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cloud chamber
noun
: a vessel containing air saturated with water vapor whose sudden expansion reveals the passage of an ionizing particle by a trail of visible droplets
Examples of cloud chamber in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Those were the cosmic rays Hess detected and are the ones most likely to show up in a museum cloud chamber.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 23 Nov. 2023
The photograph above shows a positron's path traveling through a cloud chamber as photographed by Anderson.
—Discover Magazine, 1 Sep. 2010
Those were the cosmic rays Hess detected, and are the ones most likely to show up in a museum cloud chamber.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 23 Nov. 2023
The first cloud chamber was devised by physicist Charles Thomas Rees Wilson in 1895 to reproduce the airborne puffs and study their behavior.
—Bill Gourgey, Popular Science, 23 Nov. 2023
In a recent email exchange, Coppola described watching particles produced by nuclear decay fly through a Wilson cloud chamber.
—Michael Alberty | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 4 Jan. 2022
The cloud chamber in Gilbert’s atomic lab contains a wire coated with polonium-210, the radioactive compound used to poison ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
—Michael Alberty | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 4 Jan. 2022
As for the Partch, it was played by Partch, guitarist John Schneider’s ensemble dedicated to re-creating the art-object Partch instruments — the cloud chamber bowls, the exotic massive marimbas and the like.
—Mark Swed, latimes.com, 17 June 2018
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Word History
First Known Use
1897, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near cloud chamber
Cite this Entry
“Cloud chamber.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloud%20chamber. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Kids Definition
cloud chamber
noun
: a container of air saturated with water vapor whose sudden cooling reveals the path of an ionizing particle (as an electron) by a trail of visible droplets
More from Merriam-Webster on cloud chamber
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about cloud chamber
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