Flux and Velocity Lab

From MariachiWiki

Contents 1 Objective 2 Setup 3 Procedure 4 Results 5 Notes

Objective

To find the flux and velocity of cosmic rays using the distance between two scintillators

Setup

• A scintillator is attached to the ceiling of the NSL

• A second scintillator is fixed in a groove, and is able to move up and down using a counterweight

• Both scintillators are connected to the oscilloscope

• Both scintillators are then connected to the computer

Procedure

• Measure the distance between the scintillators
• Using the computer, find the average coincidence rate over three sixty second trials
• Using the oscilloscope, find the relative time difference between the electrical peaks from the scintillators
• Increase the distance between the two scintillators, and repeat the procedure until the second scintillator reaches the floor

Results

The experiment showed that:

• There is a correlation between distance and time
  • The bigger the distance between the scintillators, the bigger the time it takes for cosmic rays to travel through
  • Velocity of cosmic rays can be found using this data.

• There is a correlation between the coincidence rate and the distance of the scintillators to each other.
• The larger the distance between the scintillators, the lower the coincidence rate

Notes

• The error bars account for
  • The inaccuracy of the oscilloscope of finding the time difference between the peaks (Distance vs. Time graph)
  • The cosmic ray coincidence may fluxuate.
• The time used in this experiment is nanoseconds
• The distance used in this experiment is centimeters