English Posts

Introduction A typical situation in which comes in the Poisson distribution is the study of a process of radioactive decay. In this circumstance, the number of trials is made by the number of nuclei that potentially may decay and is very large (for one mole of radioactive material the number …

Introduction When a β-particle (energetic electron from nuclear decay) enters a material its path can be deflected when it interacts with the nuclei of the material. The β-particles are oppositely charged to the positively charged nucleus and thus an attractive force exists between the two. The deflections that result are dependent …

This experiment was first explained by Austen and Brouwer (1997). It can be used to show how the air has naturally low levels of radioactive material in it, and that this decays over time. It is also a demonstration that our environment has low levels of radioactivity, mainly due to the …

Introduction With neutrons we enter the “heart” of nuclear physics. As known it is a sub-atomic particles contained in the nucleus, they are characterized by a mass slightly superior to that of the proton and neutral charge. Outside the nucleus, neutrons are unstable and have a half-life of about 15 minutes. …

What is NDVI Index ? (Contribute from Alessio Giusti @flybri) Live green plants absorb solar radiation in the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) spectral region, which they use as a source of energy in the process of photosynthesis. Leaf cells have also evolved to re-emit solar radiation in the near-infrared spectral …

The link between cosmic rays and mountains has always been tight. Since the beginning of the research it was clear that cosmic rays, coming from deep space, are absorbed by gases in the atmosphere and that they reach the ground modified and weakened. The primary cosmic rays, mainly composed by …

Antimatter can be bought “online”, perhaps even directly on ebay! But do not expect to receive an antimatter can as the one depicted in the photo above. What you get instead is a capsule containing an infinitesimal quantity of the isotope Sodium 22. This radioactive isotope decays by emitting a …

Rutherford scattering is the elastic scattering of charged particles by the Coulomb interaction. It is a physical phenomenon explained by Ernest Rutherford in 1911 that led to the development of the planetary Rutherford model of the atom and eventually the Bohr model. It is now exploited by the materials analytical technique …

With the knowledge of the theory of the interaction of alpha particles with matter it is possible to measure with precision the thickness of a very thin gold foil. In this experiment the principal concern will be the specific ionization and rate of energy loss, dE/dx, of an alpha particle …

With the help of the spectrometer for alpha particles, described in the post DIY Alpha Spectrometer, we looked at some isotopes and radioactive substances. The main difficulty of the alpha spectroscopy is the preparation of the source: to obtain net lines and good resolutions it is necessary that the active …