jitu dan tepat.
- Mengongsikan sejarah fizik zarah yang melibatkan kebuk awan.
- Lestarikan ilmu saintifik dan teknologi melalui kebuk awan buatan sendiri.
- Menjadikan fizik ANuPar sebagai hobi saintifik setaraf dengan hobi astronomi.
Jika pembaca sekalian ingin menggunakan gambar untuk tujuan pengajaran, saya izinkan dengan syarat petikan hendaklah dibuat secara beretika. Jangan sekali menampal atau menanggalkan "watermark" yang terdapat dalam video atau gambar.
Terima kasih!
GREETINGS AND WELCOME!
"Kebuk awan" is a Malay word for cloud chamber. This is the official page for my cloud chamber projects. In this blog you will find my work, report, and highlights related to cloud chamber physics. I will try my best to update as frequently as possible as this project is self-funded and not for profit.
The long term objectives of this project are:
- Build at least two types of cloud chambers (diffusion and expansion type) that provides clear particle tracks before the year 2021.
- Develop methods to record or photograph particle tracks from radioactive or cosmic ray sources in a way that scientific information such as mass and momentum can be determined as accurately as possible.
- Sharing of the history of early particle physics involving the use of cloud chambers.
- Made the knowledge of science and technology of cloud chambers accessible to amateur scientist through practice.
- Turn ANuPar physics into a sustainable, scientific hobby.
I consent free access if you would like to use my photos or videos for education purposes only. Please cite them appropriately, and do not remove or paste-over watermarks on them.
______________________________________________________________________
"The most original and wonderful instrument in scientific history!" - Ernst Rutherford
"The beauty and ingenuity of the method can can hardly be exaggerated. previous to the discovery of the Wilson chamber, it was possible only to observe the behaviour of matter in bulk. The Wilson chamber enables us to study the behaviour of individual atoms and electrons through gases and to study at leisure the complicated interactions taking place between individual atoms, nuclei, and charged particles." - N. N. Das Gupta
Although initial design of cloud chambers (late 1890s to early 1910s) was never meant to study nuclear particles, the technique refined rapidly after 1920s because it was the only way to study charged particle tracks in detail. Ground breaking discoveries was made one after another with at least 4 Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded for works involved directly or indirectly with cloud chambers:
- 1927, C. T. R. Wilson, "Invention of cloud chamber and discovered its use to visualize ionising radiation"
- 1935, J. Chadwick, "Discovery of neutrons, subsequently observed neutron interactions in cloud chamber."
- 1936, Carl Anderson, "Confirmed discovery of antimatter, the positron, in cosmic rays passing through a cloud chamber"
- 1948, P. M. S. Blackett, "Use of cloud chamber in study of cosmic rays, various discoveries"
Sadly cloud chamber outlived its usefulness by late 1950s. Development in particle physics technology was so rapid, the advent of more powerful accelerators with high beam intensity made expansion type cloud chambers seem antiquated and slow in photographing events. In 1959, the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain for their discovery of antiprotons did not have "trophy photographs" as Anderson or Blackett did. The protons was identified by 12 m time-of-flight through electronic means - the first of its kind - pushing cloud chambers into obscurity as electronic detection makes its mark. You can say it was the inevitability of science to push boundaries made cloud chamber obsolete. It was time to move on. "The Quark Machines: How Europe Fought the Particle Physics War" by G. Fraser summaries the demise of cloud chamber:
"New synchrotrons delivered pulses of particles every few seconds, too fast for the cloud chamber's cumbersome expansion. In addition, penetrating high-energy particles are not easily stopped by vapour or gases. Cloud chambers would record tracks passing through, but not many interactions. In April 1952, an early experiment at the Cosmotron, using an adapted version of the cloud chamber, reported its first examples of V particles. The tracks first seen in the Manchester cosmic ray experiments. These desperate attempts to update the cloud chamber were not enough. The faithful detector technique invented by C T R Wilson half a century before had been squeezed dry. The future lay with electronic techniques, such as had been used to discover the antiproton, or with some new method to reveal high-energy tracks from pulsed machines."
Today, cloud chamber became a forgotten relic in science. Thankfully, due to the aesthetics of particle tracks, low cost, and ease of operation, it occasionally shows up in middle school classrooms or university lecture halls as demonstrations to visualize ionising radiation. If it did exist that way, the curricula presented them merely to remind students that these magnificent machines existed to show tracks of charged particles with emphasis so stressed on typical tracks of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, it is almost done without purpose. Students never knew what it was actually used for and probably never will unless stumbled across some life-changing views that made them review and appreciate the historical context behind this brilliant instrument.
That is why I wanted to do this. On top of personal appreciation, I want to show the underlying beauty behind the stars and curves in a track photograph; bringing meaning to photographs that was part of major scientific breakthrough. On and all, I simply want more people to be aware of the invisible microcosm that is happening every moment in front of us and would remain elusive if we are not a curious species.
Thinking back, I can hardly contain my excitement when I first saw "live" particle tracks in Singapore Science Centre back in 2013. It was an "exclusive" Phywe PJ45 diffusion type cloud chamber that shows impressive, crisp-clear tracks from cosmic rays. I have understood enough theory to know what I was looking at then but felt it was such a shame the cloud chamber was outshone literally by flame shows and Tesla coils. The magnitude of its purpose never known. It sits at a corner watching passerby with only a poster-sized description under grey lights.
This was how particle tracks in a Phywe PJ45 looked like.
Recorded by Cloudylabs.
The Author
Currently residing in southern peninsula Malaysia, the author has deep interest in amateur science projects. He hopes that his work may share the excitement within discoveries of early particle physics; hopefully some day this might inspire others to pursue knowledge in fundamental sciences.
Andrew J. C. Chong, 2020
His field-of-interests include:
- Amateur astronomy
- Early particle physics and history of cloud chambers
- Various aspects of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy
- Physical and limited aspects of quantum optics
