How should "the most dangerous toy in history" play?

Written article | Zhang Tianhao (High Energy Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Uranium 238 Atomic Energy Laboratory

In 1950, legendary toy merchant Gilbert launched a toy set- "Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory", "Gilbert Uranium 238 Atomic Energy Laboratory", which was called "the most dangerous toys in history" later generations. One toy was priced at $ 49.5 at the time. When the toy was just released, it was claimed to be the most advanced scientific toys and the best scientific set in history. In terms of configuration alone, such propaganda does not seem to be excessive. The toy set includes a Ge Ge-Miller Digital, an electrical appliance, a spinthariscope, a Wilson cloud room with a short life alpha, four natural ore containing uranium 238, and three low-level radiation sources ( Including a β-α hybrid source, a pure β source and a γ source), some small balls that indicate protons and neutrons (used to assemble the atomic model), a 60-page explanation manual, a science science comic book And a "Uranium Mine Exploration" jointly published by the US Atomic Energy Commission and the US Geological Survey. The explanation manual was written by Dr. Ralph E.lapp, a nuclear physicist who had participated in the Manhattan plan. Science science comics invited three scientists as a scientific consultant. Among them, General Leslie Groves, the head of the Manhattan plan, and the famous physicist John R., Dr. Dunning.

The general was reading the popular science comic book, frowned, and found that things were not simple

U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory

So how should this set of toys play? In fact, there are quite a lot of gameplay in the toy manual. For example, you can choose to detect uranium mines with Ge Ge Miller Digital. Before the detection, you need to familiarize the operation of the Ge Gag-Miller Division with the radiation source in the toy. Specifically, you can let your friends or family hide a source of γ at home, and then you hold the Ge Ge Miller Digital Driver to find the hidden radiation source. When the number of countingrs clicks more and more dense, it means that it is free of radiation. The source is getting closer and closer. This mini -game can only be regarded as novice teaching tasks. After you are familiar with the operation, you can go to the wild to explore the real uranium ore, and the children who find the uranium ore can get the government's 10,000 US dollars. (Of course, this is just a gimmick of propaganda. Toys companies also know that the difficulty of uranium mineral exploration and the difficulty of catching and seeking can still be 100 million points.)

At that time, the toy advertisement told the children that they could detect the uranium mine through the Ge Ge Miller Digital in the toy and won the $ 10,000 award provided by the government

Scientific gameplay

Because the hard -core design and promotional paintings of this toy have a strong contrast between children's immature faces, people always feel a little magical when they mention this toy. However, in fact, the original intention of this set of scientific toys is very serious. The designer of toys encouraged children to use this toy to perform real scientific experiments, rather than just using it to catch and seek. Below we briefly introduce several operanting scientific gameplay given in the toy manual, and their own scientific background. The illustrations of the following scientific gameplay are from the toy manual.

1 Discover the law of the radiation intensity

Therefore, we need to first be familiar with the use of Ge Gag-Miller's counter, and then record the counting rate of γ sources at different distances at different distances. The designer of toys hopes that children can record data and draw pictures on the paper through the experiment, and find the law of the radiation intensity through the data obtained. The law of the radiation intensity reflection refers to the square inverse ratio of the size of the radiation intensity of the radiation and the distance between the position and the radiation source, that is:

The anti -ratio law of radiation intensity is not only suitable for γ radiation, but can be extended to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths. After understanding the law of radiation intensity, we can calculate different safety distances for different radiation sources. In addition, in modern astronomy research, we can measure the distance between the billion -year -old outer celestial bodies through the standard candlelight LA ​​type supernova in the universe, which also uses the law of radiation.

Draw the Ge Gag-Miller Dalm counting and distance through this set of toys

2 Measure the ability to shield different materials on rays

The specific method is to insert different materials between the Ge Gag-Miller counters and the γ source, and then measure the thickness of the material when the γ source radiation intensity is reduced by half. Through this experiment, it can lead a very important concept in radiation protection, namely the Half-Value Layer. The half -value layer is a commonly used method of shielding thickness, and its definition is the material thickness required when the electromagnetic radiation strength is weakened to half of the initial value. The official manual recommends several common substances as experimental materials. Through experiments, the higher the number of atomic order in the shielding material, the smaller the half -value layer. This is why it is often used as a shielding material in radiation protection.

The thickness required for different materials when the γ -rays are shielded half, from left to right are wood, water, aluminum, iron and lead

