Want to prove Einstein's Special Relativity? Build this.

[@bhavyapal]

I love how easily he explains complex things

[@reed_reed]

I love lamp

[@donkeyhobo34]

I wish someone would love me

[@poppers7317]

@@donkeyhobo34 you need to love yourself first.

[@donkeyhobo34]

@@poppers7317 I do

[@invader_jim2837]

I still think his Hawking Radiation ep is one of the best videos goin round. .

[@CommanderBeefDev]

it is not "just a demonstration" it is proof that physicists are not crazy and your average person needs to quit calling science mumbo jumbo

[@tommyjones1357]

But it’s ok to be a little crazy!

[@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC]

(2:40) Your household items pricing is way off. ... You forgot to adjust for cosmic inflation.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@feynstein1004]

Ba dum tss

[@luizucchetto2528]

Again a great video! As a former Physics Teacher I actually had a small set up cloud chamber to see these cosmic rays. I also had a piece of uranium ore and used a Geiger counter to hear the radioactive particles and then used the cloud chamber to "see" them. Please keep making these wonderful videos that makes physics understandable to all!!!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Very cool! I'm sure your student appreciated the hands-on aspect of it.

[@miinyoo]

That is very cool. What a treat for your students.

[@richardforster1239]

In my physics degree we did that same experiment to see radiation from a small piece of radioisotope. You never quite believe in radioactivity until you see those streaks shooting though the little chamber. The funniest part in hindsight was the way we got the dry ice. Place a sturdy sock over the end of a fire extinguisher and give it a good blast. The sock will collect more than enough dry ice to be useful in the grapefruit sized chamber we used. I think the lab technicians did this for us, but even so I expect health and safety probably had kittens when they found out. This was when the precession of gyroscopes experiment had an open air ring of mercury to provide the near friction free electrical contact for the motor in the gyro itself. 😁

[@LordCogordo]

Bring your wife more often! Those episodes when you explain complicated stuff to her are amazing, someone asking "" questions its very helpfull

[@MrPwnageMachine]

Yeah a different angle on crazy really deepens the explanation. She’s a great addition.

[@acmelka]

I love it because she clearly is science literate. ,( biology ) Having someone who wasn't wouldn't work.

[@misslayer999]

Agree, she's great!

[@trisix99]

Her edited reactions are hilarious. I love the muons from space one! 😄

[@josebarria3233]

Everything of this video beginning to end was a pure masterpiece

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks 😊

[@enricofermi67]

It would be if the word 'like' were used as a simile rather than a crutch. Yes, the explanation is there but the lack of language skill makes it more difficult to follow. Also, for those of us who are less knowlegable, we are not 'seeing' the muon but the track it leaves.

[@sphakamisozondi]

Nick, you got a talent bro, taking complex topics and bring them down to our level of understanding without sacrificing accuracy

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks. I work really hard on these.

[@mountaindesert34788]

^this!! Honestly it's probably what's appealed to me about all my favorite science channels! And very much with ScienceAsylum!

[@jasonhildebrand1574]

​@@ScienceAsylum the only thing omitted here that is very crucial would be how you determine the muon half life of a few milliseconds. How is that derived ?

[@Lucky10279]

I really like that Emily has been in more videos lately. It works really well that you explain stuff to her and clarify as needed, since it gives you a better idea of when the audience needs clarification. Plus, you guys just have great chemistry, so it's fun listening to you talk to each other.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yeah, we're actually considering doing it even if we're not recording it. That way it'll help me write the script.

[@Lucky10279]

@@ScienceAsylum Is she working on every video with you now? I remember a while ago you guys announced she was quiting her job to work full-time with The Science Asylum. I'm kind of curious what she does though, if you guys don't mind sharing (and no worries if you'd rather not share), other than serve as a sounding board for you though, since she doesn't have the physics knowledge you do?

[@ronbennett7885]

@@Lucky10279 I hope she is still working or at least is still maintaining her certifications, job contacts, etc. Reyling on KZbin for one's main income is fraught with peril. Live and die by the algorithm. Also, there are people out there who sabotage channels to cause loss of income or even be demoted. Again, hope both of them have planned ahead. Patreon has its own issues and not something one should rely much on either. As happened with Twitter and Reddit, things can change quickly and illustrate how little control users really have over these platforms.

