We're gonna need a good vacuum, so conveniently, I had this turbomolecular pump laying around...

OMG you built a Lenard tube! I've always wanted to do this. Amazing as always, so glad to finally see a good video about this. If you do ever want to mess with higher voltages, look at a linear potential drop accelerator. Can be powered by a standard cheapo van-de-graff generator (they're also called van de graff accelerators for that reason) and you've already got all the stuff to build it basically. I suspect you could get the lichenberg figures working that way. Also on the list of things I've always wanted to build

10:34 xray hit the camera sensor

Things to put in the beam: CMOS / CCD sensor. Crookes radiometer Various (decapped?) ICs / semiconductors, see how their characteristics change voltage references / bandgaps Opamps Diodes transistors / mosfets

I hear someone who now knows the heart-stopping how-expensive-was-the-mistake-I-just-made sound of a turbomolecular pump yowling as it crashes to a halt.

"So if you have time in the Large Hadron Collider.." 😂😂

Loved it Ben. Next stop: demonstrate the wave character of the electron by placing a dual slit in the beam and a phosphorus screen behind it. Though, I must admit this experiment is a way more difficult than it sounds...

I’m a user of Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, which has a 12GeV electron beam. Each aluminum ‘window’ is several millimeters thick to hold back the atmosphere, and so the beam traverses several centimeters of aluminum without losing much energy at all.

A hot dog would make a great finger analog.

I really appreciate how this channel is filmed and edited. It's high quality without being gimmicky and slick like so many other KZfaq channels, which makes it easier to focus on the content and not the presentation (the lack of background music is especially refreshing).

Exposure to an area of bread to determine how well it inhibits mold growth.

Stick something under it and put your XRF detector next to it! Since you're firing electrons at something, you can get characteristic x-ray peaks out of it, just like you would with any regular x-ray tube. This is just how SEMs do it!

I always marvel at your videos, but the comment section.. it's amazing how great community you've gathered on a platform none other than youtube. It's a pleasure to read these comments with so many insights and good questions. Your channel is like a microverse of curiosity, such a lovely place.

Great stuff Ben! Any thoughts on adding beam forming plates or (A focus electrode) inside the device to focus the beam?

Would love to see you expose a micro SD card to the beam (or some other array type device), I wonder if you could attempt to make a cool but completely useless image sensor out of it (although I suspect the wear leveling to be a problem on modern ones). Connecting a metal plate to an analog ammeter and to ground and moving it around in the beam would also be a really simple but cool demo. I also wonder if considering this thing is putting out a good watt or two of radiation (might have to crank it up a little for this work) I wonder if you could put the aerogel (or some other low thermal conductivity material) into the beam and then cross section it while filming with a thermal camera, I would expect to see an interesting pattern as the beam is absorbed by the material heating it. I also see a lot of people are suggesting a cloud chamber, I would love to see that as I don't really know what kind of trails this thing would make.

As always, some of the absolute coolest stuff and best production on youtube. Thanks so much for the effort.

I love how you show your process and explain why you do it that way. One day I hope to start a kind of lab of my own, and I love seeing all the different ways people use tools for various purposes. Thanks for the good content!

I don't know of any other channels that do what you do. You have underrated videos.

an EPROM chip could be interesting, while constantly reading it to see if the bits just get erased (like with UV) or get wildly flipped around because of the electrons

6:49 "Is this thing producing x-rays?" "Yeah you betcha!" lol you're great!

It'd be interesting to see its effect on a living thing - maybe part of a plant, or an agar plate with bacteria? I'm assuming it'd kill / sterilise the affected region very quickly.

Could you post-accelerate the electrons after they come through the window?

If you shoot anhydrous ammonia with it, can you dissolve the electrons in it and see a color change as they become solvated?

I’ve been watching your videos for a few years and I’m always waiting for the next one. Thank you for sharing this with us.

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Try the Double-slit experiment

I enjoy and appreciate the way in which you explain processes in such a simplistic manner! Thank you!

What a fantastic video! I am blown away at how effective these things are. Thanks for another video that widened my perspective

Heh, "Aperture Science" Now you're thinking with portals!.

Wow! This channel deserve 10 million subscribers, I subscribed many science channels but no one is even close to this guy in coolness. Respect from india 🇮🇳

Ben this is just an amazing video. For you to take the time to do all this stuff is just awesome.

Humble improvement to previous comments: 1. Mist of fluorescent dye (e.g. zyglow). might need to dilute w/ alcohol. Mist w/ ultrasound. 2. Instead of bread, a standard test is agar in a petri dish. Touch with dirty fingers. Cover with plastic wrap (only 12 um thick). Sterilize! Thanks for another amazing video.

