bubble chamber


nounPhysics.
  1. an apparatus for determining the movements of charged particles, consisting of a chamber containing a superheated transparent liquid that, by boiling and producing bubbles in the path of an ionizing particle, indicates the path of the particle.

Origin of bubble chamber

1
First recorded in 1950–55

Words Nearby bubble chamber

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How to use bubble chamber in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for bubble chamber

bubble chamber

noun
  1. a device that enables the tracks of ionizing particles to be photographed as a row of bubbles in a superheated liquid. Immediately before the particles enter the chamber the pressure is reduced so that the ionized particles act as centres for small vapour bubbles

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for bubble chamber

bubble chamber

[ bŭbəl ]


  1. A device used to observe the paths of charged subatomic particles. A bubble chamber consists of a container filled with very dense fluid that is close to boiling. The moving particles create tracks of bubbles in the fluid that can be photographed and analyzed. Bubble chambers have been largely supplanted in laboratories by more sensitive particle detectors that do not rely on the human eye. Compare cloud chamber.

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