Domain of Science | What's The Probability You Have Seen A Neutrino? @domainofscience | Uploaded 2 years ago | Updated June 27 2024
Can you see neutrinos with your eyes? Strangely enough, the answer seems to be yes. Check out the sponsor of this video Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/DOS/
Neutrinos are the least well understood fundamental particle, and the fact that they don’t interact very much doesn’t help us study them. 300 trillion go through your body every second which is why some people call them ‘ghost particles’. But very occasionally they do hit us, and I wondered what would happen if one of them happened to hit us in our eye. Could we see it? So I figured it out with the same physics behind neutrino detectors, and the answer seems to be yes! Although you need a lot of eyes.
--- References ----
[1] Mean free path of neutrinos in water (1.7*10^17m)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Particles/neutrino3.html
[2] Measured neutrino flux from Super-Kamiokande (2.41*10^6 per cm^2 per second for neutrinos in water)
https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ex/9805021
[3] Cherenkov radiation peaks around 420nm (visible)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/cherenkov-radiation#:~:text=Cherenkov%20radiation%20consists%20of%20a,et%20al.%2C%201987).
[4] Human eyes are sensitive to 5-7 photons, down to just 1
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12172
[5] Super Kamiokande paper
https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07538
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--- Special Thanks ---
Special thanks to Virginia Schutte and Kurtis Baute for their helpful advice.
--- My Science Books ----
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--- Follow me around the internet ---
http://dominicwalliman.com
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--- Credits ---
Writer, art, animation and edited by Dominic Walliman
I use Adobe Illustrator and After Effects for the graphics (for the many people who ask :)
Can you see neutrinos with your eyes? Strangely enough, the answer seems to be yes. Check out the sponsor of this video Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/DOS/
Neutrinos are the least well understood fundamental particle, and the fact that they don’t interact very much doesn’t help us study them. 300 trillion go through your body every second which is why some people call them ‘ghost particles’. But very occasionally they do hit us, and I wondered what would happen if one of them happened to hit us in our eye. Could we see it? So I figured it out with the same physics behind neutrino detectors, and the answer seems to be yes! Although you need a lot of eyes.
--- References ----
[1] Mean free path of neutrinos in water (1.7*10^17m)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Particles/neutrino3.html
[2] Measured neutrino flux from Super-Kamiokande (2.41*10^6 per cm^2 per second for neutrinos in water)
https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ex/9805021
[3] Cherenkov radiation peaks around 420nm (visible)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/cherenkov-radiation#:~:text=Cherenkov%20radiation%20consists%20of%20a,et%20al.%2C%201987).
[4] Human eyes are sensitive to 5-7 photons, down to just 1
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12172
[5] Super Kamiokande paper
https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07538
--- Get My Posters Here ----
DFTBA Store: https://store.dftba.com/collections/domain-of-science
RedBubble Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/DominicWalliman
I have also made posters available for personal or educational use which you can find here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/95869671@N08/
-- Some Awesome People ---
And many thanks to my $10 supporters and above on Patreon, you are awesome!
Join the gang and help support me produce free and high quality science content:
https://www.patreon.com/domainofscience
Bob Milano
Raj Duphare
Ben
Anca Selariu
Eric Epstein
Gordon D Collins
Kamil Qbitskey
Mirik Gogri
noggieB
Petr Murmak
Prabhakar R
Reggie Fourmyle
Sandy Toye
Sebastian
Terrence Masson
Theodore Chu
Joshua Rauß
David Renshaw
--- Special Thanks ---
Special thanks to Virginia Schutte and Kurtis Baute for their helpful advice.
--- My Science Books ----
I also write science books for kids called Professor Astro Cat. You can see them all here:
https://store.dftba.com/collections/domain-of-science
http://profastrocat.com
--- Follow me around the internet ---
http://dominicwalliman.com
https://twitter.com/DominicWalliman
https://www.instagram.com/dominicwalliman
--- Credits ---
Writer, art, animation and edited by Dominic Walliman
I use Adobe Illustrator and After Effects for the graphics (for the many people who ask :)