When I was little learning about science and I tried to build a laser with a flashlight, cardboard tube, and tinfoil. Ben is what my child mind thought I could do, go into the garage and build that crazy thing. Keep being awesome.

My father used to work in air traffic control for the RAF, I remember as a youngster (1960's) visiting him at work and seeing a small room full of CRT's all without phosphored screens. When a call sent by an aircraft it was received by multiple stations each remotely controlling a CRT, the beams projected across the room onto a large (presumably phosphored) screen to auto-triangulate the aircraft location. Hope my memory stands the test of time.

Wow, you made these advanced topics really understandable.

Thanks! That demo was highly illuminating!

It seems like the obvious thing to put in front of it would be a cloud chamber.

You really overestimate the capabilities of the rest of us here, “one other trick if you decide to do this, the aperture has...” 😄😄

Thank you so much for sharing I will make certain to watch all of your videos over time, truly a gift you are!

It was an experiment that I wanted so much to accomplish but which I could not do. Thank you for doing this experiment.

"I've got some home made aerogel" ... As you do.

We have a 1 MeV electron beam at work for cross-linking of cable insulations, some of which go into nuclear power plants. For more common applications there are cheaper ways of cross-linking plastics. The irradiation happens in a concrete bunker due to the safety aspects of the emitted radiation. Unfortunately I have not got to play with it too much... which is probably a good thing :) Correction of how the heat shrink works: You first manufacture the tube in its final shrunk size and then cross-link it. If you then heat it above its melting point it will not become liquid, but it is instead a "rubber" which you can stretch it by a lot. Cooling it in its stretched state will cause it to freeze in place, and it will only go back after heating above its melting point at a later stage. This is extra apparent if you use transparent heat shrinks (for example PTFE) as they are often milky at ambient temperature due to the crystals in the plastic, but at the temperature when it starts to shrink it usually turns transparent as the crystals melt. (Note: PTFE does not work well with electron beam crosslinking as it degrades (does not like radiation), but luckily it behaves as a cross-linked material already from the start due to the high amounts of chain-entanglements)

Thank you A LOT for making these videos (all of them) !!!

Well done Ben !

COOL!

Do you (or anyone else) have recs for similar channels with applied physics experiments?

Yet another wonderful video, thank you!

A 100nm membrane supporting 1 atmosphere of pressure is absolutely mind-blowing

Wintergreen mints? Is there enough energy to light up something triboluminescent. Yes, I know - completely different unrelated process. That's why I'm curious.

I'd be curious about giving atoms some extra electrons. Like what happens if you take a chunk of sodium, shoot it with this, then throw it in water? Will it be "supercharged" with even more electrons than usual, and release more energy when you activate it? Another idea: stick Styrofoam peanuts to something with static electricity (maybe the lid to a plastic tote container) and see if this thing can knock the peanuts off. Would this travel farther in helium/hydrogen due to lower density? That would be cool to see. What happens if you take a second tube with a second window at one end, phosphor at the other end, and vacuum inside? Can you put window to window, with a gap of 5mm or something, such that it traverses air, then goes back into vacuum, and then can travel another 10cm before striking phosphor to make a spot? That would be neat, transferring electrons from one vacuum chamber to another, across an air gap.

such a great video again!

As always, WAY COOL!!! Thanks Ben.

Some ideas to try: 1. Put a hard metal in the beam and measure the increase of X-rays. 2. See what happens if you put a leaf foil in the beam path. 3. Epoxy a glass tube on the other side and see what happens with various gases at very low pressures (neon, Argon, CO2. also try a magnet or electromagnet coil to see if it deflects the beam. At much lower pressures you should be able to get the beam to travel further. 4. Make a tiny CRT tube instead of using the electron window, use a flat bottom closed tube or small erlenmeyer flask with the bottom coated with a phosphor & magnetic yokes to control the beam path.

Awesome video as always! One idea for another experiment: you could install a few solenoids in front of the cathode with incrementally increased B field to focus the beam to a tighter point. This could reduce the amount of wasted electrons that hit the anode and send more through the window. (I'm not sure if this vacuum tube is big enough for the number of windings and length needed, but I could run a quick simulation in Comsol if it seems like an idea worth trying.)

Always love your videos Ben!! Thanks!!💞💞

Superb, as always !

"Eventually, you just run out of atoms..." Pop by my place, I'll let you have a mole or two of whatever you need.

sweet. homebrew quantum physics here we come!

You are officially my favourite KZfaq experimenter.. amazing work.

Ben, great work.

