Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is my dryer radioactive?

physics.stackexchange.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 170 posts

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#41

Post by kloch »

BetterGeiger wrote: post #33

I think the core of the explanation given is correct but some of the adjacent details need adjustment. The important part is: "Clothes dryers are very effective at making statically charged surfaces. (Dryer sheets help.) So when radon and its temporary decay products are blown through the dryer, electrically-polarized molecules tend to be attracted to the charged surfaces" What that commenter misses is that nearly al…

> but they are highly sensitive to beta

I’m not familiar with Geiger counter design/specs but would the considerable static electricity send some electrons into the detector and cause a false positive beta hit?

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#42

Post by Jun8 »

kzrdude wrote: post #39
kzrdude wrote: post #9

I haven't read much on physics before. My favourite thing to do on these stack overflow sites (or on specific tags) is to go to Questions -> sort by score, and just read through the top questions and answers. It's a bit hidden away because they want to steer people to the active questions, not to established ones.

I'll just make a note of a few good ones.. https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/121830/does-eart... There is no tidal bulge

The tidal bulge one is one my all time favorites, you should absolutely read the answer. tl;dr the simplistic view of two tidal bulges (that started with Newton) is wrong! This is one of those physics simplifications that still gets pushed around. For another example, see speed of light in glass is slower than vacuum.

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#43

Post by robmiller »

cwmma wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the story about how Radon was discovered (well the fact that it can accumulate in homes). The story goes that a worker at a nuclear power plant kept on setting off the detectors when coming in to work and eventually they investigated his house.

The nuclear power plant had built the homes to house workers in the early 1980s and to an early form of Energy Star compliance, with an emphasis on being air-tight. Radon was trapped in these homes, workers set off the alarms, and the radon mitigation industry was born.

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#44

Post by BetterGeiger »

kloch wrote: post #41
BetterGeiger wrote: post #33

I think the core of the explanation given is correct but some of the adjacent details need adjustment. The important part is: "Clothes dryers are very effective at making statically charged surfaces. (Dryer sheets help.) So when radon and its temporary decay products are blown through the dryer, electrically-polarized molecules tend to be attracted to the charged surfaces" What that commenter misses is that nearly al…

> but they are highly sensitive to beta I’m not familiar with Geiger counter design/specs but would the considerable static electricity send some electrons into the detector and cause a false positive beta hit?

Beta particles are basically energetic electrons flying around, yes, but for a Geiger counter to detect them they have to be quite energetic in order to penetrate the Geiger tube itself (detection occurs essentially inside the tube, in the gas)... So I doubt that static field is generating electrons anywhere near that energy needed to be detected by a Geiger tube.

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#45

Post by NotYourLawyer »

geoduck14 wrote: post #40
dmicah wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be an issue everywhere, Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking.

I'm in the middle of moving from Texas to New England. In Texas, Radon is such a "not a problem", that I've never considered it before our move. In New England, our basement tested above the "safe" limit (iirc, 4 somethings), so we are having a venterlator installed for ~$1.4k. In the south, Radon "can" be an issue, but it simply isn't an issue. In New England, it is often an issue.

Nobody in Texas has basements.

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#46

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

geoduck14 wrote: post #40
dmicah wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be an issue everywhere, Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking.

I'm in the middle of moving from Texas to New England. In Texas, Radon is such a "not a problem", that I've never considered it before our move. In New England, our basement tested above the "safe" limit (iirc, 4 somethings), so we are having a venterlator installed for ~$1.4k. In the south, Radon "can" be an issue, but it simply isn't an issue. In New England, it is often an issue.

Heavy metals in the nearby earth are the obvious parameter here--you need something to decay into radon for there to be radon.

But I think another factor has to do with the water table. In some places the water table rises high enough to flood basements, so you don't usually have basements at all in those places, and subsequently you don't have large reservoirs of radon adjacent to living spaces. I know of some people here in CO (where we have decaying granite in the soil) that don't have a basement and still need a radon ventilator, but it's not very common.

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#47

Post by bobthepanda »

skybrian wrote: post #30
ck2 wrote: post #13

Florida is about to build some test roads using phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product of the fertilizer industry that has been piling up and they want to unload. It contains high quantities of radium which decays into radon, this should end well. > "Phosphogypsum contains appreciable quantities of uranium and its decay products, such as radium-226," according to the EPA. And because the fertilizer production pro…

It’s outside though, so the radon wouldn’t normally accumulate unless something weird happens. Seems like this is the sort of thing you’d want experts to look at.

It is a road, though, and we know all sorts of things already accumulate via stormwater runoff.

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#48

Post by morkalork »

tpmx wrote: post #29
dylan604 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope that at some place like Los Alamos the technicians are a little more qualified than your run of the mill techs.

I suppose the downside of all that secrecy is balanced with the upside of having lots of competent and smart colleagues. In my experience that is worth even more than a very high salary for your quality of life. (That 1958 article morkalork dug up and presented below, seems historically interesting at least. Thanks for making an effort to show it.)

You might lose your mind a bit if you're surrounded by them 247 though.

>Although the town is trim and neat, With cozy houses on every street, Though saying so is indiscreet,

>I hate it.

From: https://web.archive.org/web/20201126185123/https://archive.m...

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#49

Post by belter »

kzrdude wrote: post #39
kzrdude wrote: post #9

I haven't read much on physics before. My favourite thing to do on these stack overflow sites (or on specific tags) is to go to Questions -> sort by score, and just read through the top questions and answers. It's a bit hidden away because they want to steer people to the active questions, not to established ones.

I'll just make a note of a few good ones.. https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/121830/does-eart... There is no tidal bulge

GPT-4 get's this wrong...There is still hope for humans...

Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?

#50

Post by Eumenes »

dylan604 wrote: post #20
tpmx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: That competence (the radiation safety technician).

I would hope that at some place like Los Alamos the technicians are a little more qualified than your run of the mill techs.

National labs have alot of smart people, but alot of paper pushers too
Post reply on HN