Cosmic Rays

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Cosmic Rays

• By Philip, Mr. Hong, Kevin, Amanda, Conor, Colin

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Table of Contents

• Question
• Hypothesis
• Materials
• Environmental Conditions
• Measurements
• Calculations
• Error
• Procedure
• Graphs and Data
• Conclusion

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Question?

• What is the effect of sugar water, hot water, and
  Jell-O on the detection of cosmic rays?

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Hypothesis

• The most dense of the three materials, Jell-O,
  will decrease the number of counts the most.

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Materials

• Tap water
• Sugar
• Two chairs
• Electrical outlet
• Cosmic ray detector
• Cosmic rays
• Computers (Microsoft word/ Microsoft excel/
  Microsoft PowerPoint)

• Thermometer, barometer, psycrometer
• Scale

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Environmental Conditions

• Temperature-23.8 Celsius
• Atmospheric Pressure-29.85 inch/Hg
• Relative Humidity 71.45
• Weather-Cloudy, Slight Drizzle
• Location-MSU NSCL Atrium
• Experiment performed 8/3/06 at 900 a.m. ending
  at 1200 p.m.

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Measurements
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Calculation of Error Bars

• Control
• (?921)/921
• 30.3/921
• .0329
• 3.3

Jello (? 883.5)/883.5 29.7/883.5 .0336 3.36
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Systematic Error

• Calibration of Cosmic Ray Detector
• Leakage of Fish Tank
• Background radiation
• Gaps between Jell-O
• Variation of Water Temperature
• Variation of Pressure

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Our Mentor
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Procedure

• Place 2 chairs 55cm apart for tank support
• Place cosmic ray detector between the chairs
  under the tank
• Measure environmental data (Pressure,
  Temperature, Humidity, time)
• Take baseline measurement (under tank with cosmic
  ray detector on infinite and coincidence)
• Record counts for baseline in 15 minutes for
  data (infinite coincidence) for two trials
• Fill tank with 15.75L of hot tap water
• Record counts in data table (infinite
  coincidence for 15 minutes) for two trials
• Add 400g of C6H12O6
• Record counts in data table (infinite
  coincidence for 15 minutes) for two trials
• Empty tank and add 10.5L of Jell-O
• Record counts in data table (infinite
  coincidence for 15 minutes) for two trials
• Empty tank and make final calculations

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Data
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Results

• No significant difference in the number of counts
  among Jell-O, Hot Water, and Sugar Water
• Little to no difference between control and
  shielding materials

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Graph
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Discussion

• Hypothesis was incorrect, Jell-O did not provide
  the best protection
• Substances with different molecular structures
  but similar densities may not provide differences
  in shielding
• We needed to increase the kinetic energy of the
  water to dissolve the maximum amount of sugar
  which may have skewed our data
• Amount of materials may have prevented
  significant interaction with cosmic rays

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