[HN Gopher] Muons used to test the condition of a road bridge in...
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Muons used to test the condition of a road bridge in Estonia
Author : Fethbita
Score : 107 points
Date : 2025-03-16 12:05 UTC (3 days ago)
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(TXT) w3m dump (news.err.ee)
| schoen wrote:
| I did not know this was a thing!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muon_tomography
| tagami wrote:
| Here is an example used in the mining industry. I heard them
| present at a NASA/USGS conference last month regarding in situ
| resource ultilization: https://ideon.ai/
| aigen000 wrote:
| If I recall correctly, a similar method was used to discover a
| hidden passageway in the Egyptian pyramids.
| superjan wrote:
| This story?
| https://www.jst.go.jp/EN/achievements/research/pdf/mitsuhiro...
| throw-qqqqq wrote:
| You do recall correctly!
|
| https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/giza-pyra...
| dpedu wrote:
| Two voids were discovered - and the one you mentioned has since
| been breached and a camera inserted. I'm avoiding the word
| passageway because the general interpretation is that it seems
| to be an inspection space or stress relief chamber, as it sits
| directly above the "actual" entrance to the pyramid.
|
| Video on the subject:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49870qW9pQ8
|
| The second void is more exciting, in my option. It is much
| larger - it is thought to be of similar size of the Grand
| Gallery, and sits some distance above it.
| rdtsc wrote:
| Neutrons can be used for these things as well. The advantage, say
| from x-rays, is attenuation is not by material density, where all
| metals will just look dark, but by thermal neutron absorption
| cross section. So boron might be dark, but metals won't be.
|
| Muons are much nicer as you don't have to carry a neutron source
| around with you.
|
| > However, if anyone is now thinking of standing under the bridge
| to get their body scanned, they shouldn't bother. First, they'd
| have to stand still for an hour, and second, the security patrol
| would be there within minutes.
|
| Security patrol will come and bother you if you hand around the
| bridge for a few minutes?
| thinkingQueen wrote:
| > Security patrol will come and bother you if you hand around
| the bridge for a few minutes?
|
| There's a land war in Europe. Hundreds of thousands have lost
| their lives during the past few years. There have been cases of
| sabotage against the Baltic states as well as the Nordic
| states. Things are pretty grim there and lurking around basic
| infrastructure pretty much guarantees a talk with the police.
| jldugger wrote:
| Plus Estonia in particular is 200km away from St Petersberg,
| and 800km from Moscow. They are all but guaranteed to succumb
| to Russian expansion if allowed to continue unchecked.
| rdtsc wrote:
| That's certainly a good reason. Thanks for explaining!
| IndrekR wrote:
| Bit more info about the startup behind it: https://www.gscan.eu/
| csours wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Walter_Alvarez
|
| Alvarez proposed muon tomography in 1965 to search the Egyptian
| pyramids for unknown chambers. Using naturally occurring cosmic
| rays, his plan was to place spark chambers, standard equipment in
| the high-energy particle physics of this time, beneath the
| Pyramid of Khafre in a known chamber. By measuring the counting
| rate of the cosmic rays in different directions the detector
| would reveal the existence of any void in the overlaying rock
| structure.[48]
| krzysiek wrote:
| They still do, but they used to too.
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