My geiger counter experiment

When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm) under
ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that expected? I thought
for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least half. Are most of
such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?

Regards,
Paul

In sci.physics Paul wrote:
When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm) under
ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that expected? I thought
for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least half. Are most of
such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?

Regards,
Paul

Was the Geiger counter tube set up to only detect gamma rays?

Was the dirt compacted, which is doubtfull if the tube survived?


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
| When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm) under
| ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that expected? I thought
| for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least half. Are most of
| such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?
|
| Regards,
| Paul
|
When a human eyeball is placed ~100 feet (30 meters) under water,
the sun can still be seen. Is that expected? Is most of such sunlight
extraterrestrial in origin?

On Apr 16, 10:55*am, "Androcles" .
2011 wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message

...
| When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm) under
| ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that expected? I thought
| for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least half. Are most of
| such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?
|
| Regards,
| Paul
|
When a human eyeball is placed ~100 feet (30 meters) under water,
the sun can still be seen. *Is that expected? *Is most of such sunlight
extraterrestrial in origin?


Wow, you took time to type that, LOL? I'm not trying to fly to moon,
so chill out boy.

"Androcles" wrote in message
...

"Paul" wrote in message
...
| When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm) under
| ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that expected? I thought
| for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least half. Are most of
| such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?
|
| Regards,
| Paul
|
When a human eyeball is placed ~100 feet (30 meters) under water,
the sun can still be seen. Is that expected? Is most of such sunlight
extraterrestrial in origin?



When my penis is close to your eye it can't be seen.

Dear Paul:

On Apr 16, 10:39*am, Paul wrote:
When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm)
under ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that
expected?

Yes. Much of what we are bathed in (very much depending on location)
comes from the soil under our feet.

The core of the Earth is a nuclear reactor, which is why so much of
the core is still molten. Not that any of that radiation makes it to
the surface.

I thought for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least
half. Are most of such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?

Walk towards any large granite structure with your geiger counter on.
Watch the needle.

Walk towards a container of "salt substitute" with your geiger counter
on. Watch the needle.

Some of grandma and grandpa's old ceramic dishes may be "hot" too.
Which is where the idea for powering deep space probes came from...

Gamma rays largely do not make it through the atmosphere. Cosmic rays
do...

David A. Smith

On Apr 16, 2:22*pm, dlzc wrote:
Dear Paul:

On Apr 16, 10:39*am, Paul wrote:

When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm)
under ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that
expected?

Yes. *Much of what we are bathed in (very much depending on location)
comes from the soil under our feet.

The core of the Earth is a nuclear reactor, which is why so much of
the core is still molten. *Not that any of that radiation makes it to
the surface.

I thought for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least
half. Are most of such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?

Walk towards any large granite structure with your geiger counter on.
Watch the needle.

Walk towards a container of "salt substitute" with your geiger counter
on. *Watch the needle.

Some of grandma and grandpa's old ceramic dishes may be "hot" too.
Which is where the idea for powering deep space probes came from...

Gamma rays largely do not make it through the atmosphere. *Cosmic rays
do...

David A. Smith


Thanks for the reply. That answers it! I'll have to get a good CPM
measurement because it sure sounded like the CPM increased a bit when
the probe went into the ground. The CPM is a bit low out here now, ~
15.

Anyhow, that puts an end to my goal of using the ground as a shield. I
have about 1/2" of steel in the garage, but that probably won't shield
much. Maybe a foot of water would work.

Regards,
Paul

On Apr 16, 2:55*pm, Paul wrote:
On Apr 16, 2:22*pm, dlzc wrote:





Dear Paul:

On Apr 16, 10:39*am, Paul wrote:

When a Geiger counter tube was placed ~ 14 inches (36 cm)
under ground, the hits/min were about the same. Is that
expected?

Yes. *Much of what we are bathed in (very much depending on location)
comes from the soil under our feet.

The core of the Earth is a nuclear reactor, which is why so much of
the core is still molten. *Not that any of that radiation makes it to
the surface.

I thought for certain the hit rate would decrease by at least
half. Are most of such gamma rays extraterrestrial in origin?

Walk towards any large granite structure with your geiger counter on.
Watch the needle.

Walk towards a container of "salt substitute" with your geiger counter
on. *Watch the needle.