[@ScienceAsylum]

@@Lucky10279 Yes, she's working with me now on the videos. Her work is (mostly) behind the scenes though. She deals with sponsors, keeps my schedule on track, reminds me to post on social media, reminds me to take breaks, etc. For this video, she did a lot of the research on how to build a cloud chamber, what to buy and where, etc. She sits in on filming sessions behind the camera to make sure I don't misspeak, to give suggestions on tones of voice, to keep me from talking too fast, and to keep my clothes looking decent on camera with all the changes for clone shots. I also use her as my primary sounding board and she watches through the first draft of the videos to give critiques before we upload. Em is quite busy and I'm less overwhelmed because she's involved. We're a great team.

[@ScienceAsylum]

@@ronbennett7885 Working for yourself is not for everyone. It's never not scary. We can mitigate some of it by diversifying the income sources (AdSense, Patreon/memberships, sponsor, etc.), but that only does so much. We've actually been having a rough 2023, but that happens from time to time. Things are starting to turn around and we always have a buffer saved to get us through times like that. (Inconsistent income requires planning, but I'm a pro at that after teaching part-time for 12 years.)

[@soumajitsen1395]

I have watched over a hundred of your videos, this is one of the best, if not THE best. You explain things so well!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! 🤓 We worked hard on this one.

[@MeppyMan]

You’re going to be a big part of why some kids become physicists one day! I wish I had your videos to watch when I was a kid. I might have not dropped out of physics!

[@ScienceAsylum]

I hope I inspire a few.

[@MeppyMan]

@@ScienceAsylum I have no empirical evidence. But some things are obvious before you have the data. 😂 I.e you absolutely will be.

[@eigenchris]

Definitely one of the coolest DIY physics experiments I've seen on KZbin! I have to wonder if there'd be a way to show the matter/anti-matter difference by applying a magnetic field and watching the particles corkscrew in opposite directions. Alas, I'm not much of an experimentalist so I have no idea how practical that would be for this setup.

[@ScienceAsylum]

It'd have to be a Helmholtz coil if we wanted to trust the measurements. Gotta make sure the field is uniform, you know? If the field was strong enough, I'd bet it would work.

[@narfwhals7843]

That is likely how the positron was first observed(though not "discovered") by Skobeltsyn. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron#Experimental_clues_and_discovery

[@SlimThrull]

@@narfwhals7843 Wonderful. Now I have to worry about being hit by antimatter? /s

[@narfwhals7843]

@@SlimThrull you're being hit by anti matter every time you eat a banana😊

[@videotrexx]

Where's the anti-matter? (rhetorical question, there is NO anti-matter in this experiment).

[@iplaythebasslol]

The "lenght-contraction" part blew my mind. Everyone stays at the "time dilation" part and maybe that's why I never fully grasped this part of Relativity. Until now. Thank you so much.

[@toamastar]

Very cool demonstration and a wonderfully concise explanation! Thats why we love The Science Asylum! :D

[@c4ashley]

I love these demonstrations, because they're so accessible. But two things elude me. What kind of reaction is actually occurring that makes the streaks visible? And why does the streak itself look quite slow? I'm guessing that once a particle hits a bit of vapour, either it or the alcohol molecule changes in some way and that's what continues the streak, or maybe the muon just loses a bunch of its momentum upon collision? Either way, I'd love a bit of a deep-dive on the physics of the streaks themselves. Maybe a slow-mo? (Slow-slow!)😀

[@FriedrichHerschel]

No reaction. Just condensation.

[@oasntet]

The alcohol/air solution is super-saturated. The alcohol is totally ready to stop being a gas, it just needs a nucleation point to get started. So along comes a tiny particle, which interacts with a few molecules of the alcohol, giving it somewhere to condense, and it's a chain reaction from there. It's slow compared to the speed of the particle itself because we're actually seeing the alcohol condensing, not the particle itself.

