Cherenkov Discovers the Cherenkov Effect

Article abstract: Cherenkov undertook a detailed study of the properties of the faint blue light emitted by charged particles moving through a material faster than the speed of light in that material.

Summary of Event

In the early twentieth century, many scientists noticed that transparent materials placed near intense radioactive sources emitted a very faint blue light. Pierre Curie, codiscoverer of the radioactive element radium, is recorded by his biographers to have fascinated dinner guests by producing from his pocket a tube of radium salt which...

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