Alcohol on the plane? Sure!

Last year, our Tyap-Lyap team assembled an iPhone device that measures radiation background. I was instructed to be a Do-Ra-background tester in the conditions of the Alps and Aeroflot.
In the Alps, dora-von did not find any radiation crime at altitudes up to 2000 meters, but on the plane I intended such that I understood the subconscious tendency of Russians to get drunk in flight.

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In simple terms, the essence of radioactivity lies in the natural instability of the nuclei of atoms of a number of elements, leading them to decay. At the same time, Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation are released.
Alpha radiation has a minimum penetrating power, but high energy. Mileage, penetration of several mm. Hiding from him behind a thick burqa.
Beta radiation has less energy than alpha radiation, penetrates 10-20 cm. We hide from it behind a concrete wall.
Gamma radiation has less energy than alpha and beta radiation. But penetrating power is several orders of magnitude higher and amounts to 200 m. It is useless to hide. Gamma quanta and catch all the well-known household dosimeters.

The measure of the biological effect of radioactive radiation on the human body was measured in X-rays (R), now suddenly in Sievert (Sv).
For greater convenience, the radiation level in our device is measured in microsievert per hour (μSv / hour). Prehistoric microroentgenes are used only by those who remember the October Revolution.

The introduction is finished, from here read to everyone

I turned on the iPhone, docked the Do-Ra into an audio jack, and boarded the plane.
At the start at Chambery Airport, the natural background radiation was 0.10 µSv / h.
At an altitude of 3000 meters, the background radiation ranged from 0.15-0.18 μSv / h. I have taken off my shoes. I have clean socks.
At an altitude of 6000 meters, the background radiation level was in the range of 0.30-0.34 μSv / h. I glanced approvingly at the legs of the stewardess.
At an altitude of 8800 meters, the background radiation level was already 0.72-0.76 μSv / h. I covered myself later.
At an altitude of 10,100 meters, the background radiation level rose to 1.02-1.12 μSv / h. I got worried and shod my shoes. The Russians around were quietly drinking.
Finally, at the maximum altitude of our route of 10700 meters, the background reached 1.22-1.35 μSv / h. Having turned pale, I ordered a bottle of red wine and I remember vaguely everything further. But the numbers in the notebook are still sober.



A day later, I rechecked the measurements I made while flying to Minsk. The flight was 1 hour 15 minutes, but at an altitude of about 10,000 meters (there are, unfortunately, no navigators on internal lines inside the cabin) DO-RA measurements showed an even higher radiation background. Its peak was 1.66-1.75 μSv / h.

During the period of flights, the dose of radiation to my body was about 4 μSv. This is too little to worry, because if we take the permissible radiation dose for the population - 1 mSv = 1000 μSv (on average, but not more than 5 mSv per year, NRB-99), then in Moscow we get no more than 0.8 mSv per year . Against this background, an increase of 0.004 mSv is hardly noticeable.

conclusions

However, I recommend that frequent flyer insurance programmers fly to California with red French wine to thin out the free radicals that permanently form in the blood.

Route monitoring must be built into the Do-Ra program and, in addition to GPS coordinates, bind the height of the user above sea level to events.