Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber


A Cloud Chamber is a hands-on particle detector that allows students to make the particles' traces visible. Both permanently installed cloud chambers and those self-built with relatively easily accesible materials make it possible to observe and identify different particles.

Nebelkammer / Cloud Chamber

The Cloud Chamber was the first particle detector with which one could display an elementary particle's path. That lead to a lot of findings about elementary particles. It was only in the 1950s that cloud chambers were slowly replaced by bubble chambers. A fex examples for important experiments with cloud chambers are the following:

  • Investigation of the range of alpha radiation (L. Meitner, 1926)
  • Discovery of the positron (C. Anderson, 1932)
  • Nachweis der Paarerzeugung und Paarvernichtung von Elektronen und Positronen (P. Blackett und G. Ochialini, 1933)
  • Entdeckung des Myons (C. Anderson und S. Neddermeyer, 1937)

Within the astroparticle project of Netzwerk Teilchenwelt, cloud chambers were tested for self-construction. Detailed instructions on how to set up the experiment, how to carry it out and possible tasks can be found here (only in German).

 

Technical Details & Manuals