my favorite part is when it says fuck it and just screams. •••---••• •••---••• •••---••• *passes 690 uSV/h* •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
It was nice. I would have like to have seen him use blue for negative to differentiate from green neutral, but he probably didn't have blue fluorescent paint. Or the blue showed up as green on camera or something.
I store my strongest samples in a 'cage' of multiple layers of concrete garden tiles outside my house. Blocks the radiation to a tolerable level :) Thanks for watching!
@ louis tournas thanks for your comment but the smoke detector produces ions and reads only a disruptive molecule that reduces the ability of ions to move. It doesn’t give an actual reading showing how many negative or positive ions present. Both smoke detectors and emergency lights contain radioactive substances and if you don’t know what you are doing best not to play with them.
Can you please test a cathode ray tube monitor (maybe an old tv) with your new device Thanks btw why is the reading still at 40 µSv when you placed them on the dinnerplate at 10:57 is it due to Potassium decay?
@@swabianscience Yes, one common brand which used uranium glazes was Fiestaware. It wasn't done for the radioactivity but rather for the properties of uranium compounds as dyes.
@@vamp97 Even if all of your dishes were coated in uranium based glaze, it wouldn't be dangerous. The amount of radioactivity is tiny (You'd have to hold it next to you for years to significantly increase your cancer risk), the only danger is when the glaze is damaged, it emits uranium dust, which you really don't want to breathe.
With the possible exception of needing to handle the uranium ore with such care...the biggest worry there is the radon--you couldn't get enough on your hands to cause any harm...
@@jomiar309 I mean I'd assume the worry is more about breathing in particulate from the uranium ore, not just being near it, right? It's not hot enough to be an immediate danger in the short-term but you do not want pitchblende dust in your lungs
Thanks to this video, I purchased my own RadiaScan. Quite happily, the most radioactive thing I found in my house was a stack of napkins made from recycled material.
@@0XAN A dosimeter is technically a geiger counter that can also count a the accumulated doese. A radiometer can only estimate the current level in real-time. Technically the Radiascan is all of that
I have a GQ gieger counter, and I think it's click is probably one of the most iconic gieger counter sounds. I haven't found anything radioactive above 50 CPM on my property, but I really like taking measurements of things, and a gieger counter is one the tools that you will likely never really need, but when you do need it, you really need it.
Зачем так прислонять дозиметры к минералу!!? Где элементарные правила безопасности при замерах? Вы же их потом руками брать будете! А так ролик познавательный!
And touching the actual pitchblende sample with the detector's window is a VERY bad idea. Once the insides get contaminated you can just throw the detector away, good luck cleaning it.
In my eyes no need to watch the video for it to already be a great video. Your content has never not been good (if that makes sense). Whenever the radiascan 701-A senses a particularly high source of radiation, it makes the morse code signal . . . _ _ _ . . . which is SOS in morse code. I find that to be very cool!
What?!? You're right - it does send out a morse SOS. I hadn't noticed that at all! Nice touch indeed.Thanks for trusting me to never slack on quality btw. Even in a short month like February where there are fewer days to make the video...
Very weakly radioactive, especially compared to the pitchblende he showed in the video. There are some VERY spicy radium items out there (not the usual watches and clocks), but erm, those aren't so common in antique shops (thankfully!)
Hi braniac! Been watching for almost 3 years now, i think it would be very cool if you did a tour of where you store all of your samples/magnets/everything. Perhaps a future video idea?
I really appreciate your attention to detail and clear explanations! I hope more and more people watch your videos and learn from them. Also, your accent is very pleasant to listen to. :)
To go into a bit more detail about tritium turning into helium-3, this is done through a process called Beta Decay, because when it happens, a beta particle is emitted from a nucleus [a high energy electron/positron] In the case of tritium, a neutron was turning into a proton spontaneously. This happened because the quarks that make up the neutron are capable of changing into other kinds of quarks by exchanging a type of particle known as an Intermediate Vector Boson. In this case, it is a W- Boson, which can be thought of as a kind of messanger particle. To avoid a whole lecture about quantum electrodynamics and field theory, the gist is that while this decay process is happening, a beta particle and antineutrino are being created in a pair. Every time this process happens, they always come in pairs. Neutrons have a higher rest mass than protons. Essentially, it is that extra energy that goes into the beta particle and the antineutrino. There are also some photons involved but those aren't that important. This can also happen with protons becoming neutrons. It's called inverse beta decay, and it happens whenever you have a high energy particle, usually a beta particle or high energy neutrino smash into a proton. The kinetic energy of the collision supplies the activation energy needed to kickstart the decay process. An up quark in the proton by way of a W+ Boson changes into a down quark, and the nuclear potential energy between those quarks rises, giving the resulting neutron the extra rest mass. Some photons, neutrinos, and a positron is also given off as the total energy of the neutron rejects the excess energy from the original collision. After all, quantum particles really love being in their ground states.
I love looking for radioactive rocks in the woods and I was thinking about getting gamma scout but now I think I'll go with radiascan considering it outperform gamma scout and it's also cheaper!
