#geiger counter

[reddpenn]

I got a Geiger counter!

Let’s look through my collection for some Spicy Rocks!  I’ve never deliberately collected radioactive specimens, so I have no idea what I’m going to find.

First, though, let’s test the baseline level of radiation in my house.

It’s fun to hear the Geiger counter click as it detects radiation.  20 counts per minute.  Nice!  You’re unlikely to ever see a count of zero, as pretty much everything in the world, including the human body, gives off a little bit of radiation. 

20 is a normal baseline, nothing to be concerned about.  Standing in my house, I’m getting a radiation dose of about 0.00013 milliseieverts per hour - or a little over one mSv a year.  This is an average yearly dosage of radiation for people in my country, and is something my body can easily process.  For context, a dosage of 100 mSv would slightly increase my risk of cancer, and a dosage of 1000 mSv would immediately give me radiation sickness.

But enough about these boring, safe amounts of radiation.  I want to see some spice!  Let’s check over by the Rock Wall!

Hm, I’d expected the CPM to be noticeably higher around my rock collection, but I’m getting nothing!  Even testing each individual rock, nothing’s more than a few ticks above the baseline.  So far, my fancy new toy is looking like wasted money.  :c

WAIT!  THERE!!  62 CPM!  That’s three times higher than the base reading in the rest of my house!!!  YESSS!!  THIS ROCK IS SPICY!!!!

Here’s the rock that’s setting off my Geiger counter.  (Yes I’m touching the spicy rock with my bare hands, don’t worry about it.) 

This fossil, which is as big as my head, is part of the femur bone of a Megalonyx, a North American giant ground sloth!

These huge animals could grow as big as ten feet tall.  They lived alongside humans during the last ice age, and it’s theorized that humans may have hunted them to extinction.  This particular fossil was found in a phosphate mine!

Why is it radioactive?  Because... sometimes fossils are just radioactive!  They spend a lot of time in the ground, which is full of radioactive minerals, and often radiation just gets all up in there.  There are some fossils on display in museums which are so radioactive that they have to be coated with lead paint for the safety of curators and museum-goers!  Compared to those, this femur bone is barely radioactive at all.

So is it really safe for me to have this in my house, much less handle it with my bare hands?  Well, yeah!  Remember, despite having this spicy rock in my collection, the radiation baseline in my house is completely normal.  Here’s why.

Even just a few centimeters away from this specimen, the Geiger counter’s reading is halved.  A few inches away, and it can’t detect any radiation at all.  It basically has to be directly touching the rock to get an abnormal reading.  Which means I also have to be touching the rock to receive a meaningful amount of radiation exposure.

But even holding this rock in my hands, I’m only getting a dosage of about 0.0004 mSv per hour.  If I never let go of this rock for an entire year, I would get a dose of about 3.5 mSv.  Which is... still completely within the safe threshold for my body to process.  Nothing to worry about!

Man, I gotta start collecting some spicier rocks.

[energysoda]

why are geiger counters so cute. they are like little animals to me. making cute little noises when they detect radiation.

[talos-stims]

making music with uranium glass, a geiger counter, and a modular synth | source

[farcillesweep2024]

Ryoko Kui wrote the most radioactive Yuri on the planet. Geiger counter would sound like white noise

[troublemakergalaxy]

i made a stupid stamp and matching blinkies. free to use (w/ or w/out credit idc just dont claim it as yours lol

[theautismzone]

☢️ oh no ☢️

x x x x x x x x x

[wildweedsflower]

got my limited edition of geiger counter today n took some photos ^^

[atropos-moth]

[twisting-roads]

gougar cougar and his best friend radium who he loves so very much and

[huntthemouse]

Nuclear Mickey

33/365 #hunt the mouse

this place is not a place of honor… no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here.

I am making 365 new versions of Mickey Mouse for the public domain and releasing them under public domain all year long.

You can join the initiative to #hunt the mouse or suggest a theme yourself via my ask box.

[reddpenn]

I got to play with some uranium ore today!

Video transcript:

Okay, so here's something cool! This is a piece of uranium ore. This is not a piece from my collection, this is actually a piece from a collection that I'm getting to view here. Very neat! So yeah, that's uranium right there.

You might hear some clicks, and that is my geiger counter, so we're going to test how radioactive this uranium is. So this is just the base atmospheric radiation that's in this room. And let's see what happens when we get it next to that uranium.

Aw, there it goes!

Yeah, I'd say that's radioactive.

And for anyone concerned, this is still completely within reasonable dosage limits. Obviously you don't want to, like, eat this, or have it next to your skin for extended periods of time, but it is perfectly safe for me to, you know, pick up and handle.

It's giving off... what is it giving off? Let's let it tick up here and see what it gets to. About five microsieverts? It can probably go a little higher, we've clocked it a little higher before.

Eh, about five and a half microsieverts.

So again, completely safe for me to handle. But measurably very radioactive! So that's a very cool piece that I got to view today. I think it would be fun to have some of this in my collection at some point. Maybe I'll see if I can get the owner to sell it to me! Here's hoping.

Anyway, I just thought that was cool and wanted to share!

[rubystims]

☢️ / ☢️ / ☢️ ☢️ / ☢️ / ☢️ ☢️ / ☢️ / ☢️

samuel (name) stimboard for @cracklin-ion with science and nuclear themes !!

[lifenconcepts]

[o-link]

Kraftwerk - Geiger Counter - Radioactivity - 1975

[compareeachdocumenteveryway]

COMPARE EACH DOCUMENT EVERY WAY

GEIGER COMPARISON

[parageist]

i feel like im a dragon but instead of gold i amass hordes of radioactive materials:3