In reply to Jones Beene's message of Fri, 10 Apr 2015 17:45:06 -0700: Hi, [snip] >A sheet of paper makes no difference whatsoever. A sheet of aluminum foil >doesn't make much difference but a nickel coin blocks most of this small >sample. The Gamma Scout is picking up x-rays which are not stopped by paper >(even though alpha particles themselves would be). However, to be fair - a >fair fraction of the counts, at least in minerals, is probably due to >so-called "daughters" some of which emit gammas.
Ok, now try the same experiment with the Americium pellet from a smoke detector. (Much more pure than a mineral sample.) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