Well, I don't know, but I've been told Uranium ore's worth more than gold Sold my Cad', I bought me a Jeep I've got that bug and I can't sleep Uranium fever has done and got me down Uranium fever is spreadin' all around With a Geiger counter in my hand I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land Uranium fever has done and got me down Well I had talk with the AEC* And they brought out some maps that looked good to me And one showed me a spot that he said he knowed So I straddled my Jeep and headed down the road I reckon I drove about 100 miles Down a bumpy road out through the wilds When all of sudden I bounced to a stop At the foot of a mountain, didn't have no top Uranium fever has done and got me down Uranium fever is spreadin' all around With a Geiger counter in my hand I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land Uranium fever has done and got me down Well I took my Geiger and I started to climb Right up to the top where I thought I'd find A hunk of rock that would make it click Just like I'd read about Vernon Pick On the second day, I made the top And I'm tellin' you, Steve, I was ready to stop The only clickin' that I heard that day Was the bones in my back that had gone astray Uranium fever has done and got me down Uranium fever is spreadin' all around With a Geiger counter in my hand I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land Uranium fever has done and got me down Well, you pack up your things You head out again Into some unknown spot where nobody's been You reach the spot where your fortune lies You find it's been staked by 17 other guys Well, I ain't kiddin', I ain't gonna quit That bug's done caught me and I've been bit So with a Geiger counter and a pick in my hand I'll keep right on stakin' that government land Uranium fever has done and got me down Uranium fever is spreadin' all around With a Geiger counter in my hand I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land Uranium fever has done and got me down
Great song but it dates from the 1940s when uranium was needed for bombs and the gold price was set by Government! Today gold is about 500 times the price of uranium!
Nice ;) I was so annoyed by the glare, when I saw it after filming. I just didn't feel like taking another radiation dose that day, and I'm not sure the Gamma-Scout's battery would like a second try either... Thanks for watching!
Interestingly there is more to the x-rays coming from the tritium light sources. While a large part is due to Bremsstrahlung at 5-15keV, there are also pretty strong peaks corresponding to the characteristic x-ray spectrum of zinc, especially the K_alpha and K_beta emissions. However there is still practically nothing coming from these. As counters are calibrated to 662keV Cs137 emissions, they overestimate the dose by a factor of around 70. And of course it's not actually a full body dose. I once calculated the yearly dose for a key-chain with ~200Bq, ~10keV per gamma, 1/2 absorbed (people don't usually swallow their keys :P), 1/2 of the time wearing they key on you. I get around 2.5 micSv for a year, so around 1000-2000 times less than background and around as much as I got from my 2 day trip to Chernobyl, or around 2h of flying... Considering less than 1/2 is actually absorbed since people aren't infinite planes and people don't have their keys on them half of all time, it's probably a factor 5 or so lower still. All in all, the probability of impressing a potential girlfriend with one of these far far outweighs the risk of it! :D
Where did you get 200 Bq? I think the tritium light sources are more like 10^9 Bq. However, once you work out how much of the super low-energy x-rays are produced and actually make it out of the glass vial, it becomes only a few counts per second.
For example, I have a Betatorch which is a British military tritium illumminator which is about the same surface brightness as a keychain tritium light but the surface area is much larger (it is designed to provide just enough light that you could read a map in total darkness but not be seen more than about 20 meters away). It has 1.9 Curies of tritium (7x10^10 Bq)
@@sbreheny I held of in front of a scintillating counter and got ~100Bq, bit below. So ~200 or in that range total. It was a Nite GlowRing if I remember correctly. Honestly somewhat unscientific since the scintillators aren't really meant for these low energies. I wouldn't think it's far off the actual value but there is no way to know for sure other than using an x-ray detector. But in the end even if it's a factor of 100 greater, it's still less than a tenth of background and personally wouldn't bother me. Edit: oh you are saying you would expect less. Well could be, I really just grabbed the next best scint counter while doing student labs. Beforehand that I expected less as well, especially because IAEA has a paper that speaks of 28mic penetration depth of the x-rays through glass.
@@TiSapph So you're saying you did extensive math based on... waving a random-shape and random-area source in front of a random-shape and random-volume scintillation detector that only shows its own estimated total absorbed dose? Yeah... nice.
@@Spirit532 Um not quite? It's a scintillation counter, not spectrometer. It only counts the number of pulses, not their amplitudes. And then I did a fairly simple one line order of magnitude calculation to get a sense of how much dose one of these gives you. Also I think it's seems pretty fair so assume that if you have a small object on a decently large detector, the total activity is going to be around 2-3 times that much. Even if it's actually like a factor of 5, whatever it's an order of magnitude calculation. Don't quite get what the issue is
Wow! Another excellent video! How did you do the hydrogen atom scene at 2:53? I'd guess that's some fluorescent balls, but how did you make the electron spin at first? PS: What a shame that all the Geiger counters are outside my budget... TBH, the only use I'd have for them is my small americium sample from a smoke detector.
I'm guessing they are styrofoam balls and painted with phosphorescent paint. I bought my geiger counter back in 2010 on Ebay. It is a CDV-700 model made in the 60s. Back then, people were trying to get rid of them. I bought it for 35$. Since the Fukushima disaster, the prices on them went up to 120$ and more. Everyone started to sell potassium iodide (KI) pills and the price of raw potassium iodide trippled. Fortunately, I had also bought 1 kg of KI.
I would take a look at eBay. There’s a guy selling premade ready to go counters including an SBT10a tube!!! $100 from Lithuania I know that isn’t cheap… But that tube is capable of alpha beta and gamma… and the tube could have cost just as much as the entire set up a few years ago! And the counter he sells is just as capable as the radiascan 701A. In my opinion. I know $100 is still a lot… But he has counters starting at $27! And you can always add a nicer tube when you can afford it. His are the only ones I found that are easily adjustable so that you can use different tubes. Each tube requires different voltages and his has built in quick and efficient adjustment. If you like building electronics kits and are quite handy… The GKB5 kit is great! Also the GK-plus is wonderful. The gentleman who sells them is the original designer. His designs have been cloned and copied from China, Lithuania, and all over the world. You can find him at
Brian, I have 4 observations: 1. Very nice video, as always. Congratulations! 2. I found it very interesting how your new RadiaScan beeps S.O.S. in morse code, until it reaches about 700 uSv/h, when it goes "oh my god get me the hell out of here" constant beep mode. 3. I didn't understand why the uraninite was colder than the table (that was, presumably, at ambient temperature). 4. I also didn't understand why your Soeks and GammaScout devices zeroed the readings in 2015 and did detect radioactivity at this time... Thanks and best wishes!!