Some of grandma and grandpa's old ceramic dishes may be "hot" too.
Which is where the idea for powering deep space probes came from...

Gamma rays largely do not make it through the atmosphere. *Cosmic rays
do...

David A. Smith

Thanks for the reply. That answers it! *I'll have to get a good CPM
measurement because it sure sounded like the CPM increased a bit when
the probe went into the ground. The CPM is a bit low out here now, ~
15.

Anyhow, that puts an end to my goal of using the ground as a shield. I
have about 1/2" of steel in the garage, but that probably won't shield
much. Maybe a foot of water would work.

Regards,
Paul- Hide quoted text -


I covered the geiger counter tube and placed it in the middle of a
barrel of water that was ~ 1 feet radius, and about 2.5 feet high. I
didn't notice much change in cpm, but the counts are too low to get
good readings with this meter unless I timed the hits myself. I'm
wondering if most of these hits are from the old CDV-700 itself. Or
maybe it's picking up high energy gamma rays that easily penetrate a
foot of water. Most HVL figures I've seen on gamma rays shows ~ 1/3 to
1" steel. Water has an HVL of ~ 6 times that of steel. So I would
expect even 1/2 foot of water to stop such gamma rays. Then again, I
don't know what the typical energy level such background gamma rays
are. Any ideas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_D...unters#CDV-700

Regards,
Paul

Dear Paul:

On Apr 17, 7:15*am, Paul wrote:
....
I covered the geiger counter tube and placed it in the
middle of a barrel of water that was ~ 1 feet radius,
and about 2.5 feet high. I didn't notice much change in
cpm, but the counts are too low to get good readings
with this meter unless I timed the hits myself. I'm
wondering if most of these hits are from the old
CDV-700 itself. Or maybe it's picking up high energy
gamma rays that easily penetrate a foot of water. Most
HVL figures I've seen on gamma rays shows ~ 1/3 to
1" steel. Water has an HVL of ~ 6 times that of steel.
So I would expect even 1/2 foot of water to stop such
gamma rays. Then again, I don't know what the typical
energy level such background gamma rays
are. Any ideas?

Yes.
1) You are constantly awash in radiation.
2) The potassium you ingest is radioactive. As are many other
elements you depend on to live.
3) They put *no* shielding in the ISS, since no shielding is better
than a little shielding. In other words, energetic radiation passes
through us like smoke. But if you put moderators between you and a
source, the daughter products formed are lower energy, and more likely
to do damage (able to be stopped by soft tissue and bone).

You only want massive shielding between you and a nuclear blast, and
then you need *no* shielding. Wash down a tree, and make a
treehouse. Live in that until background returns to normals values.

You are kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

And this is off topic in sci.astro.

David A. Smith

On Apr 16, 5:55*pm, Paul wrote:

Thanks for the reply. That answers it! *I'll have to get a good CPM
measurement because it sure sounded like the CPM increased a bit when
the probe went into the ground. The CPM is a bit low out here now, ~
15.

Anyhow, that puts an end to my goal of using the ground as a shield. I
have about 1/2" of steel in the garage, but that probably won't shield
much. Maybe a foot of water would work.

Regards,
Paul

I don't know what your "plan" is, but a Geiger counter measures any
radiation that reaches the tube. Usually that will be gamma or cosmic
radiation. Yours with a metal shield may also be sensitive to some
lesser radiation as well (as you swing the metal shield away and
expose the thing aluminum tube to the radiation.

Actually earth is a decent radiation shield for much radiation. But
not for cosmic radiation. You can take you counter to the bottom of a
mine and still measure the same background count. In fact it may even
be higher due to the radioactive minerals in the soil (depending what
kind of mine). Cosmic radiation just blasts through everything.

So if your plan is to shield yourself from Cosmic radiation with dirt,
it's not going to work. But on the other hand dirt is rather effective
for a lot of lesser radiation especially the fallout from an atomic
bomb. It's why fallout shelters are underground. If you want to learn
more about dirt for radiation shielding I'd suggest some of the
survival books such as the great one: "Life after Doomsday" by Bruce
D. Clayton Ph.D. It also discusses the ability of dirt to shield you
from other particles as well, such a .308 Nato rifle bullets. Check it
out.