Cyberphysics - Radiation Detection

Radioactivity - Detection

Radioactivity can not be detected with our five senses, special detectors are needed to tell us we are being exposed to it therefore it is particularly dangerous. People may unknowingly be exposed to it for prolonged periods of time with a detrimental effect on their tissue and genetic material.

Several devices have been developed to detect radioactivity, with the earliest being an unexposed photographic plate placed in the vicinity of a source being detected. Other devices include:

the cloud chamber - video: We put a small lump of Uranite in a Wilson Cloud Chamber full of Ethanol vapor. The lines are the alpha and beta particle ejected due to radioactive decay

electroscopes,
ionising chambers,
the Geiger-Müller tube

liquid and electronic bubble chambers,
scintillation detectors (spinthariscope), and
solid state semiconductor devices.