3 Explore cosmic rays

The designer of the toy also told us that we can use this toy to measure the cosmic rays in person. The specific method is to first make some simple shielding (shielded radiation with low energy) of the Ge Gag-Miller Digital, and then use it to record the radiation intensity of the sea plane area, and finally go to the high-altitude area or enter the high-altitude aircraft to record records. Radiation intensity, through different altitude radiation intensity, you will find that the higher the altitude, the greater the radiation intensity. This phenomenon shows that there are extremely high energy cosmic rays in outer space. The experiment was reborn with the experiment of the American physicist Victor Hers in 1912. This experiment also won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics. Before the discovery of cosmic rays, people generally believe that the ionizing radiation measured in the atmosphere comes from the earth itself. Therefore, as far as the distance from the ground, the lower the level of ionizing radiation. However, Victor Hess rose from the ground to a height of 5 kilometers by the hot air balloon, which measured the relationship between the ionization radiation level and altitude in the atmosphere. There is a radiation source from outer space, which is cosmic rays. The discovery of cosmic rays opened a new door for the study of particle physics and astronomy. Even in modern times, the energy of high -energy particles that humans can produce is far weaker than the particles in cosmic rays. For example, the most powerful large -scale strong sub -collision (LHC) can accelerate the proton to 6.5tev. The "High -altitude Cosmic Line Observation Station" project led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences High Energy Physics has been discovered by the highest energy photons to date, and its energy has reached 1.4PEV, which is more than 200 times that of LHC's energy. At present, the highest energy-based universe rals observed by humans are called "OH-MY-GOD particles". Its energy is estimated to be 300EEV, which is 46 million times the energy that LHC can reach the energy.

Children who are using Ge Ge-Miller counter and watch to record data

4 Observe the trails of α particles and β particles

We first need to assemble a Wilson cloud room ourselves, and then observe the trails of α particles and β particles in the cloud chamber through the Wilson cloud room that we have installed. The experiment also reborn with a Nobel Prize in Physics, that is, a particle diameter detector invented by British physicist Wilson. The Wilson cloud room is full of overly saturated ethanol steam. Once the high -energy charged particles pass through the cloud chamber, it will be ionized by colliding with gas molecules. A fog -shaped droplets will be generated around the ionized gas particles. Trail.

The Wilson Cloud Room played an important role in early particle physics experiments, and particles such as positive electronics and μon were found through Wilson Cloud Room. However, the current particle physics experiments no longer use the cloud chamber as a diameter detector of the particles, and replaced it with a variety of semiconductor detectors.

The trail of the α particles in the Wilson Cloud Room

Of course, in addition to the above -mentioned scientific gameplay, the official also encourages children to design experiments by themselves to make full use of this set of toys. From the official gameplay, we can see that this toy is quite intentional in its scientific design. However, did this set of toys have done the job of the toy -fun, maybe the benevolent see the wisdom and wisdom. At least the children of the year did not buy specially, which caused the toy to be discontinued due to commercial reasons for one year.

Can children play casually?

cannot.

Obviously, the biggest doubts about this set of toys now are its safety, especially the dazzling radiation source contained in toys, bringing a great sense of insecurity to people. So, what exactly is the production of this toy produced? It is really as mentioned in some articles. Once the glass bottle containing uranium ore is broken, will it cause large -scale nuclear pollution?

In fact, the "Uranium 238 Atomic Energy Lab" is not the earliest "nuclear energy" toy. In 1947, Porter Chemical Company had tailored scientific toys containing radiation sources for children. After the implementation of the uranium 238 atomic energy laboratory, some manufacturers have tried to produce toys similar to radiation sources. However, the uranium 238 atomic energy laboratory is the most famous of all toys, which is probably related to one of the ten most dangerous toys in history.

When this set of toys was released, it had been more than 50 years since Mrs. Juguri found that the radium has passed for the first time. People have a certain understanding of radioactive harm (at least they will not drink radium water at the beginning). Therefore, in its instructions, it also emphasizes not to swallow the α or β sources into the body, otherwise it will cause internal irradiation, which will cause severe damage. Toy Company also commissioned Oak Ridge National Laboratory to test a safety test. So the radioactivity of this set of toys is not high. Although the uranium ore contained in it has certain radioactivity, the general uranium ore contains less than 0.1%. In addition, the uranium-238 itself is mainly α particles. The penetration force of α particles is far less than γ -rays. A piece of paper can easily block the α particles, so it does not cause the so -called large -scale nuclear pollution.

However, current scientific research has found that even if it is exposed to low -level radiation, the risk of cancer occurs in life. This impact is called random effect. In addition, children's body is more sensitive to radiation. So now it seems that the harm of its propaganda is also wrong. Another obvious danger is that children will not strictly play according to the instructions. Although the radiation source in toys and natural uranium ore are not high, they will cause serious internal illumination damage once children inhaled their bodies. The announcement of the year was completely harmless and safe. Now it seems that this publicity is not correct

In general, if the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory is a scientific teaching aid, it will be a pretty good product. In fact, when it was just listed, Columbia University purchased five sets. But considering that it is a puzzle toy that is really designed for children, this matter becomes very unreliable. After all, children are not trained practitioners. Obviously, the "Uranium 238 Atomic Energy Lab" is only suitable for playing in the real laboratory.

#Groupe OD creation:

Author: Zhang Tianhao

Design / typography: Males of pigs

#Reference information:

1.USA Historial CPI (CPI) -913 to 2022. | Inflation Rate and consumer price index (ratingInflation.com)

2.https://www.sparehed.com/2007/05/14/dagwood-splits- the -TOM/

3.https://www.oran.org/health-Physics-museum/collection/toys/gilbert- 238-etomic-rb.html

4.http://science- notebook.com/experIMENTS.html

5.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory#cite_note-6.https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/radiation-safety/understanding-radiation/health-effects- OF-agising-Radiaational-on-PeOPLE

7.https: //byjus.com/physics/inverse-square-law/

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Edit: Matthalin pig

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