I want to know, in your opinion is the Radiscan 701a a good Geiger meter for an all around meter? I'm on a tight budget and don't want to have to purchase several meters.? Love the videos, keep them coming please... PEACE:)
Finally a video with an actual test rather than spouting a "TOP 8!!!!" consisting entirely of advertisement points. Thank you. Do you have any experience with the GCA-07W or similar? I like the range (0.01 uSv/h to 10 mSv/h) on it, but I have no idea how you would test the 10 mSv/h range without doing something stupid like breaking into an old mine. With that range I'm wondering if the 700 uSv/h reading would be instant and accurate. Edit: I did just realize the RadiaScan has a 10 mSv/h range. That's undoubtedly why it is quicker and more confident than the others with the higher doses.
I'm of the belief that you should just swap the battery out yourself. In doing that, you could put some male quick-connects on the battery leads and female connections on the board so that you don't have to de-solder and re-solder it again. Then again, doing so could possibly throw the previous calibration right out the window. I can't say for sure without knowing the calibration method they use. If the device uses "memory" for calibration, there's a chance it might not work again, and sending it to the factory after messing with it like that is what I would consider a horrible idea lol. Depending on the kind of day they're having, they might just decide never to deal with you again. However, I'm still in favor of buying a new meter and then tinkering with the old one (in that order lol.) At worst, you'll end up with a brand new meter, and at best you'd have a brand new meter as well as a backup one. There's a possibility that if you use a regulated power supply to maintain uninterrupted power to the calibration circuitry while you pull the old battery and replace it, it might not mess with the calibration at all. Just a thought. Just make sure that you remove your jumpers quickly before you connect the second of the battery terminals, leaving as small of an un-powered period as possible. So long as the capacitors don't have time to drain, you should be fine.
There are plenty of self-assembly geiger counter kits available for less than $100 if yo can solder and have a DVM. The calibration will not depend on battery voltage as the supply to the tube is regulated and has a plateau of 100-200 volts anyway.
If it gets powdered, and the powder tends to get into food and furniture, then you are setting yourself up for health problems. Properly stored and handled it is not dangerous.
When you change the battery, make sure you have the device "on life support" with another power source to hold any volatile memory. Manufactures do this so that if you replace the cell, the unit will stop working. Also, Is there a Dallas chip on the board? Those have batteries to back their circuits potted into the bottom of them. Don't let the power fall out completely!
@@psygn0sis No, they used a glaze containing a small amount of normal uranium oxide (which is quite cheap and hardly radioactive), so not dangerous at all.
Once again a nice example that the Gamma Scout is a piece of garbage:-) Sorry, I mean: it is a toy for children, but not a well made measuring equipment! By the way: the RD1008 from Quarta Rad has the Beta 2-1 Sensor which has double the surface than the Beta 1-1 of the Radiascan 701! So if you really want a sensitive counter, the RD1008 is the best! I have several U-Ores which force my RD1008 to 1000uSv/h and it is very stable, even with a half empty Battery! A geiger counter which shuts down with a bit higher radiation I just to laugh.....a waste of money!
Ahhh what a cool video!!! I had to pause it in the beginning to look up antimatter and it was a super intriguing subject, and the radition stuff was really cool as well! I wish I could support you on patreon but as I only turn 16 this year that's not possible. However, if you were to sell merch, especially something like shirts or pins of your wheel of hazards I'd definitely buy something like the nerd I am XD
By the way, i have to mention it but i think i saw a meteor yesterday! I would've thought it was some sort of firework or something but it made no sound, it was a orange/yellow kinda fire colour, sparks came of the end, its soared for maybe 1-3 seconds before disappearing pretty high up but much closer than the few stars that had come out and it was the most amazing thing ever
Thank you very much, Indra. Patreon support is totally optional. It's an even bigger support to always watch, like and comment on my videos like you do. That matters more! I don't have plans for merchandise at the moment, but who knows what the future will bring. I dream of a Brainiac75 line of neodymium magnets. All grade N52 looking good in black epoxy with my yellow logo on them x) But your suggestions are more likely to be realized.
Sure sounds like a shooting star. The sparks at the end were the meteor breaking up in small parts from the extreme friction heat etc. when entering the Earth's atmosphere. Very cool display indeed - congratulations :o)
Your video editing has gotten so much more elaborate and sophisticated if you have an editor then give them my remarks and if you are doing it yourself then kudos to you and well done!
@@among-us-99999 Actually, all the isotopes we call stable aren't radioactive at all. Bismuth is far less radioactive than most other isotopes we call radioactive, but it *is* radioactive.
@@among-us-99999 I know you said "elements". I corrected you politely, without pointing out that you were talking complete and utter crap. Elements are not radioactive, isotopes are. Only scientific fucktards would talk of a stable element when that element has one or more unstable isotopes. Maybe you could change your username to _dontunderstandscience._
Depends which isotope you are talking about. Bi-214 is what is giving all those readings in the video, it is a beta/gamma emitter, half-life 20 minutes and present in uranium ore as it is a daughter product of radon-via radium, etc. back to U-238.
