3 ms·
Cherenkov Radiation [1]. It's not because the particles are going faster than 300M m/s, but because light in the medium is going less than 300M m/s. The unbre
by toufka 9y ago
Cherenkov Radiation [1]. It's not because the particles are going faster than 300M m/s, but because light in the medium is going less than 300M m/s. The unbreakable "speed of light" is actually, the "speed of light (in a vacuum)". Outside of a vacuum, the light is slowed by the materials it travels through (see prisms, angles of refraction, Snell's Law [2] etc.). But it's still a very special condition when the medium slows light to some large fraction of C, while particles are going faster than that (but still less than C).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law
- Florin_Andrei 9y agoYup. Whenever you see that blue glow surrounding a reactor core submerged in water, that's the Cherenkov radiation. If the blue glow happens in your own eyeballs, you've probably just witnessed your own death sentence.
- pitaj 9y agoIt is dangerous? Nuclear subs have cherenkov radiation outside the hull which implies they have it inside the hull as well, but you don't hear about sailors getting radiation poisoning all the time.