Jonny69's inventing laboratory: home made particle accelerator

[Vince]

It’s clear that this thread is going to be epic so I’m in! Clearly this is only because I want the legendary particle accelerating ray gun, laser turret type thing you are planning to build. In fact if your out, im in for the mad doctor type testing roll

 

[Daveyboy]

This will protect you

 

[Jonny69]

I'm feeling pressure from all sides to build this thing. I think it might have to happen

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

You must do this, and include a cat in your project somewhere. Everyone knows all good science projects feature a cat.

 

[JayToukon]

Just make sure someone else is there to take photos just in case it all goes wrong. I think you also sign some kind of document to say that OCUK didn't peer pressure you into it. I know a lawyer!

 

[rossdean]

I'm feeling pressure from all sides to build this thing. I think it might have to happen

Yea, can see you lying in a bed in hospital with severe burns thinking 'well atleast I have the approval of my internet peers'.

 

[Chojin]

Do it for the science

 

[JonJ678]

An electron beam can be considered as an intense source of beta- radiation, since beta- is electrons. This is effectively blocked by skin or a couple of mm of aluminium according to A level physics. It's also rather effectively blocked by air, so when you crack open the TV there will be a scary hiss as the vacuum fills.

Highest voltage you're likely to have available will be 400V. I've no idea what happens to a TV if you overvolt it, that's got to be worth a laugh in itself. Electrons accelerated through a single 400V stage aren't going to be moving hard enough to be very exciting.

Mains is AC though, it swings through positive and negative values. Electrons will accelerate towards a positive plate and away from a negative one. Drilling a hole in the middle of the plate & making it positive will give you a beam. Once electrons go through the hole, they are now attracted back towards the plate, so will slow down. If at this point the plate goes -ve, it'll push them away. By stacking a number of plates, decreasing distances apart, you should be able to get them changing polarity at the times required to continually pull electrons towards the next plate, so achieving bursts of high energy electrons.

Not sure what you'd want to point this at though

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

Will there be cake?

 

[NickK]

Well an accelerator is dangerous. Get it wrong and you're into X rays etc..

Instead.. how about a washing machine pump vortex generator?

 

[benneh]

I'm feeling pressure from all sides to build this thing. I think it might have to happen

It's not so much that I want it to happen, it's more that it needs to happen..

If you build it bro, they will come.

 

[Strife212]

Do it, just shield the thing with lead / stand behind a sheet of lead while its on.

 

[lord filbuster]

An electron beam can be considered as an intense source of beta- radiation, since beta- is electrons. This is effectively blocked by skin or a couple of mm of aluminium according to A level physics. It's also rather effectively blocked by air, so when you crack open the TV there will be a scary hiss as the vacuum fills.

Highest voltage you're likely to have available will be 400V. I've no idea what happens to a TV if you overvolt it, that's got to be worth a laugh in itself. Electrons accelerated through a single 400V stage aren't going to be moving hard enough to be very exciting.

Mains is AC though, it swings through positive and negative values. Electrons will accelerate towards a positive plate and away from a negative one. Drilling a hole in the middle of the plate & making it positive will give you a beam. Once electrons go through the hole, they are now attracted back towards the plate, so will slow down. If at this point the plate goes -ve, it'll push them away. By stacking a number of plates, decreasing distances apart, you should be able to get them changing polarity at the times required to continually pull electrons towards the next plate, so achieving bursts of high energy electrons.

Not sure what you'd want to point this at though

You are thinking of alpha radiation. Beta can penetrate far enough to cause some serious radiation damage. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of bremsstrahlung radiation the electrons will give off when they hit something. Personally, i'd steer well clear of trying this.

Do it, just shield the thing with lead / stand behind a sheet of lead while its on.

That's just going to make more x-rays when the beam hits.

 

[Marine Iguana]

One word, Bacofoil that is the answer cheap and as far as i have seen on "THE INTERNET" makes everything safe from all sorts of radiation

 

["andy"]

just use the switching on from otherside of workshop with a broomstick approach

i do this everytime i fix something electrical

 

[sjcf1]

You do realise that someone already did build their own reactor to make plutonium in their house? Was in America. The guy who did it is undergoing radiation therapy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRvX2pCtdyo

I do not suggest anyone does this at all.

 

[JonJ678]

You are thinking of alpha radiation. Beta can penetrate far enough to cause some serious radiation damage. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of bremsstrahlung radiation the electrons will give off when they hit something.

I've no idea what Bremsstrahlung radiation is, but I'm definitely not thinking of alpha radiation. Alpha is described as a helium nucleus (without electrons), beta- as an electron, beta+ a positron. Plus alpha will accelerate towards a negative plate, and not towards a positive one. A level physics told me paper would stop alpha, but a couple of mm of Al would stop beta. My undergrad text has nothing to say on the subject though, and other areas of A levels have proven fictitious. Still, I'm pretty confident that aluminium plate would stop a torrent of electrons, especially if it was earthed.

It sounds likely that high energy electrons hitting things will create all kinds of bad ****, but as I don't know what Johnny's aiming it at it's hard to comment on that

edit: wiki thinks that hitting bits of metal with electrons leads to X rays, and also that 60KV is a reasonable energy to accelerate an electron with. So mains AC isn't going to do well without a transformer, and hammering electrons into aluminium will probably stop them, but the x rays produced won't be stopped by the plate.

 

[Jonny69]

Right, the plan is this. Forget the telly, I have a better idea. I'm going to wire up an exciter coil (alright, it's a spare car coil) on a 555 timer circuit running at high frequency and a couple of tonky electrodes. This should give me a nice plasma style burst of sparks, or source of electrons if I understand it correctly. I conveniently have about 550V DC @100mA if I piggyback some wires into the side of my valve amp. I'm going to wind a long coil round the outside of a tube, sparks at one end, open at the other and the coil ought to produce a strong enough magnetic field to really blast some stuff nasty out of it.

I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know what it's going to do. I'll fire it at a pile of fairy cakes to start with and assess the damage

Question: do I make the tube out of toilet roll tubes or bean cans gaffer taped together?

 

[Cybermyk]

Bean cans, it'll be less Blue Peter.

Also, if this thing manages to take you back in time I'll expect a knock at the door and you holding a piece of paper with this Saturdays lottery numbers on it in the next 5 seconds.

 

[daz]

At first I thought you were joking and we were all playing along but if you're seriously thinking about doing this please do a lot more research before you start playing with these things.