What is a Cloud Chamber?
The cloud chamber, also known as Wilson chamber or Wilson cloud chamber, is a device used by physicists to observe particle trails. It only works with ionizing radiation. Other devices that accomplish the same thing through different means are the bubble chamber, the wire chamber, and the spark chamber. One of the cloud chamber’s greatest claims to fame is that it was used to discover the positron, the first observed form of antimatter. The way the cloud chamber works is based on the principle of condensation nuclei. In a supersaturated water or alcohol vapor, even a tiny charged particle ionizes molecules in the medium as it moves through it, causing the water to condense around it and making observable moisture trails. A supersaturated solution means that the air is holding as much of the fluid (usually water or alcohol) as it possibly can. The air is pumped with vapor until it starts pooling on the bottom of the chamber, indicating that the medium is supersaturated. Small perturbati
