From: jonesrob@emporia.edu
Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Re: Plasma Globe effects on geiger counter ?
Organization: NewsOne.Net - Free Usenet News via the Web - http://newsone.net/
References: <bfbr6u$415l$1@saturn.cs.uml.edu>



In article <bfbr6u$415l$1@saturn.cs.uml.edu>, theother <theother@EROLS.COM>
writes:
>
>Please allow me to apologize if this question has been asked before or if
>it's just plan dumb, I'll try to keep it short and to the point
>
> Why does my Geiger counter go CRAZY near my plasma globe? I have an 8"
>"Eye of the Storm" plasma globe and a Monitor 5 Geiger counter(GC). Now I
>understand plasma consists of ions and electrons and that's something my GC
>is designed to detect (@ certain energies), but how would it project these
>particles up to 4" beyond it's glass enclosure? I suspect it's some form of
>induction field or RF interference from the high voltage power supply acting
>on the G-M tube. My GC has a metal shield to cover the probe window for
>discrimination of Gamma rays from Beta and Alpha particles, using this
>shield brought the GC reading down to background levels again, but a 2"
>thick book over the probe blocked nothing. Was the metal probe shield acting
>as a Faraday cage blocking induction or RF? This led me to the conclusion
>that these couldn't be Beta particles I was detecting if they were they
>would have to have fantastic energies to penetrate the book, something on
>the order of soft X-rays (bremsstrahlung from glass? not very high Z) . I
>don't think X-rays are the answer as any consumer X-ray sources I can think
>of like TV's are internal, shielded and have warning labels. This leaves me
>with induction field or RF interference from the high voltage but I don't
>know. Can someone explain this phenomena as I'm sure there is a simple one.
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Interesting side note: The guy who sold me my plasma globe would place a
>loop of steel guitar string around the globe and the tip of the wire would
>emit a continuous spark up to 1/2" long to conductive materials, it would
>arc to any material that was conductive (people included). He used the spark
>to mark a small "t" onto his fingernail as a demonstration. He zapped me
>with the spark once but it really didn't hurt much beyond the initial
>contact. Fingernail boy said the pain was proportional to time the spark was
>held in one spot on the skin and that finger nails didn't hurt at all. I
>never played with this aspect of the globe after my purchase because someone
>told me it was bad for the globe. The manual for their globe said not to
>wear rings or allow metal to contact the globe during operation (my used
>globe had no manual). I must say my globe seems none the worse for wear
>after it's "abuse" and it has served well for 12 yrs.of albeit intermittent
>normal use flawlessly.
>
>
>
>
> E3-I: This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by
UML's antivirus scanning services.
>
>
>
>
My geiger counter reacts when any elctric motor is run near it. The
amplifier
in the geiger counter is acting as a radio receiver and the motor puts out a
weak radio signal. The motor's radio signal can also be detected on a radio
receiver near by.

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