Geiger counter

English

Etymology

Named after Hans Geiger who developed the first such device in 1908 together with Ernest Rutherford.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaɪɡə ˈkaʊntə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaɪɡɚ ˈkaʊntɚ/

Noun

Geiger counter (plural Geiger counters)

1. A device designed to detect radioactivity and measure its intensity.

   Synonym: Geiger-Müller counter

   • 1988, David Halliday, Robert Resnick, Fundamentals of Physics, 3rd edition, page 387:

     Figure 27 shows a Geiger counter, used to detect ionizing radiation. The counter consists of a thin central wire, carrying a positive charge, surrounded by a concentric circular conducting cylinder, carrying an equal negative charge.

2. (by extension, retail) a feature of an RFID reader that emits a sound indicating the signal strength of an RFID tag that is being searched for.
   • 2021 July 15, “10 Facts About the Geiger Counter Functionality, aka RFID Tag Locator”, in atlasRFIDstore‎^[1] (blog), retrieved 23 August 2024:

     Any Geiger Counter feature can direct a user towards an RFID tagged item or at least point the user in the right direction, depending on how far away the RFID tag is.

Translations

device

• Arabic: عَدَّاد غَايْغَر m (ʕaddād ḡayḡar), عَدَّاد جَايْجَر m (ʕaddād gaygar)
• Catalan: comptador Geiger m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蓋革計數器／盖革计数器 (zh) (Gàigé jìshùqì)

• Danish: geigertæller (da) c
• Finnish: geigermittari (fi)
• French: compteur Geiger (fr) m
• German: Geigerzähler (de) m
• Hebrew: מונה גייגר m (moné gáyger)
• Hindi: गाइगर काउन्टर (gāigar kāunṭar)
• Hungarian: Geiger–Müller-számláló (hu)
• Italian: contatore Geiger m
• Japanese: ガイガー計数管 (Gaigā-keisūkan), ガイガーカウンター (Gaigā kauntā)
• Korean: 가이거 계수기 (Gaigeo gyesugi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: geigerteller m

  Nynorsk: geigerteljar m

• Portuguese: contador Geiger m
• Romanian: detector-Geiger
• Russian: счётчик Ге́йгера m (sčótčik Géjgera)
• Spanish: contador Geiger (es) m
• Swedish: geigermätare (sv) c
• Tagalog: pamilang-gayger
• Ukrainian: лічильник Ге́йгера m (ličylʹnyk Héjhera), лічильник Ґе́йґера m (ličylʹnyk Géjgera)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can