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by Zillion 2121 days ago
Here is a much simpler detector: A bottle of Corona (or any other beer in a long-necked, clear bottle) makes a workable cloud chamber. Chill well in the freezer, and watch the neck closely as you open it. You may see the streak of a cosmic ray passing through just as the cloud of condensation forms. Of course, as a bonus, it may take more than one try…. It's not an ideal project to do with your teen-aged child—a soda doesn't get cold enough, it has to be a beer. And yes, it really does work.
1 comments

Will need some source for this. This sounds virtually impossible to pull off in practice even if it'd work in theory.
Parts required for particle detector:

Glass container

Alcohol vapor

Super-cold bottom (-26c or colder)

Technically all of the above would be present in a neck of a really cold beer, as it is being opened. But I don't think my fridge can make the beer cold enough. Soda obviously doesn't work because it contains no alcohol vapor. Also soda is solid at -26 c, unable to release vapors whereas beer will still be a liquid (I think probably depends on the beer).

I'm pretty sure I saw beer bottles break in my freezer due to content freezing. Don't know about a corona specifically thought
I managed to freeze a bottle of beer the other week when I put some in the freezer to cool down and forgot about the last one.

Bottle didn't break though the contents were sadly inaccessible - seemed to be an opaque white viscous slurry.