[meteorite-list] Re: Radioactive Fiestaware

From: Bob Martino <martino.6_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:54 2004
Message-ID: <v03130300b919f8181422_at_[65.24.110.16]>

Mark, minor corrections:

The Geiger counters at OSU detect alphas quite nicely, actually. One
wouldn't be able to do any student physics labs involving radioactivity if
_gamma_radiation_ was all you could use. :]

The radioactive Fiestaware is orange, not red. (Well, it looks orange to
_me_ anyway.) I have one of these plates, BTW. Very pretty. OSU uses
broken pieces of these plates as alpha sources for labs and demos. They
are stronger than any commercial alpha source you can buy these days.
Uranium oxide. Gotta love it!

>BTW Gieger Counters won't detect alpha radiation even if you were
>drowning in it. Some fiestaware(red) is very active in the Alpha range.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Martino Can you really name a star?
                                   http://home.columbus.rr.com/starfaq/
"I look up to the heavens
 but night has clouded over
 no spark of constellation
 no Vela no Orion." -Enya
Received on Tue 28 May 2002 11:24:21 PM PDT