A strange request for smoke (box, sound, buy, device)

[ocpaul20]

As strange as this might sound, I want to fill a perspex box with smoke, seal it up with tape, and keep it swirling around forever. Is that possible? Unfortunately I cannot say what I need it for apart from, its for an idea I have.

IIRC, when I looked at Brownian Motion when I was a kid, there was a small tube filled with smoke. You looked at this tube through a microscope. The smoke particles whizzed about bouncing off each other. There was never a need to shake it to get it moving as far as I can remember.

I am assuming some smoke just keeps swirling around and does not settle to the bottom of the container, so what smoke should I be looking for and what should I do to get it in the box?

I know you can get smoke machines, but I dont think these are really using smoke and probably emit white non-toxic particles which eventually fall onto the ground and disappear from the air.

Does anyone have any suggestions how I would do this please?

[SD4020]

To answer the first question. It would not be possible. Eventually the smoke particles would settle out. In a weightless environment it would be theoretically possible. However, gravity would do its thing.

With looking at the particles under a microscope I would guess that the movement of the tube would create enough movement to cause the particles of smoke to move about.

[grampaTom]

I agree with SD4020 about it not working.

In answer to your question of getting the smoke into the box just use a device like beekeepers do for smoking a hive. Just burn a bit of crumpled up paper for the smoke.

OR buy a cigar, puff and blow until you have the desired amount of smoke in the box.

[ocpaul20]

Thanks for your input guys. So basically, each time I need to use this, I need to re-smoke it? Presumably some smoke particles are larger than others so I need the smallest smoke particles for them to last the longest before they settle out onto the sides of the box. Is there an alternative to smoke, because I need something white and swirly inside the box?

[JBrown]

Search net for instructions on how to make a small / demo cloud chamber. Basically it's a glass enclosure. warmed up and the inside surface wipe down with alcohol. The whole thing is set on a block of dry ice. The super saturated air inside forms a cloud which due to thermal differences swirls around the container. We did it as an experiment in 9th grade science class


I just checked Utube...lots of examples....

[rjshae]

To stay permanently suspended in a liquid, particles need to be a micrometer or smaller. For gas suspension, you'll need to use nanoparticles. But these can be unhealthy if inhaled.