[@jergarmar]

To clarify, the nucleation happens because the particle ionizes the alcohol; that is, knocks electrons loose. Alcohol is polar, so it will be attracted to these ionized particles, clumping together, which develops into a nucleation site for condensation. Now, as to the speed of the track itself, it's actually kind of tricky to measure exactly. There's a complicated chain-reaction happening at the atomic scale all the way up to the visual scale, so the speed at which the track propagates does not have a direct correlation to the speed of the particle. One thing though, the muon is losing momentum, but not THAT much momentum per collision. How do I know? Because momentum includes direction, and the direction doesn't change much. For muon tracks, they are usually identified by straight and skinny lines. They are still way more massive than the electrons they are colliding with.

[@JonBrase]

The streak forms too quickly to see, but it's initially just a trail of ions along the path of the particle, which isn't visible. The streak is "slow" because the actual coalescence of visible droplets around the ions takes time, so it's a while before the streak thickens enough to be visible. Meanwhile, the droplets get blown around on air currents, so as the streak thickens, it's already starting to be pulled apart.

[@c4ashley]

This just gets more fascinating with every reply! Thanks, all. 😄 If anything, it makes me want a Science Asylum video on the topic even more.

[@ZBB0001]

I didn't want to comment until I'd built the machine. I have and it's brilliant! Things like this are so important to get people interested and involved. Brilliant!

[@ScienceAsylum]

I'm so glad your version went well!

[@Optimal_Living01]

Don't you EVER for a second stop publishing videos, I NEED THEM TO STAY SMART!!!

[@JCtheMusicMan_]

I was literally watching a video by The Thought Emporium on this topic when the notification of your video dropped! 😂 Your video came at the perfect time for me to get the “how to conduct your own lab to explore this topic further.” 😎❤️

[@ScienceAsylum]

Awesome! 🤓

[@potawatomi100]

Love your videos for their educational value, information and entertainment. The inclusion of your lovely wife is a really good addition.

[@nate9672]

Such a cool video! I had no idea you could create a particle detector at home

[@olavl8827]

It's called a cloud chamber and there are different designs for it on the internet that you can make.

[@johnbash-on-ger]

@@olavl8827 You can also buy ready to use out of the box cloud chambers. Or to assemble kits.

[@iammrbeat]

Honestly, that's kind of trippy.

[@ScienceAsylum]

I was so excited when the footage of the particle turned out well. But, yeah, it's weird to think these particles are zipping around all around us all the time.

[@ZBB0001]

Absolutely brilliant. If it were a spaceship, I'd steal it. - Zaphod Beeblebrox

[@Tony-dp1rl]

Technically speaking, I don't think we see the Muons, we see the Photons :)

[@nate5land]

Flat Earth confirmed (if you’re a particle traveling at 99.9% of C)! 🤣👍

[@c4ashley]

😂 I actually snorted. Well done. 👏

[@TheMemesofDestruction]

2:38 - The moment Dr. Nick becomes MacGyver. ^.^

[@Electric_Bagpipes]

I think a good way to represent the speed of light would be to get a cloud chamber on an ultrahigh speed camera. Get a collab with the slomo guys or something, put it next to something like an explosion or a bullet for comparison, and show that even at those ridiculous shutter speeds its still instantaneous. Also I kinda wonder what it’d look like honestly

[@1234j]

🎉oh, this was just excellent! It gives a huge immediacy to our awareness of the amazing universe we are in, when a fish tank, IPA, felt and dry ice between bakeware...shows us those tiny, ephemeral particles in real-time. What a WOWW factor. Thank you and cheers from England

[@duprie37]

It's kinda spooky when you're so used to dealing with models. Like, hey these things are really out there, they really do exist!

[@nate9672]

Are you able to perform this demonstration indoors? And if so, how are the alpha particles/electrons/muons able to pass through the roof but then collide with the alcohol vapor? Apologies if this is a silly question 😅

[@ScienceAsylum]

Good question! Indoors is actually necessary because you need it to be dark. I did this in my garage and those muons came _through_ the wall. Remember, the wall is just a bunch of microscopic nuclei held together by even smaller electrons in a diffuse cloud. There's plenty of space for something like a muon to sneak through. As for the other particles, there are radioactive atoms (like radon) in the air everywhere.

