What is a cloud chamber?
Q: What is a cloud chamber?
A: A cloud chamber is a sealed box with a supersaturated vapour of water or alcohol.
Q: How does a charged particle interact with a cloud chamber?
A: When a charged particle (e.g. an alpha or beta particle) goes through it, the vapour is ionized.
Q: What is the result of ionization in a cloud chamber?
A: The resulting ions act as nuclei, around which a mist forms from the vapour.
Q: How are the tracks of different charged particles distinctive in a cloud chamber?
A: The high energies of alpha and beta particles mean that a trail is left by ions produced along the path of the charged particle. These tracks have distinctive shapes (for example, an alpha particle's track is broad and shows more evidence of deflection by collisions, while an electron's is thinner and straight).
Q: What happens when any uniform magnetic field is applied across a cloud chamber?
A: When any uniform magnetic field is applied across the cloud chamber, positively and negatively charged particles will curve in opposite directions, according to the Lorentz force law.
Q: Who invented the cloud chamber?
A: The cloud chamber was invented by Charles Wilson (1869–1959), a Scottish physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for this work.
Q: When was the first cloud chamber made?
A: The first cloud chamber was made in 1911.
