A Geiger–Müller counter, also called a Geiger counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. It detects the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays by the ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a Geiger–Müller tube, which gives its name to the instrument.
The original operating principle was discovered in 1908, and since the subsequent development of the Geiger-Müller tube in 1928 the Geiger Müller counter has been a popular instrument for use in radiation dosimetry, health physics, experimental physics, the nuclear industry, geological exploration and other fields, due to their robust sensing element and their relatively low cost. However there are limitations in measuring high radiation rates and in measuring the energy of incident radiation.
The Geiger counter, in wide and prominent use as a hand-held radiation survey instrument, is perhaps society's best-known radiation instrument.
Read more about Geiger Counter: Principle of Operation, History
Famous quotes containing the word counter:
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)