Abstract
VISUAL demonstration of α-tracks in cloud chambers, especially of the diffusion type, sometimes gives the impression that the tracks actually shoot out from the radioactive source in a fraction of a second (not unlike the smoke trail of a train moving in a distant landscape, though the time-scale is different). It is curious not to find this effect mentioned in the literature, though it must baffle those teachers that have to correct their pupils when they think it is the actual velocity of the particles they are observing.
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PRINS, J., HEMPENIUS, S. Apparent Velocity of Alpha-Particles in Cloud Chambers. Nature 177, 487 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/177487a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/177487a0
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