NODE bd7d7fe6Radioactive sources
Douglas Sinclair <dsinclai@acs.ucalgary.ca>Fri, 29 Jan 93 17:17:39 PST
Yup, the 3 microcurie source makes sense. With a pair of diodes we could
make the detector 4 pi, but no big deal. 3 microcuries is not a problem
health-wise as long as you don't eat it. As it's an alpha source, any shiledingor even a few centimeters of air will stop the rays. Howerver, I just encountered a new angle on it. According to my father, that's on the order of $100
worth of radium :(. If we're willing to go with a much slower source, we can
use thorium which is only $2 per gram or so. Alternativly, anyone have
an old clock with a radium dial? <grin>
BTW: Cosmic ray background is only 1 event per square foot per minute. Plus,
they occur in showers. So that isn't going to work.
--
Vercotti: I was terrified of him. Everyone was terrified of Doug. I've seen
grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug. Even
Dinsdale was frightened of Doug.
Interviewer: What did he do?
Vercotti: He used sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony,
metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and satire.
-- Monty Python, Episode 14
PGP 2.1 Key by finger
NODE f00d13a9Radioactive sources
pmetzger@shearson.com (Perry E. Metzger)Sat, 30 Jan 93 17:40:46 PST
>From: Douglas Sinclair <dsinclai@acs.ucalgary.ca>
>Yup, the 3 microcurie source makes sense. With a pair of diodes we could
>make the detector 4 pi, but no big deal. 3 microcuries is not a problem
>health-wise as long as you don't eat it. As it's an alpha source, any shiledingor even a few centimeters of air will stop the rays. Howerver, I just encountered a new angle on it. According to my father, that's on the order of $100
>worth of radium :(. If we're willing to go with a much slower source, we can
>use thorium which is only $2 per gram or so. Alternativly, anyone have
>an old clock with a radium dial? <grin>
>BTW: Cosmic ray background is only 1 event per square foot per minute. Plus,
>they occur in showers. So that isn't going to work.
Why not just go with the Newbridge Micro hardware RNG that we've
discussed several times in the past? Its only $50 for a 20kbit/sec
output rate.
Perry