You must have come across news about hazardous effects of radiations on
humans, animals as well as the environment. History has it that
radiation can make entire cities a disaster and isolated for centuries.
In case you are curious as to how that radiation seems like, the folks
at CloudyLabs
made a video that shows a tiny piece of uranium mineral in a cloud
chamber. The sealed glass container cools down to -40 degrees during the
process of radiation emission.
about the atom; uranium
On a scale arranged according to the increasing mass of their nuclei,
uranium is one of the heaviest of all the naturally-occurring elements
(Hydrogen is the lightest). Uranium is 18.7 times as dense as water.
Like other elements, uranium occurs in several slightly differing
forms known as 'isotopes'. These isotopes differ from each other in the
number of uncharged particles (neutrons) in the nucleus. Natural uranium
as found in the Earth's crust is a mixture largely of two isotopes:
uranium-238 (U-238), accounting for 99.3% and uranium-235 (U-235) about
0.7%.
CloudyLabs on YouTube that prepared the video show the vapours from
alcohol filling the container. Subsequently, they condense on the
surface of the glass. CloudLabs explain that this forms a layer of
unsaturated vapour that condenses at any random point. As soon as a
charged particle passes by the vapour, it has the ability to condense
close to the ions existing in the vicinity. A track consisting of
alcohol droplets reveals the path of a particle.see photo below
Stephen Djes is a passionate Graduate of Engineering from the University of Benin, and he is geared towards helping fellow engineering students in the great institution of UNIBEN to do better at academics.
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