Inside particle detectors: trackers

Fermilab physicist Jim Pivarski explains how particle detectors tell us about the smallest constituents of matter. Much of the complexity of particle physics experiments can be boiled down to two basic types of detectors: trackers and calorimeters. They each have strengths and weaknesses, and most modern experiments use both.  The first tracker started out as an experiment to study clouds, not particles. In the early 1900s, Charles Wilson built an enclosed sphere of moist air to study cloud for...