Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Does Alpha radiation isotope bonded glass exist? Aka passive heated glass?
I'm looking into building a solar heater for my garage and I'd like to place it on the roof, but I'm worried about snow covering it. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a glass which has an alpha radiation isotope in it that would heat the glass to lightly melt the snow as it comes down. I expect it's made somewhere, just not sure on cost effectiveness.
I understand that the isotope would halflife and degrade over time, but it'd work for several years with some isotopes.
Update:
What I'm looking for is passively heated glass that I can use to melt snow in winter off the top of a solar collector. If snow lands on it, the glass will be slightly heated and slowly melt the snow.
I thought that maybe laminating a dusting of the alpha isotope between two layers of glass would work, somewhat like how they pump argon gas between two layers for house glass panes.
Alpha isotope would be safer if my understanding is correct, which it possibly isn't.
1 Answer
- billrussell42Lv 710 years agoFavorite Answer
"Alpha radiation isotope bonded glass" ??
you are linking 5 words together, and the result is meaningless. Alpha radiation is a stream of helium nuclei. Isotope is a variant on an element with a nucleus with a different number of neutrons, bonded is two things glued together, and glass is glass.
edit: there is no such thing as "alpha isotope" as far as I know. There are alpha particles, a type of radiation, and most all elements have isotopes. But the two words together are meaningless.
.