[@lj823]

Thanks for asking the question! I hadn't even thought of it yet.

[@albertmaheswara9968]

Wow, i didnt know you can make a muon detector with stuff you can find in your home. Im excited :3

[@ninadgadre3934]

“Fast fast” gives me immeasurable joy and I am so glad you never forget to add that every time you say fast.

[@Psychx_]

You have a lovely dynamic with your waifu! The whole thing of the two of you having a dialog about new topics, her asking questions, etc. gives the video a very natural feel.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! I think so too.

[@rev68]

I always knew you were crazy, but now I see your.....muons?

[@feliperamedeiros]

Very good explanation! As a man with no math skills, I can somewhat grasp some of the bizarre reality of our universe, and the analogy with a real event happening in front of our eyes is so on point! Thank you, and I agree with others here too: Emily is awesome, as a feller biologist I really appreciate her presence!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! We're glad you enjoyed it 🤓

[@debiddo]

Critical feedback: Great video as usual, however there is a niggle. The demonstration makes relativity relatable if we accept that a muon (at rest) has a half life of about 2.2us, and that the muons detected are moving close to the speed of light. If we take those as facts, then the experiment is a brilliant demonstration of time dilation and space contraction. Like you say, teaching relativity often feels like the educator is saying "trust me bro'". We do trust you with those statements, but it would have been even better (I think) if you also explained how we know the half-life of a muon, what they decay into, and how we know how fast they are moving.

[@ScienceAsylum]

That's fair.

[@Gerastenok]

This is one of the best facts that shows time dilation isn't an illusion at all. It's real and due to it we can have things we couldn't without it

[@linoxydable3676]

That"s great...!! I will do the experiment with my kid when he get old enough... do you know the experiment that allow you to calculate the speed of light with a micro wave oven and a chocolate bar ?

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yeah, the speed of light experiment is super fun! I made a video on it back in the ancient times: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKiogWB_hLqLeZo

[@alfadog67]

Mind == Blown. Leave it to Nick and Emily to drop it like this! Well done!

[@littlefrank90]

My girlfriend works on a muon detector and they use it for muography (aka muon radiography), to scan big objects, like caves inside mountains or anomalies in big structures, like the pyramids. It is super duper cool.

[@ScienceAsylum]

COOL!!!! 🤓

[@gutspraygore]

Awesome. I can guarantee this would have been a very exciting experiment in my physics class. And, even better, it looks like there are many physics lessons to explore just in that demonstration alone. Great stuff as always!

[@misterlau5246]

Ohhh I also built back in the day a cloud fishtank And I used a LCR and transistor plus a speaker, it sounds cool, lots of particles but not much energy, and a crt with some strong electromagnets, the most satisfying thing was scaring ppl, OUT OF HERE! RADIATION 😈🤓☠️🤖😹

[@lj823]

Emily, you are absolutely perfection in interaction. Simply a fun, amazing video! Also amazing is that you've taken the time to read and respond to so many of our comments. TY!

[@wakkawakka7624]

Omg please do more 3phase motors, inductors, MRI machines, cooling nuclear reactors with electromagnets and molten salts!!! Yayyyy

[@feynstein1004]

Wow, this was amazing. MOAR PLZZZZZZZ 😊

[@electric_boogaloo496]

9:25 debate over guys, the earth is flat. At least from the Muon's perspective, lol.

[@jamesmnguyen]

Flat Earthers are just humans moving near the speed of light. It all makes sense now.

[@TheAyoubi]

This is what I would like to see on youtube daily.. Great job..

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks!

[@markkettlewell7441]

Nick Lucid what amazing videos you make for us crazies 😅

[@ronnyvbk]

Can the government please sponsor this couple. You make science cool, interesting, comprehensible, fun, visual, tangible, for everyone. One can not find better science ambassadors. Many Thanks!