In general a counter that doesn't pick up alphas will have extreme difficulty with low-energy x-rays since they can't even make it through the tube while a mica window will be permissive with it. Case in point, I've run the same experiment with tritium and two geiger counters, the GMC-320 with a glass M4011 tube and the GMC-600 with a mica window SBT-11 tube. The GMC-320 would hardly hit 0.2 uSv/h whereas the GMC-600 reached 0.85 uSv/h. This is all the while I had comparatively consistent readings between the two in other tests. Even permissive beta tubes seem to only let photons upward of 100 KeV pass through. The betas coming out of tritium decay have 18 KeV energy and the photons resulting from the braking even less.
nice, could you confirm a spec or two of the RadiaScan. Per their website it states: maximum range of radiation intensity: 10,000 micro Sv/h ( 1000 milliRem or 1 REM ) is this value for say gamma in-combination with the cover shield? Another spec has me curious : maximum range of integrated dose is 1000 millisievet ( 100 REM ). is this maximum value a counting dosage over time? is the pancake detector referenced to Cs137? ( would like to know the efficiencies, Cs137, SrY90, etc, do you know or have link to their datasheet? ). for under $300 it's interesting. thanks
Over 6000 times the average background radiation.......... at my place. I realise you store your samples well, so it's probably just a geographic mention. But I still found it funny.
I love how the RadiaScan releases an S.O.S in morse code, very creepy
Being the smart ass I am, I searched for "morse" b/f I was going to add the same comment.
my favorite part is when it says fuck it and just screams.
•••---••• •••---••• •••---••• *passes 690 uSV/h* •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
That alarm is meant to be warn when walking around chernobyl or something, to alert you when you are wandering into a hot zone.
@@RKSNomad but isnt sos ...---...
@@superzucc7343 yeah... in unsure what your point is.
That's one chicken scanner - it sends out SOS when radiated.
Peter Riis i guess that's to warn the handler to get the hell out of wherever they're scanning immediately
I hope that feature can be turned off. Otherwise I'd be very tempted to do a photonic induction on the thing.
@@plushifoxed
Really?
@@bdf2718
A photonic induction?
@@Peter_Riis_DK
ua-cam.com/video/Ex8xT9Avf48/v-deo.html
Nice illustration with the glowing balls
Yeah that looked really cool
I thought it was CGI lol
Absolutely! Looked like it was made on a computer until the hand came in :D
It was nice. I would have like to have seen him use blue for negative to differentiate from green neutral, but he probably didn't have blue fluorescent paint. Or the blue showed up as green on camera or something.
Why am I dirty minded
So, where do you store those? In your noisy neighbor's yard?
I might put them in the middle of some water canisters to absorb the radiation.
I store my strongest samples in a 'cage' of multiple layers of concrete garden tiles outside my house. Blocks the radiation to a tolerable level :) Thanks for watching!
What do you know about ions? What can be used to detect and read how many are being produced.
@@21gioni :
Smoke alarms with Am241 measure the number of ions in the air near the Am241 source.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_detector#Ionization
@ louis tournas thanks for your comment but the smoke detector produces ions and reads only a disruptive molecule that reduces the ability of ions to move. It doesn’t give an actual reading showing how many negative or positive ions present.
Both smoke detectors and emergency lights contain radioactive substances and if you don’t know what you are doing best not to play with them.
Thats one serious and very creepy geiger counter lol
It immediately sends out SOS on Morse code damn
It's a warning to get the hell out of there.
Make more videos with radioactive stuff, love it
Can you please test a cathode ray tube monitor (maybe an old tv) with your new device
Thanks
btw why is the reading still at 40 µSv when you placed them on the dinnerplate at 10:57
is it due to Potassium decay?
I think it's one of his uranium coated plates, so it's quite radioactive by itself if you mean that
@@swabianscience Yes, one common brand which used uranium glazes was Fiestaware. It wasn't done for the radioactivity but rather for the properties of uranium compounds as dyes.
@@swabianscience thank goodness for the context, I was about to be scared of all my dinnerware...
@@vamp97 Even if all of your dishes were coated in uranium based glaze, it wouldn't be dangerous. The amount of radioactivity is tiny (You'd have to hold it next to you for years to significantly increase your cancer risk), the only danger is when the glaze is damaged, it emits uranium dust, which you really don't want to breathe.
As a Nuclear Physics student, this "home" video is truly pretty accurate
With the possible exception of needing to handle the uranium ore with such care...the biggest worry there is the radon--you couldn't get enough on your hands to cause any harm...
@@jomiar309 I mean I'd assume the worry is more about breathing in particulate from the uranium ore, not just being near it, right? It's not hot enough to be an immediate danger in the short-term but you do not want pitchblende dust in your lungs
I gotta say... That little atomic demonstration was pretty awesome.
Thanks to this video, I purchased my own RadiaScan. Quite happily, the most radioactive thing I found in my house was a stack of napkins made from recycled material.
Another outstanding video my friend
Dan Festag o0
RadiaScan 701A is a Russian device. I have one and it's one of the best radiometers out there. By the way, hi from Russia.
hi there, it's a geiger counter, or just a dosimeter?
@@0XAN A dosimeter is technically a geiger counter that can also count a the accumulated doese. A radiometer can only estimate the current level in real-time. Technically the Radiascan is all of that
I'm speechless! Good luck in the future! The meter is singing to the user when in high levels :p
Love the visualisation of the atomic nucleus! Especially the neutrino :) It was really good and effective.
