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Instrument

Cloud Chamber

Physics

The cloud chamber is a sealed container of air saturated with alcohol or water vapor that a charged particle passing through leaves visible as a thin trail of tiny droplets, condensed along the trail of ions the particle knocks loose as it flies past. The Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson built the first working version in 1911 and won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for it; the chamber let physicists photograph the tracks of individual subatomic particles for the first time, and it led directly to Carl Anderson's 1932 discovery of the positron, the first antimatter particle ever found. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Open Questions
Resolution
Not stated as a numeric figure in the cited source.
No resolution or sensitivity value given for the cloud chamber. Retry without SourceSlug after ambiguous duplicate citation rejection (FactQueueId 832).
Operating Range
Not stated as a numeric figure; the source notes only that the related, denser bubble chamber can reveal the tracks of far more energetic particles than a cloud chamber can.
Implies a relative energy ceiling but gives no number for the cloud chamber itself. Retry without SourceSlug after ambiguous duplicate citation rejection (FactQueueId 833).
Invented YearSourced to the subject's own account
1911 1
MeasuresSourced to the subject's own account
Tracks of ionizing radiation, such as alpha and beta particles. 1
Operating PrincipleSourced to the subject's own account
A charged particle knocks electrons off gas molecules, leaving a trail of ions; in a supersaturated alcohol vapor environment maintained by a steep temperature gradient, vapor condenses around this ion trail as a visible line of droplets. 1
Classification
Instrument ClassSourced to the subject's own account
Particle Detector 1
Connections

Invented By

C. T. R. Wilson, Scientists

Built the first working cloud chamber in 1911, showing that a charged particle ionizes supersaturated water vapor along its path, and shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for it.

Source Cloud Chamber (Wikipedia)

Precursor To

Bubble Chamber, Instruments
Source Bubble Chamber (Britannica)

Used In

Physics, Disciplines
Source Cloud Chamber (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Cloud Chamber (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Introduction section
    particle detector used for visualizing the passage of ionizing radiation
  • Structure and operation section
    The alcohol vapor condenses around gaseous ion trails left behind by the ionizing particles
  • Lede, instrument class
    The cloud chamber is a sealed container of air saturated with alcohol or water vapor that a charged particle passing through leaves visible as a thin trail of tiny droplets, condensed along the trail of ions the particle knocks loose as it flies past.
  • Used In: Physics
View the Source
Bubble Chamber (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaPrecursor To: Bubble ChamberView the Source

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