[@douglasboyle6544]

This is one of the rare times I actually knew the solution to the problem before Nick revealed it, I felt very proud of myself. 😊

[@ScienceAsylum]

Cool!

[@alexandroskappa642]

Awesome video as always! Super interesting knowledge, in super simplified language. Dinosaur couch plushie comes as a bonus!

[@brothermine2292]

When Em mentioned a "baby Earth" when viewed from the muon's frame of reference, it sounded like she thinks Lorentz length contraction is a contraction in all 3 spatial dimensions. It's contraction only in the direction of the muon's motion, so the Earth looks flattened into a disk... not shrunk into a small globe.

[@jamesmnguyen]

An important distinction for sure.

[@johnbash-on-ger]

Interesting, thanks for clarifying / correcting / providing more detail.

[@AP-dk9xt]

Hasn’t this been postulated as the cause for unexplainable random errors in data management worldwide? Thus making the case for always having multiple backups of very important information? Could this be the cause of AI to make random errors? What happens when they go through our brains?

[@garyhuntress6871]

Great demonstration. I would LOVE to see you repeat it with a local radioactive source, magnets and electric fields to see how you can perturb the paths!

[@eritronc]

Nick, you are the best!!! Thank you, and nice to see you gf sharing screen with you, you make a great couple!!

[@yad-thaddag]

Building my own cloud chamber. I need to try this! 👍

[@ScienceAsylum]

Awesome! Just remember, safety first.

[@ZeitGeist_TV]

These two will create a genius super baby that hopefully doesn't become evil or we're all doomed. 😂😂😂

[@esra_erimez]

I love these types of episodes. You're a great team.

[@laughlinflyer]

Thank you for blowing my phuqueing mind... AGAIN!!

[@ScienceAsylum]

You're welcome! 😉

[@laughlinflyer]

@@ScienceAsylum LUV YA!

[@Iamthelolrus]

I love cloud chambers

[@ScienceAsylum]

Aren't they cool?!?!

[@realityglitch2688]

While I enjoy the explanation and love the idea that you can make a particle detector from household materials, I feel this is a less rigorous demonstration than the train/rocket thought-experiment because it presupposes acceptance of Relativity as the explanation for the indirect evidence being seen, rather than using a visual display of the dilation/contraction itself (even if it’s an imagined one). The demonstration itself is still amazing, though.

[@joz6683]

How to make a cloud chamber and have fun proofing the partial theory of matter as well as relativity. Thanks for a great video. I have always wanted to build one.

[@acmelka]

This is fantastic! Who knew anyone could see radiation elementary particles and relatively with a set up this simple. I'm rigging this up this weekend!

[@BronzeDragon133]

"That was a long one!" That's quite literally what she said. Fascinating video, thank you.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😆 (Also, glad you enjoyed it.)

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

@@ScienceAsylum laughing so hard!

[@garyb6219]

Well you've just explained for me how Santa delivers all those presents on Christmas Eve, time dilation!

[@Marzano15]

Haha pretty cool stuff. Had no idea how easily one could just witness the presence of a cosmic ray in their kitchen.

[@Bora_H]

Pretty wild that these things are flying through us and having no apparent effect! ✴🙃

[@mikehipps1015]

Congrats on the cool wife. Y'all are fun to watch. Thanks for your work. I'm looking forward to trying this out.

[@PedroNeves_87]

new video... I came

[@williammorton8555]

Just a great presentation. That you were able to explain the concepts to a biologist is magnificent.

[@Life_42]

I never miss a video! You and your wife are awesome! Every viewer of this channel is awesome!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks!

[@JHaven-lg7lj]

Okay, saving this one to play with one day when the grandkids ask about cosmic rays. Cool!

[@ludvercz]

Very cool demo. And I don't just mean it's temperature

[@ScienceAsylum]

😆

[@Alche987]

And for less money now, and some minerals, you have a new video about radioactivity

[@ScienceAsylum]

That possibility has already crossed my mind 👍

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Many years ago, we used cloud chambers at school to observe the emissions from a radioactive source. We saw lots of tracks in a short time. However, our cloud chambers might have been too small to distinguish muons from other kinds of particles. They were sufficient unto the purpose for which they were used.

