Instruments

Cloud Chamber

Citation Formats

General Reference

Science Atlas. "Cloud Chamber." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-science.interactiveatlas.org/instruments/cloud-chamber.

APA Style

Science Atlas. (n.d.). Cloud Chamber. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-science.interactiveatlas.org/instruments/cloud-chamber

BibTeX

@misc{scienceatlas-cloud-chamber,
  author = {Science Atlas},
  title = {Cloud Chamber},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-science.interactiveatlas.org/instruments/cloud-chamber},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The cloud chamber is a sealed container of air saturated with alcohol or water vapor that a charged particle passing through leaves visible as a thin trail of tiny droplets, condensed along the trail of ions the particle knocks loose as it flies past. The Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson built the first working version in 1911 and won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for it; the chamber let physicists photograph the tracks of individual subatomic particles for the first time, and it led directly to Carl Anderson's 1932 discovery of the positron, the first antimatter particle ever found.

Facts

Open Questions

Resolution

Not stated as a numeric figure in the cited source.

No resolution or sensitivity value given for the cloud chamber. Retry without SourceSlug after ambiguous duplicate citation rejection (FactQueueId 832).

Operating Range

Not stated as a numeric figure; the source notes only that the related, denser bubble chamber can reveal the tracks of far more energetic particles than a cloud chamber can.

Implies a relative energy ceiling but gives no number for the cloud chamber itself. Retry without SourceSlug after ambiguous duplicate citation rejection (FactQueueId 833).

Invented Yearthe subject's own account

1911 1

Measuresthe subject's own account

Tracks of ionizing radiation, such as alpha and beta particles. 1

Operating Principlethe subject's own account

A charged particle knocks electrons off gas molecules, leaving a trail of ions; in a supersaturated alcohol vapor environment maintained by a steep temperature gradient, vapor condenses around this ion trail as a visible line of droplets. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Invented By

C. T. R. Wilson

Built the first working cloud chamber in 1911, showing that a charged particle ionizes supersaturated water vapor along its path, and shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for it.

Source Cloud Chamber (Wikipedia)