Transcript QuarkNet - appleforteacher

QuarkNet
Session 3
Samira
Ali
Na’eemah
Sakeena
The Big Picture
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Cosmic Rays
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Unknown cause
Effect: Showers of
particles
Focus: Muons
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Heavy particles at
high speeds
Detecting muons
 Scintillating
material with
photomultipliers
Atoms
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Structure of Atom
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Nucleus: protons
and neutrons
Electrons in orbitals
 Discrete amounts
of energy
Duality of light
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Particle and wave
behavior
Theories Galore
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Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
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Pauli Exclusion Principle
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Momentum or Location
Pick one
Discrete orbitals for electrons
Schrodinger’s Cat
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Cat: Dead, Alive, or Both
Nuclear Structure of an Atom
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Composed of nucleons
Isotopes-number of neutrons not
constant
Forces
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Strong nuclear
Weak nuclear
Electromagnetism
Gravity
Radiation
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Alpha particle
Beta particle
Gamma Ray
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Most dangerous
Half-lives
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Time it takes for
half of mass to
decay
ex. Carbon-14
Dating
Quarks
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Only exist in pairs or triplets
Have electric charges in units of 1/3 or 2/3’s
Combine to form Hadrons
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Baryons
Mesons
Have 6 flavors: Up, down, charm, strange, top, and
bottom
Up quark: 2/3 charge
Down quark: -1/3 charge
FermiLab
Cosmic Ray Muon Detector
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Destroying and
Rebuilding

Tape, DAQ,
scintillator, PMT,
cables
Plateauing
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Determining at which voltage the
channel performs the best
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Avoid photo-tube noise
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Achieve optimum voltage
Hyperterminal, Microsoft Excel, and
PDU
Errors:
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Recording wrong channel info
Wrong channel set up
Incorrect commands
Plateauing Plots
Performance Study
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Determines if the detectors are
working properly.
Parameters must be tweaked
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Voltage
Axes
Bins
Gate width
Had to redo numerous times
Flux Study
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Studying the rate
of the muons
hitting the detector
within a certain
time.
Does flux depend
on weather, time of
day, location…
Flux Performance Studies
Overnight Flux Studies
Shower Study
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Determines

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The direction of
the cosmic ray
shower
The amount of
time shower
lasts
Shower Study Plot
Lifetime Study
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Determine the half-life of muon
Bigger question
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With small half-life, how does it reach
earth
Theory of Relativity and Time
Dilation.
Weekend Lifetime Study
Weekend Lifetime Study