[@Hibernia---]

Video suggestion: Photonic Time Crystals

[@douglasstrother6584]

The Griffith Observatory in L.A. has a spark chamber to trigger on cosmic rays. There's quite a lot of them, about once a second.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Cool! I'll get to see Griffith Observatory in person one of these days. It's on my bucket list.

[@douglasstrother6584]

@@ScienceAsylum Park at Griffith Park & take the bus up the hill.

[@FrancisKoczur]

Math deals in proofs, in science you attempt to invalidate a falsifiable hypothesis. Your 'results' were consistent with special relativity and the standard model.

[@solderstuff]

Love the idea of DIY science. how about how to build the double slit experiment and a few more :)

[@Mr_OoOsH]

This also explains the visions astronauts say they experience, the visible particles here show what astronauts were explaining, except their particles were visible when travelling through their eyes in space. I may be slightly off but I’m pretty sure that about sums it up.

[@Kath-N]

Rural America? I thought you were a Brit. Anyway, great video!

[@GrayBlood1331]

how funny, I was just thinking about this trying to remember if I got the details correct, like if it was the muon that does this. Good timing!

[@ospididious]

I love your videos. I'm glad you and your wife make them together. I hope that many someones see you as their Bill Nye. Keep it up.

[@thedagit]

That was great. Now please make a video exploring/explaining the physics that made your pan sing when you set it on the dry ice.

[@zeus7914]

A demonstration is worth a thousand pictures; which are worth a thousand words each... I'm impressedi

[@robertrose3068]

Just saw this on Science Channel about Cosmic Rays. Intetesting!

[@ArchieBIT]

That yeees at 9:18

[@obvious-troll]

So its possible for humanity to traverse interstellar distances in the the future without it the journey taking tens of thousands of years? We wouldnt need warp drives.

[@PulseCodeMusic]

Sweet little demo... a lot of the diagnosing of particles in cloud chambers is done with the help of charges that either attract or repel the charged particles right? It wouldn't cost much more to get some of that on the go. A balloon might be all you need. Of course not well controlled enough for data collection but it could be pretty cool.

[@ThisHandleIzntAvailable]

I have an important question and I hope it doesn't get buried. If we did this experiment at a higher altitude, would there be much more? Would the amount seen be proportional to the altitude?

[@reinaldo3091]

but why do muons interact with the alcohol vapour instead of just passing through it like in the rest of the atmosphere?

[@jameelarosetafoya2058]

Trippy man...I thought I was in a flashback 🤣 in a way it was

[@metasamsara]

You need to record this experiment with high fps camera and polarized filter!

[@christianmaxschafer8696]

Great Experiment and very good dialogues

[@WiickedRS]

Though you dont see the particles, you see the interaction of them with the vapor.

[@BenjaminBjornsen]

What a lovely couple

[@philipberthiaume2314]

Amazing...

[@tomdonaldson8140]

I love this. So simple. And as you say, relatable.

[@colt5189]

Mad Scientist: "Trust me bro!"

[@pseudononymouse]

Saying that one "sees" the muon is analogous to saying one sees an aircraft at very high altitude that is creating a condensation trail, but the distant aircraft itself cannot be resolved visually. You see indirect evidence that there was an aircraft from the observable trail it leaves.

[@thepeff]

Meijer is the one thing I miss about the midwest

[@ScienceAsylum]

It's on the list of reasons I don't want to move.

[@nokian9005]

Hey I actually got your video right away this time 20 mins after it was posted instead of on the next day! The algorithm is getting better. 😊 Great video by the way. I say next time you attempt to build a miniature working model of a nuclear reactor in your back yard. No wait, that'll get you demonetized :(

[@ScienceAsylum]

😆 It would be safer (and legal) to just go see a reactor at a nuclear plant.

[@ManyHeavens42]

to do list,pick up fish tank./ O Gravity Tank.Make your own Photon, Makeup Cream hahaha Photon Cream look Hot.Ion cream is the Gas.