My dad was a physicist who designed field emission systems. In particular, he designed field emitter arrays for several systems. The big machine looked like a locomotive. It used a Marx surge pulse generator to generate high voltage at high current. It was charged at 8.6 kV and discharged at 2.5 MV. The pulse duration was in the 4 nS range. The pulse was directed into a cold cathode tube, which generated the electron beam. The device was used to x-ray bomb blasts in the desert, simulate atomic blasts, and radiation-harden semiconductors. If you were standing beside the unit, not in front, there was enough scattered radiation from one pulse to kill you.

Me, through most of the video: "Stick your finger in it!" Me, at end of video: "awwww". Nice work, as usual, I really enjoy your videos.

This was fun to watch!

Really cool video! Thank you.

Applied Science: "Coolest thing I've seen in a long time" Me: "Most amazing thing I've seen ever"

Can this be used to generate electride salts by just blasting an aqueous solution of some relatively electropositive salt/salts or something of the sort? Could be very useful to obtain an aggressive reductive agent without the need for special precursors.

I think this is the best science channel on KZfaq. The amount of knowledge this guy has is insane

I'd seen that gopro video you mentioned before and was wondering what the dopant in those pieces of calcite were, now I know. Thanks for including that!

Woah! Have you made a cloud chamber yet? Might be an interesting target.

I would really like to see you bend the beam with a magnetic field

Great stuff. Also, glad to see the Andrew Seltzman e-beam videos getting mentioned. Those are just cool.

Practical learning applied science - great teacher.

Film. Put a peace of 35mm film and let see what we can go through with electrons !

"Other than my finger" That hadn't even occurred to me. What would happen if something organic got close to that? Can you try this on like a hot dog or something?

This guy is just pure class.

Nice, i will like more videos about this and the applications., good job man

Soak some meat in a phosphorescent liquid then expose it to the beam to visualise penetration depth.

But how come we know the emitted light is Photon or electron?

crt tv is amazing good job Sir

Amazing Bro! I love your channel!!

The electrons only have 25kev kinetic energy, so the highest charge they can give the acrylic is 25kv. This is not sufficient to cause much (any?) dielectric breakdown.

AS: one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time me: trying my best to understand why it's cool

No way!!! Another thing I’ve always wondered about! You’re the man!

Thank you for this video !

I'm really wondering why they made these square instead of circular (Talking bout the window, not the whole structure), i bet the stress reduction by doing that would make posible to manufacture these even thinner

Things to put in front of the beam other than your finger: Your toe.

Being in lock down, I've probably spent to much time on YT. That being so, I've just 'discovered' your postings. Your range of science knowledge, its explanation and its application is magnificent. you are a polymath! Being a bit weird, I have a utopian dream. 40% Polymath, 30% Farmers, 25% Artisans, 5% Entertainers, and 0.000000000000000000000000000000001% Politicians. Keep up the good work, I now have a favorite YT channel.

WHAT A VERY COOL VIDEO!!!

I've now got a turbo pump in my ebay cart, my wife is gonna murder me

Within a minute club

very very very coooooooooool ! the best science channel ever!

You are an inspiration! Keep at it!

Chased a turbomolecullar vacuum pump for a few years on Ebay.. and it was way beyond my range $$$. it have to be really awesome to have one!! Never the less that is literally awesome video, and it actually expand one's knowledge.. specially about cancer radiation treatment....

I found it very interesting! Thanks for making this video :)

That was really interesting - thanks!

One time I saw a photo in a physics book of a cyclotron or synchrtron just discharging a deuteron beam straight into the air, it's an amazing thing to see a beam itself that's visible in the air.

congratulations!!

Gee... this really brought me into my PhD years. I remember we bought a bunch of those and I was trying to sputter deposit some amorphous material onto them and watch it crystallize in situ in TEM (every time I took them out of the sputterer I found them exploded). I almost was shocked when you mentioned that they can hold vacuum, since I remember how fragile they were (but at least the plasma thing in the beginning of the vid made me calm again). Amazing work, though, Ben! Huge fan of your channel!

Your channel is great, subscribed. It's fun and educational, and that's what I like. Years ago, I found an big old school building, that I wanted to buy and live in. It's 13,000 sq. ft. As I was daydreaming about living there, I wondered how I would heat it. I'm into "alternative" stuff, as it was in those days. I finally realized I needed a small, intense heat source year-round, to run a generator and heat water, so I came up with my own design for a fusion reactor, using a collimated electron beam aimed down the axis of a cylinder. By my "best estimation" (lol) it would take 90% of its output to keep itself going. But I thought, WTH, all I need is some deuterium and tritium. It's probably a good thing I don't have a shop or access to power tools. Keep making awesome videos, thanks.

It makes my smile whenever someone colloquially mentions his TMP :)