BRAINCAKEParticle Detectors
Particle detectors reveal particles that are far too small to see. At A level, the general principles are ionisation and deflection.
Ionisation: a charged particle moving through a material knocks electrons out of atoms, leaving a trail of ions. Detectors make this trail visible or measurable:
• in a cloud chamber, vapour condenses on the ions, leaving a trail of droplets
• in a bubble chamber, the liquid boils along the trail, leaving a line of bubbles
• in modern electronic detectors, the freed charges are collected and produce electrical signals, which a computer uses to reconstruct the tracks
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More in Particle Physics
- Alpha Particle Scattering and the Nuclear Model
- Particle Accelerators
- The Linear Accelerator
- The Cyclotron
- Tracks in a Magnetic Field
- Relativistic Energies and GeV
- Mass in MeV/c2
- Particles and Antiparticles
All 19 lessons in Particle Physics · All Edexcel A-level Physics topics