Antimatter matters
I have a GQ gieger counter, and I think it's click is probably one of the most iconic gieger counter sounds. I haven't found anything radioactive above 50 CPM on my property, but I really like taking measurements of things, and a gieger counter is one the tools that you will likely never really need, but when you do need it, you really need it.
Cool😊
"This video features radioactive items" = instant thumbs up from me!
I like how the RadiaScan uses SOS in Morse code to warn the user.
When the equipment screams in morse, you know your boned
you're*
And no, you are not boned. But you have to pay attention.
Зачем так прислонять дозиметры к минералу!!? Где элементарные правила безопасности при замерах? Вы же их потом руками брать будете! А так ролик познавательный!
Battery supported multimeter don't read accurate on low battery level😎
I have experienced that also with cheap multimeters.
Are you wearing protections? I don't want anyone harming himself because of radiation.
@Benjamin Joshua Beggs Ok, I just worried 😅
@Benjamin Joshua Beggs Minor correction:
Radiation, *at these levels* , is only harmful over larger periods of time.
Great video! I would love to do more stuff like this on our page. Keep up the cool stuff.
I would advise protecting your counters with a sealable bag. You don't want the meters to get contaminated with radioactive ores.
And touching the actual pitchblende sample with the detector's window is a VERY bad idea.
Once the insides get contaminated you can just throw the detector away, good luck cleaning it.
In my eyes no need to watch the video for it to already be a great video. Your content has never not been good (if that makes sense). Whenever the radiascan 701-A senses a particularly high source of radiation, it makes the morse code signal . . . _ _ _ . . . which is SOS in morse code. I find that to be very cool!
What?!? You're right - it does send out a morse SOS. I hadn't noticed that at all! Nice touch indeed.Thanks for trusting me to never slack on quality btw. Even in a short month like February where there are fewer days to make the video...
You should take them with you to thrift stores. There are stupendously radioactive things lying around there, mostly glazed ceramics.
Very weakly radioactive, especially compared to the pitchblende he showed in the video. There are some VERY spicy radium items out there (not the usual watches and clocks), but erm, those aren't so common in antique shops (thankfully!)
Nice! I was just watching your videos, thank you for the exemplary work!
Same
Thank you, John. You certainly were here fast ;) More to come!
Yes would like to see the battery replacement. Also any schematics that you can find on the circuit board.
Thanks for the vid.
A schematic of a turd emoji would do it justice!
Brainiac, your videos have this special kind of atmosphere / feel to it, please never change this. It's sooooo moody
Send the GammaScout over to @BigClivedotcom for a battery swap...
I like how they don't have a word for Bremsstraglung :D
"Slowing Down Radiation" (SDR) or "Braking Radiation" (BR) is too long!
Your first Geiger counter can detect alpha radiation when you will take back cover off
Nuclear physics are absolutely wicked, thanks for the awesome stuff !
Amazing
Sehr interessantes Video! Weiter so!
Hi braniac! Been watching for almost 3 years now, i think it would be very cool if you did a tour of where you store all of your samples/magnets/everything. Perhaps a future video idea?
The Geiger counter is doulusionall send it to the
infirmary
Love this channel what a voice!
Is it possible to get the Chernobyl memorial still?
The quality of this video is insane.
I really appreciate your attention to detail and clear explanations! I hope more and more people watch your videos and learn from them. Also, your accent is very pleasant to listen to. :)
To go into a bit more detail about tritium turning into helium-3, this is done through a process called Beta Decay, because when it happens, a beta particle is emitted from a nucleus [a high energy electron/positron]
In the case of tritium, a neutron was turning into a proton spontaneously. This happened because the quarks that make up the neutron are capable of changing into other kinds of quarks by exchanging a type of particle known as an Intermediate Vector Boson. In this case, it is a W- Boson, which can be thought of as a kind of messanger particle.
To avoid a whole lecture about quantum electrodynamics and field theory, the gist is that while this decay process is happening, a beta particle and antineutrino are being created in a pair. Every time this process happens, they always come in pairs.
Neutrons have a higher rest mass than protons. Essentially, it is that extra energy that goes into the beta particle and the antineutrino. There are also some photons involved but those aren't that important.
This can also happen with protons becoming neutrons. It's called inverse beta decay, and it happens whenever you have a high energy particle, usually a beta particle or high energy neutrino smash into a proton.
The kinetic energy of the collision supplies the activation energy needed to kickstart the decay process. An up quark in the proton by way of a W+ Boson changes into a down quark, and the nuclear potential energy between those quarks rises, giving the resulting neutron the extra rest mass.
Some photons, neutrinos, and a positron is also given off as the total energy of the neutron rejects the excess energy from the original collision. After all, quantum particles really love being in their ground states.
oof the quantum jokes. Now to figure out where they're going
That pitchblende rock is scary to me in a way I can't quantify. Thinking of all the potential accidents associated with keeping that in your home.
It's really not that big of a deal if you don't sleep on it. If it was, he wouldn't be allowed to have it in the first place.
Marie Sklodowska Curie was so hardcore.💙
@@joshroolf1966saying that she kept a glowing pile of radium on her desk
Where did you get the memorial of Chernobyl
I love looking for radioactive rocks in the woods and I was thinking about getting gamma scout but now I think I'll go with radiascan considering it outperform gamma scout and it's also cheaper!
I learn so much Chemistry from you than in school
Thnx xd
Not bad for a 12 minute commercial.
