🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec19.010211.22175@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> prasanth@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Ravi K. Prasanth) writes:
>In article <1gq9h0INN7ld@bigboote.WPI.EDU>, gandalf@wpi.WPI.EDU (James Michael Sambrook) writes:
>> 			
>> to that of the speed of light in the medium of the core (assume it to be air:
>> c about= 3E+8 m/s)  As the electrons pass through the boundary of the core, and
>> enter the moderator (assume water) the electrons are moving FASTER THAN THE
>> SPEED OF LIGHT IN WATER!  This is allowed, believe it or not, and the result is
>> a really nice blue glow around the core.
>>
>
>I have difficulty believing it. Since electrons have non-zero

Believe it.  The radiation is called "Cherenkov radiation", and is well
known experimentally.  Note that the speed of light in a material medium
is less than, and in the instance of water, substantially less than, the
speed of light in vacuo.

>rest mass, their motion in any medium at the speed of light 
>should (may) produce enough heat to locally ionize the medium.
The electrons ionize the medium by virtue of their charges.
>Wouldnt the electrons be lost in recombination ? The other

Eventually, but many collisions are required.  We are talking about keV or
MeV electrons;  ionization energies are of the order of eV's.