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Kent Fukuzura, Science Made Simple

National security is all the rage these days it seems. How can you, the amateur scientist help protect the nation? How about monitoring the atmosphere for the long wavelengths created from large explosions from as far away as, say, the Sudan or even Afghanistan?

The science:
Acoustic pressure waves can travel long distances through the atmosphere and are in a frequency range below human hearing. They are called infrasound. Nuclear explosions generate special infrasonic signatures. An array of detectors and a little common sense can tell you the yield and location of any explosion.

What you'll need:
Your detector will be a microbaragraph, which is a microphone meant for low frequencies. Acquire a few old high-capacitance diaphragm gauges (CDG) from father's workshop. They're not very good above 10 Hz anyway, so you can be sure he won't mind them being used for this project. You'll also need a piece of plywood, an old dinner plate, a piece of garden hose and various bits and pieces of wire.

Putting it all together:
Attach three or four CDGs together in front of a piece of tar-paper. This will act as the diaphragm. You can use a glue gun, or rubber bands if you think you may want to use the CDGs for another project some day. Lay down a bull's eye with tin foil and glue on the old dinner plate and place your CDG construction on top of it, making sure there is sufficient capacitance between the electrodes. Remember, you want a dielectric constant of intervening gas, and accuracy in measuring the separation of each electrode from the diaphragm is important!

Mount the components on your piece of plywood and place in an old cooler. The cooler should keep rain out but not be air tight. Attach various wires and things from your microbaragraph to your computer for recording your infrasound. You can use garden hose as a conduit to keep wet weather from shorting out your cables.

It's important to find a good spot for your new instrument. Keep it outdoors, away from the highway, out of the sun and shielded from the wind. Wooded areas are good locations.

If you make three or more of these and set them out in a wide pattern you can create an array that will allow you to make triangulations of any infrasound disturbances you locate. With a compass and a good atlas you'll be able to tell where the nuclear strikes are happening before your friends watching CNN. Good luck!

Kent's Archive of Science

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