Well, I don't know, but I've been told
Uranium ore's worth more than gold
Sold my Cad', I bought me a Jeep
I've got that bug and I can't sleep
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Uranium fever is spreadin' all around
With a Geiger counter in my hand
I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Well I had talk with the AEC*
And they brought out some maps that looked good to me
And one showed me a spot that he said he knowed
So I straddled my Jeep and headed down the road
I reckon I drove about 100 miles
Down a bumpy road out through the wilds
When all of sudden I bounced to a stop
At the foot of a mountain, didn't have no top
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Uranium fever is spreadin' all around
With a Geiger counter in my hand
I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Well I took my Geiger and I started to climb
Right up to the top where I thought I'd find
A hunk of rock that would make it click
Just like I'd read about Vernon Pick
On the second day, I made the top
And I'm tellin' you, Steve, I was ready to stop
The only clickin' that I heard that day
Was the bones in my back that had gone astray
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Uranium fever is spreadin' all around
With a Geiger counter in my hand
I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Well, you pack up your things
You head out again
Into some unknown spot where nobody's been
You reach the spot where your fortune lies
You find it's been staked by 17 other guys
Well, I ain't kiddin', I ain't gonna quit
That bug's done caught me and I've been bit
So with a Geiger counter and a pick in my hand
I'll keep right on stakin' that government land
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Uranium fever is spreadin' all around
With a Geiger counter in my hand
I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Great song but it dates from the 1940s when uranium was needed for bombs and the gold price was set by Government! Today gold is about 500 times the price of uranium!
At 2:33 it says "SOS" in Morse Code. (RadiaScan-701A)
The demonstration of hydrogen isotopes is truly amazing, how did you do it? :o
Fluorescent balls under a black light and a green laser.
That chunk of radioactive material is mad do you have a lead container to store it ???, this has to be my favorite video from you
That’s one cool model of Chernobyl, great video! Maybe you should visit the ISS so you can test all your radiation meters in space
I would love to visit the ISS... I would have to train for it first though x) Thanks for watching!
@Brainiac75 Space adventures company, along with SpaceX will make it happen
Can you do a video explaining just how lethal radiation is; and use that rock as an example? It'll make people appreciate this video more. . _ .
Better to ask a radiomedical health professional who uses radiation to treat cancer. The doses involved in treatment can make Chernobyl look tame!
Because of the glare I actually mooved my phone to see the numners better
Nice ;) I was so annoyed by the glare, when I saw it after filming. I just didn't feel like taking another radiation dose that day, and I'm not sure the Gamma-Scout's battery would like a second try either... Thanks for watching!
Interestingly there is more to the x-rays coming from the tritium light sources. While a large part is due to Bremsstrahlung at 5-15keV, there are also pretty strong peaks corresponding to the characteristic x-ray spectrum of zinc, especially the K_alpha and K_beta emissions.
However there is still practically nothing coming from these. As counters are calibrated to 662keV Cs137 emissions, they overestimate the dose by a factor of around 70. And of course it's not actually a full body dose.
I once calculated the yearly dose for a key-chain with ~200Bq, ~10keV per gamma, 1/2 absorbed (people don't usually swallow their keys :P), 1/2 of the time wearing they key on you. I get around 2.5 micSv for a year, so around 1000-2000 times less than background and around as much as I got from my 2 day trip to Chernobyl, or around 2h of flying... Considering less than 1/2 is actually absorbed since people aren't infinite planes and people don't have their keys on them half of all time, it's probably a factor 5 or so lower still.
All in all, the probability of impressing a potential girlfriend with one of these far far outweighs the risk of it! :D
Where did you get 200 Bq? I think the tritium light sources are more like 10^9 Bq. However, once you work out how much of the super low-energy x-rays are produced and actually make it out of the glass vial, it becomes only a few counts per second.
For example, I have a Betatorch which is a British military tritium illumminator which is about the same surface brightness as a keychain tritium light but the surface area is much larger (it is designed to provide just enough light that you could read a map in total darkness but not be seen more than about 20 meters away). It has 1.9 Curies of tritium (7x10^10 Bq)
@@sbreheny I held of in front of a scintillating counter and got ~100Bq, bit below. So ~200 or in that range total. It was a Nite GlowRing if I remember correctly.
Honestly somewhat unscientific since the scintillators aren't really meant for these low energies. I wouldn't think it's far off the actual value but there is no way to know for sure other than using an x-ray detector.
But in the end even if it's a factor of 100 greater, it's still less than a tenth of background and personally wouldn't bother me.
Edit: oh you are saying you would expect less. Well could be, I really just grabbed the next best scint counter while doing student labs.
Beforehand that I expected less as well, especially because IAEA has a paper that speaks of 28mic penetration depth of the x-rays through glass.
@@TiSapph So you're saying you did extensive math based on... waving a random-shape and random-area source in front of a random-shape and random-volume scintillation detector that only shows its own estimated total absorbed dose?
Yeah... nice.
@@Spirit532 Um not quite? It's a scintillation counter, not spectrometer. It only counts the number of pulses, not their amplitudes.
And then I did a fairly simple one line order of magnitude calculation to get a sense of how much dose one of these gives you.
Also I think it's seems pretty fair so assume that if you have a small object on a decently large detector, the total activity is going to be around 2-3 times that much. Even if it's actually like a factor of 5, whatever it's an order of magnitude calculation. Don't quite get what the issue is
Do you wear any protective equipment when working with such strong samples?
Wow! Another excellent video! How did you do the hydrogen atom scene at 2:53? I'd guess that's some fluorescent balls, but how did you make the electron spin at first?
