Tape X-rays

[aramis]

Tape in Vacuum is away to make X-rays!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_sc/sci_scotch_tape_surprise

 

[Andrew Boulton]

That's...bizarre!

 

[aramis]

Sure is, but it gives us a way to explain the prevalence of rolls of tape IMTU.... vacum weld inspection, anyone? :devil:

 

[Icosahedron]

Ok, so who's gonna be the first to convert a supermarket labelling gun into an X-ray laser pistol?

 

[coliver988]

except that it would only fire in a vacuum and with the temp barely above absolute zero...

 

[Spinward Scout]

Ok, they had to be drunk or something when they decided to do this. Why on earth would someone suddenly say: 'Hey! I've got an idea! Let's go peel some tape in the vacuum chamber and see what happens!'

o:

 

[coliver988]

Ok, they had to be drunk or something when they decided to do this. Why on earth would someone suddenly say: 'Hey! I've got an idea! Let's go peel some tape in the vacuum chamber and see what happens!'

o:

Probably the best experiments that turn out the most unexpected results are due to drunk scientists

Of course, a lot of those may be the 'publish AND perish' rather than the 'publish or perish' type of thing...

 

[Horatius]

Lets see...
A long weekend, an ethanol still, a vacuum chamber, a roll of tape and no social life. Sounds like a party to me.

 

[fiat_knox]

They probably worked out the excitement energies of electrons in the molecules of glue that were broken or otherwise separated as a result of the tape being mechanically forced apart, and realised that they were looking at energy discharges in the keV ranges - the X-ray domain of the EM spectrum.

Well, if I'd had the calculations to hand I probably would ...