What is a Neutrino?
Neutrinos are the vampires of physics. Tweet it - http://bit.ly/sJgKV0 Facebook it - http://on.fb.me/rPfLOA minutephysics is now on Google+ - http://bit.ly/qzEwc6 And facebook - http://fac...
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Neutrinos are tiny, almost weightless particles that only interact via gravity and nucleardecay. Because they don't interact electromagnetically, that is, with light, they literally can'tbe seen!In fact, detecting a neutrino is kind of like trying to catch a bullet with a butterflynet – a beam of neutrinos will travel through lead for two years before it stops. (in comparison,radiation from nuclear fallout can be blocked by about ten cm of lead)So how do you detect a neutrino? One common way is to fill a big tank with water: we knowlight slows down through water, and if a neutrino with enough energy happens to knock into anelectron, the electron will zip through the water faster than the light does! When thishappens, the electron gives off a weak glow c...
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Neutrinos are tiny, almost weightless particles that only interact via gravity and nucleardecay. Because they don't interact electromagnetically, that is, with light, they literally can'tbe seen!In fact, detecting a neutrino is kind of like trying to catch a bullet with a butterflynet – a beam of neutrinos will travel through lead for two years before it stops. (in comparison,radiation from nuclear fallout can be blocked by about ten cm of lead)So how do you detect a neutrino? One common way is to fill a big tank with water: we knowlight slows down through water, and if a neutrino with enough energy happens to knock into anelectron, the electron will zip through the water faster than the light does! When thishappens, the electron gives off a weak glow c...