PS: What a shame that all the Geiger counters are outside my budget... TBH, the only use I'd have for them is my small americium sample from a smoke detector.
I'm guessing they are styrofoam balls and painted with phosphorescent paint.
I bought my geiger counter back in 2010 on Ebay. It is a CDV-700 model made in the 60s. Back then, people were trying to get rid of them. I bought it for 35$. Since the Fukushima disaster, the prices on them went up to 120$ and more.
Everyone started to sell potassium iodide (KI) pills and the price of raw potassium iodide trippled.
Fortunately, I had also bought 1 kg of KI.
@@louistournas120 geiger couner
@@suresh-pt4cv
?
I would take a look at eBay. There’s a guy selling premade ready to go counters including an SBT10a tube!!! $100 from Lithuania
I know that isn’t cheap… But that tube is capable of alpha beta and gamma… and the tube could have cost just as much as the entire set up a few years ago!
And the counter he sells is just as capable as the radiascan 701A. In my opinion.
I know $100 is still a lot… But he has counters starting at $27! And you can always add a nicer tube when you can afford it. His are the only ones I found that are easily adjustable so that you can use different tubes. Each tube requires different voltages and his has built in quick and efficient adjustment.
If you like building electronics kits and are quite handy… The GKB5 kit is great! Also the GK-plus is wonderful. The gentleman who sells them is the original designer. His designs have been cloned and copied from China, Lithuania, and all over the world. You can find him at
Nuclear chemistry without quarks? What is this, the 1980s?
That's so cute! At dangerous radiation levels, the 701 says SOS. 😊 ... --- ...
I that background music from a certain Off-brand Harry Pottwr game at 8:20
Brian, I have 4 observations:
1. Very nice video, as always. Congratulations!
2. I found it very interesting how your new RadiaScan beeps S.O.S. in morse code, until it reaches about 700 uSv/h, when it goes "oh my god get me the hell out of here" constant beep mode.
3. I didn't understand why the uraninite was colder than the table (that was, presumably, at ambient temperature).
4. I also didn't understand why your Soeks and GammaScout devices zeroed the readings in 2015 and did detect radioactivity at this time...
Thanks and best wishes!!
I've been following you since the first geiger counter video!
So glad you're still on youtube :)
Swap and maybe even upgrade the battery on the gamma scout.
I want to know, in your opinion is the Radiscan 701a a good Geiger meter for an all around meter? I'm on a tight budget and don't want to have to purchase several meters.? Love the videos, keep them coming please... PEACE:)
It's the best value for money I've seen.
@@MarkRose1337 Thank you very much for your input. I am going to look into getting one for my "Felix" box. PEACE:)
Using a meter with a low battery must give erroneous readings
Finally a video with an actual test rather than spouting a "TOP 8!!!!" consisting entirely of advertisement points. Thank you. Do you have any experience with the GCA-07W or similar? I like the range (0.01 uSv/h to 10 mSv/h) on it, but I have no idea how you would test the 10 mSv/h range without doing something stupid like breaking into an old mine. With that range I'm wondering if the 700 uSv/h reading would be instant and accurate.
Edit: I did just realize the RadiaScan has a 10 mSv/h range. That's undoubtedly why it is quicker and more confident than the others with the higher doses.
I'm of the belief that you should just swap the battery out yourself. In doing that, you could put some male quick-connects on the battery leads and female connections on the board so that you don't have to de-solder and re-solder it again. Then again, doing so could possibly throw the previous calibration right out the window. I can't say for sure without knowing the calibration method they use. If the device uses "memory" for calibration, there's a chance it might not work again, and sending it to the factory after messing with it like that is what I would consider a horrible idea lol. Depending on the kind of day they're having, they might just decide never to deal with you again.
However, I'm still in favor of buying a new meter and then tinkering with the old one (in that order lol.) At worst, you'll end up with a brand new meter, and at best you'd have a brand new meter as well as a backup one. There's a possibility that if you use a regulated power supply to maintain uninterrupted power to the calibration circuitry while you pull the old battery and replace it, it might not mess with the calibration at all. Just a thought. Just make sure that you remove your jumpers quickly before you connect the second of the battery terminals, leaving as small of an un-powered period as possible. So long as the capacitors don't have time to drain, you should be fine.
There are plenty of self-assembly geiger counter kits available for less than $100 if yo can solder and have a DVM. The calibration will not depend on battery voltage as the supply to the tube is regulated and has a plateau of 100-200 volts anyway.
I see Chernobyl I instantly clicked!
were do i get a small chernobyl paperweight like that
radioactive material :
geiger counter : lets send a SOS signal even though nobody cares
So, is pitchblende considered dangerous to handle?
If it gets powdered, and the powder tends to get into food and furniture, then you are setting yourself up for health problems. Properly stored and handled it is not dangerous.
I'd love to see you change that battery. How will you calibrate it though do you need a spectrometer?
What do you store the pitchblende in?
I was wondering this too.
When you change the battery, make sure you have the device "on life support" with another power source to hold any volatile memory. Manufactures do this so that if you replace the cell, the unit will stop working. Also, Is there a Dallas chip on the board? Those have batteries to back their circuits potted into the bottom of them. Don't let the power fall out completely!
Plates made in the "C" nation being radioactive -- these are the classic civil defense props.
This is such a great demonstration. If I ever work at a national lab again, I'm definitely getting a 701a.
You won't
Those atoms look like neon cheeseballs.
Excuse me sir, your balls are glowing.
The Geiger counter beeping and the creepy music in the background...
Gives me chills.
