bubble chamber

noun

, Physics.

1. an apparatus for determining the movements of charged particles, consisting of a chamber containing a superheated transparent liquid that, by boiling and producing bubbles in the path of an ionizing particle, indicates the path of the particle.

bubble chamber

noun

1. a device that enables the tracks of ionizing particles to be photographed as a row of bubbles in a superheated liquid. Immediately before the particles enter the chamber the pressure is reduced so that the ionized particles act as centres for small vapour bubbles

bubble chamber

/ bŭb′əl /

1. A device used to observe the paths of charged subatomic particles. A bubble chamber consists of a container filled with very dense fluid that is close to boiling. The moving particles create tracks of bubbles in the fluid that can be photographed and analyzed. Bubble chambers have been largely supplanted in laboratories by more sensitive particle detectors that do not rely on the human eye.
2. Compare cloud chamber

Word History and Origins

Origin of bubble chamber¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

It was considered to be too racy for the US music market however and replaced with a more psychedelic and colourful image of subatomic particles in a bubble chamber.

From BBC

At the same time, Dr. Levi-Setti developed new techniques to track the paths of particles through space, sometimes using a superheated vessel known as a bubble chamber.

From Washington Post

For three decades, however, his research was limited to the study and discovery of subatomic particles, for which he used a special device known as a hydrogen bubble chamber.

From Washington Post

To observe them you need an instrument as sensitive as a bubble chamber—or a novel.

From Time

Nobel physicist dies Donald Glaser, a Nobel prizewinning physicist and inventor of the bubble chamber used to track elementary particles, died on 28 February, aged 86.

From Nature