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Smoke alarms

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sabrinah | 10:01 Mon 12th Mar 2001 | How it Works
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How do smoke alarms detect smoke?
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There is a small radioactive component within the detector. When smoke passes throught the radioactive field, the flow of the radiation is interrupted (sort of like a rock in a stream). The detector detects the change in the radiation, not the smoke itself. I believe there is actually a warning on the detector about radiation.
There's an indepth article on smoke alarms in this weeks How it works section.

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