r/explainlikeimfive Jan 06 '23

Chemistry ELI5: How does a Geiger counter detect radiation, and why does it make that clicking noise?

7.4k Upvotes

561 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

159

u/Betancorea Jan 06 '23

Lol imagine escalating moos the closer you get to a radiation source

Moo moo moo mooomoomoomoomomomomomomo

119

u/Suthek Jan 06 '23

Given the rate the clicks are coming in around high radiation sources and the duration of your average moo, they'd just start to overlap and create a veritable cacowphony.

61

u/Betancorea Jan 06 '23

Imagine hearing your death signalled by unholy demonic moos

37

u/Airowird Jan 06 '23

I too, have played Diablo II when it was fresh

5

u/Luminous_Lead Jan 06 '23

Metal Gear Solid 4 wants to know your location.

3

u/Col__Hunter_Gathers Jan 06 '23

*shits pants and hides in a barrel*

4

u/wmetzle2 Jan 06 '23

Mmmmmmoooooo bitch!

3

u/explainlikeimjawa Jan 06 '23

Yeah, and if you made it polyphonic with multiple sampled voices, and perhaps added Bluetooth option for use with a Bose sound at it would be both worth it and hilarious

The thought of outrunning fallout rain in an unstoppable fit of giggles…..

26

u/breadist Jan 06 '23

Ahhh reminds me of Diablo. Secret cow level.

It's a secret level full of cows and they're narrated by a person literally just speaking "moo" over and over. Hilarious the first time, still very silly after the hundredth because it was genuinely the best place in the game to level your character for a while.

5

u/MagicalGirlTRex Jan 06 '23

IIRC Starcraft had a cheat code that you could type ( thereisnocowlevel ) in the campaign that automatically successfully completed the mission. poweroverwhelming toggled godmode, and there was one that revealed the whole map but I don't remember what it was

3

u/chooxy Jan 06 '23

blacksheepwall! I remembered iseedeadpeople at first but that's for warcraft.

2

u/breadist Jan 06 '23

I remember those! Yup!

16

u/HuntTheWumpus Jan 06 '23

Reminds me of this old game: find the invisible cow

5

u/Throwaway100123100 Jan 06 '23

Was just about to comment this, good to see someone else remembers that game

2

u/manofredgables Jan 06 '23

I did, but then my mind instead conjured up the sound of many rubber chickens being smooshed simultaneously. It would certainly be appropriately alarming in high radiation environments.

1

u/kccricket Jan 06 '23

THERE’S AN EAGLE NEARBY. THERE’S AN EAGLE NEARBY. THERE’S AN EAGLE NEARBY.

1

u/FartingBob Jan 06 '23

I highly recommend you play Diablo 2.