User:MBanaszak
From MariachiWiki
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HI, I'm Matt. Im a super senior and a Humanities Major, I hope to graduate in January. Im very interested in Physics and the other sciences. I am terrible at Math however and don't do well in most college science classes. I recently read "A Breif History of Time" by Stephen Hawking and a Nikola Tesla Biography. I am a Musician and work in my home studio when I am not in school or doing Schoolwork, I hope to release my first CD before christmas, and shortly thereafter make it available on iTunes. Image:Mypicturefor315.jpg.jpg
QUEEN GUITAR PLAYER GETS A Ph.D. in Astrophysics
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Contents |
SEPT 3.
The first day of class we learned about cosmic rays. Professor Marx demonstrated that more cosmic rays hit people when they are sleeping and have more suface area subject to cosmic rays. We saw cosmic ray's trails in evaporated alcohol and we started calibrating a middle detector based on coincidences in detection with the other two detectors with known efficiency.
SEPT 10.
The beginning of this class started with a couple of Youtube videos about the CERN Collider. We then continued analyzing the efficiency of the middle detector. We determined that a voltage of 5.7 was the most efficient voltage to detect cosmic rays.
SEPT 17
During this class we did several runs with the middle detector in different positions. Using the rate of cosmic ray exposure as a constant we could determine the surface area of the middle detector through the coincidences in detectors one and two. Using the data from several runs, we determined that the rate of cosmic ray detection per area was .0067Hz/cm^2. Image:Http://www-mariachi.physics.sunysb.edu/wiki/images/8/8a/Sept17.jpg.jpg Image:.jpg RATE VS. AREA GRAPH [[[[2]]]]
I am having trouble getting our data onto my wiki page, here is a link to the the other group members for this experiment [[3]]
Brainstorm
The black boxes measure the rate at which cosmic rays pass through them. Using several black boxes it is possible to determine several other facts about what the cosmic rays are doing. With three boxes stacked directly on top of one another, the coincidences detected forall three can help to determine the middle detectors efficiency. When this detectors efficiency is determined, the system is calibrated to determine the rate that cosmic rays contact a certain area of the earth at a given time. The position of the three detectors can be manipulated to determine other data concerning cosmic rays. If the detectors are spaced at different positions, the angle that the cosmic rays are coming through the atmosphere can be determined. The further the detectors are spaced, only the rays that are very close to perpendicular will be detected by all three. Also if the three detectors are stacked together and the angle of the entire stack is manipulated, the rate at which cosmic rays are detected can determine the position of the greatest detection rate and therefore the angle at which the most cosmic rays are entering the atmosohere.
Day 4.
Our Group experimented with the angle at which the detectors are placed to determine several factors about he cosmic rays we detected. One, being that we are are underground while we do our experiments we will be able to determine where large masses of concrete and metal building material block the most rays. Two, we will be able to figure out where the area of highest intensity is.
Title: Angle of incoming rays Goal: Our goal is to determine the rate at which cosmic rays pass through the detectors at various angles. Material: Detectors, computer with necessary hardware, octagonal adjustable positioning device. Procedure: 1)The First two runs will be a one minute and a five minute run with horizontal detectors. 2)Determine the rate at which cosmic rays are detected for both the one and five minute run. 3)Repeat this experiment with the detectors in a vertical position. 4)Looking at the rate of error determine whether the experiment should be done in one or five minute intervals. 5)Repeat this experiment with the detectors in the position of 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 degrees for the time determined in step four.
Data:
Day 5
Today we decided to take another look at the data we collected on day 4. We had collected cosmic ray coincidence rates for 90 degrees. We began by collecting the second 90 degrees. After all the data was collected we graphed it. To our surprise the day 5 measurements looked very different from the day 4 data. Harry Stuckey told us that this could be attributed to a difference in atmospheric pressure. We were also told that the different concentrations of metal and concrete building material would affect the rate of detection of cosmic rays coming through areas dense with concrete. We decided to redo the entire experiment and include all 180 degrees.The graph looked a little more symmetrical however, there was a similarity with the first graph. We attributed this to the building itself blocking much of the cosmic radiation. It would be interesting to retest the angles we used in this experiment and rotate the apparatus to graph the areas of highest cosmic ray detection. This may yield a map of sorts of the area surrounding the room where we were detecting cosmic rays. we could then bring the portable detector outside the building. By precisely arranging the detector in different positions or by using a similar apparatus that spaced two detectors and arranged them in the same angles that would be measured by rotating angles in the first experiment, it may be possible to determine the energy lost by particles as they traveled through the concrete and steel building material which makes up the physics building. If the first experiment were repeated on several different days with different weather conditions, it would also be possible to determine what effects weather have on cosmic ray detection. If a factor such as humidity or barometric pressure or temperature seemed to cause significant differences in detection, we could replicate this experiment on days when many of the atmospheric factors were the same and only one such as temperature was different. This would help us to determine what meteorological factors are responsible for the differences in cosmic ray detection.
Our Data, complete with formulas for error...
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Day 6
We gave our presentation and discussed future experiments. Our presentation went well overall. However We lacked error bars on our graph of the Cosmic ray coincidences per angle. This would have gien the class a better idea of what the cosmic rays may have or may not have been doing relative to what we thought they were doing. On day seven we will experiment with the Z axis. I propose that while we are doing this experiment. In the down time when we are just waiting for the detectors to detect cosmic ray hits, we look at data from all over Long Island. We can look at the dates data was taken and compare the data to Long Island weather data. If we could collect data for many different days when the weather was significantly different it would be possible to establish a connection between cosmic ray detection and weather patterns. This was suggested to us by Professor Marks during our presentation. It would then be interesting to compare data from very rainy parts of the country or word and very dry ones. Or very cold and very hot regions.
During the seventh class we will take data from the Z axis. The experiment will help us determine where certain areas of the building have more building material that is blocking the rays.
Day 7
Day 7
Today we began taking measurements for cosmic ray detection on the Z axis. We determined that an angle on the x axis of 70 degreesand rotated it on the Z axis every 45 degrees. this would give us a good enough idea of where the cosmic rays were coming from and what was affecting them we used small yellow carts that the professor provided for us and approximated the angle of the detectors at 70 degrees. We obtained this data and graphed it with error bars. On Day 8 we will change the position of the apparatus and see what effect this has on our cosmic ray detection and hopefully we will be able to begin to see where the cosmic ray detection rates are the highest and lowest and at what angle their detection is the greatest. Image:400px-Day6graph.JP.jpg
Day 8
Today we took a series of data for the forty five, seventy and ninety degree verticals on the Z axis. Each of these 3 degree positions were rotated around as to detect cosmic rays at 8 different Z axis positions, these 45 degree intervals yielded the data we wish to graph and present in our next presentation. We believe that this data can be presented in a three dimensional graph form. Professor Marks showed us several options If we are unable to create this before the end of class on day 9 we may need to make a physical model from a soccer ball or some other round object.
We would like to present a graph similar to this for our data.
This is the data we took for the x,y and z axis, its in pdf version right now but as soon as i get access to paint I can make it much smaller
Day 9
Today we figured out how we were going to present our presentation. Imran, Chris and Mike worked on the powerpoint, while i tried in vain to make a 3-D graph of our data. We were successful at least with making a 3-D bargraph.
Day10
We finished our presentation and decicided that we would continue our experiments with the octagonal prism. We will move the device slightly as to avoid being directly under the support beam.
![[2]](http://www.mariachi.stonybrook.edu/wiki/images/8/8a/Sept17.jpg){kind=link}