9:57 my brain :- touch it
I've had calculators last over 30yr with no batteries up to you...
10:56 is the Plate Dangerously radioactive!!!!!?
Fiestaware dinnerware made from 1936-1972 were coated in depleted uranium oxide and are radioactive.
Dangerous... kind of.
@@psygn0sis No, they used a glaze containing a small amount of normal uranium oxide (which is quite cheap and hardly radioactive), so not dangerous at all.
Amazing!
Once again a nice example that the Gamma Scout is a piece of garbage:-)
Sorry, I mean: it is a toy for children, but not a well made measuring equipment!
By the way: the RD1008 from Quarta Rad has the Beta 2-1 Sensor which has double the surface than the Beta 1-1 of the Radiascan 701!
So if you really want a sensitive counter, the RD1008 is the best!
I have several U-Ores which force my RD1008 to 1000uSv/h and it is very stable, even with a half empty Battery!
A geiger counter which shuts down with a bit higher radiation I just to laugh.....a waste of money!
I know it's been more than 2 years, but I'd absolutely love to see more radioactive experiments!
Great video as always! How do you store that uranium oxide safely? Keep up the great work ❤
0.7mSv/h......7 chest x-rays per hour. 6136.2 millisievert/year (6.14 Sv/year). That's the dose that a person need to die within 1 month.
Ahhh what a cool video!!! I had to pause it in the beginning to look up antimatter and it was a super intriguing subject, and the radition stuff was really cool as well! I wish I could support you on patreon but as I only turn 16 this year that's not possible. However, if you were to sell merch, especially something like shirts or pins of your wheel of hazards I'd definitely buy something like the nerd I am XD
By the way, i have to mention it but i think i saw a meteor yesterday! I would've thought it was some sort of firework or something but it made no sound, it was a orange/yellow kinda fire colour, sparks came of the end, its soared for maybe 1-3 seconds before disappearing pretty high up but much closer than the few stars that had come out and it was the most amazing thing ever
Thank you very much, Indra. Patreon support is totally optional. It's an even bigger support to always watch, like and comment on my videos like you do. That matters more! I don't have plans for merchandise at the moment, but who knows what the future will bring. I dream of a Brainiac75 line of neodymium magnets. All grade N52 looking good in black epoxy with my yellow logo on them x) But your suggestions are more likely to be realized.
Sure sounds like a shooting star. The sparks at the end were the meteor breaking up in small parts from the extreme friction heat etc. when entering the Earth's atmosphere. Very cool display indeed - congratulations :o)
Are tritium keychains safe to use?
Issey Sandei probably
Gamma Scout: Price for Battery-Change and Recalibration is 119,- EUR. I did this in May 2021 here in Germany.
Your video editing has gotten so much more elaborate and sophisticated if you have an editor then give them my remarks and if you are doing it yourself then kudos to you and well done!
That radioactivity section of your danger wheel was getting quite dusty.
I bet none of them show anything with Bismuth. Even though it's radioactive.
Bismuth is far less radioactive than many other elements that we call stable.
@@among-us-99999
Actually, all the isotopes we call stable aren't radioactive at all. Bismuth is far less radioactive than most other isotopes we call radioactive, but it *is* radioactive.
bdf2718 I Said *elements*, Not *isotopes*.
Potassium is probably the most popular example.
@@among-us-99999
I know you said "elements". I corrected you politely, without pointing out that you were talking complete and utter crap. Elements are not radioactive, isotopes are. Only scientific fucktards would talk of a stable element when that element has one or more unstable isotopes.
Maybe you could change your username to _dontunderstandscience._
Depends which isotope you are talking about. Bi-214 is what is giving all those readings in the video, it is a beta/gamma emitter, half-life 20 minutes and present in uranium ore as it is a daughter product of radon-via radium, etc. back to U-238.
Am i the only one who loves the beep sound of the radioactivity sensors make?
But why does it beep "SOS" at you when you're in danger?
Because it's dying internally? Or because it knows youre fucked?
Wait how'd you get a black RadiaScan 701A; I've not seen an option for black.
In general a counter that doesn't pick up alphas will have extreme difficulty with low-energy x-rays since they can't even make it through the tube while a mica window will be permissive with it. Case in point, I've run the same experiment with tritium and two geiger counters, the GMC-320 with a glass M4011 tube and the GMC-600 with a mica window SBT-11 tube. The GMC-320 would hardly hit 0.2 uSv/h whereas the GMC-600 reached 0.85 uSv/h. This is all the while I had comparatively consistent readings between the two in other tests. Even permissive beta tubes seem to only let photons upward of 100 KeV pass through. The betas coming out of tritium decay have 18 KeV energy and the photons resulting from the braking even less.
What would be a good cheap Geiger counter to have incase of disaster?
nice, could you confirm a spec or two of the RadiaScan. Per their website it states: maximum range of radiation intensity: 10,000 micro Sv/h ( 1000 milliRem or 1 REM ) is this value for say gamma in-combination with the cover shield? Another spec has me curious : maximum range of integrated dose is 1000 millisievet ( 100 REM ). is this maximum value a counting dosage over time? is the pancake detector referenced to Cs137? ( would like to know the efficiencies, Cs137, SrY90, etc, do you know or have link to their datasheet? ). for under $300 it's interesting. thanks
For a normal person you think Just A normal Rock but still extremely hot no goofy colour or texture Not A Rock You Want underneath your bedroom
Over 6000 times the average background radiation.......... at my place.
I realise you store your samples well, so it's probably just a geographic mention. But I still found it funny.