An Experiment With A Muon Detector?

[DivineNathicana]

I'm participating in my highschool's Intel Science Research program, and need to come up with a price-worthy but not-too-difficult experiment (although I am wiling to learn if I have a good-enough idea0. My school just happens to have a muon detector!

 

How difficult is it to use?

 

And most importantly, what totally awesome research/experiments can I do with it to earn my way to a nice scholarship?

 

Thanks for all of your help!

 

- Alisa

[Bo]

as a theoretical physicist i have no idea how to use a muon detector, but i could think of some nice experiments you could do

 

However there is 1 problem, to use a muon detector, you need muons, which are not easy to get

 

- If your school has some way of creating muons (and i think there is no natural decay to muons (but i'm not sure!), so you need some sort of accelarator...); and if they also have an electron source+detector, you could try to calculate the stopping power of electrons and muons and see the difference (which i am quite sure there is).

 

If your school doesn't have a source, then the best way to get muons is to look at the sky.

The classic (but very interesting, and not that easy) experiment is to calculate the relativistic time delay of cosmic ray muons. The main idea is that muons are created at a certain distance in the atmosphere, but since muons decay quite fast, classicly they could never make it to the earths surface. however they do reach us; this is because the muons are moving quite fast and (special)relativity tells us that the muon clock is moving slower, and thus they decay less fast then they would be at rest.

lots of information about this experiment on the web:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=cosmic+ray++muons+time+delay&btnG=Search

 

Bo

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: Bo

since muons decay quite fast, classicly they could never make it to the earths surface. however they do reach us; this is because the muons are moving quite fast and (special)relativity tells us that the muon clock is moving slower,

... in relationship to....

 

Perhaps this qualifier was missing from your explanation?

and thus they decay less fast then they would be at rest.

Would they not be decaying at the same rate at all times? Are we not discussing the decay rate RELATIVE to another particle or mass (such as the Earth) which is moving at a different rate?

 

It would seem that what you are saying is that the muon can reach Earth before decaying because of the RELATIVE difference in velocity between the two giving each different RELATIVE time?

[DivineNathicana]

Nah, I get what Bo's saying - since the muons are traveling at a sufficient fraction of c, their persnal time, and thus their decay, is delayed. That's very cool.

 

But would that qualify as an experiment? It's already known what the results are and why, and someone already thought of it. Any ideas to nudge me in the direction of developing something new? I have plenty of time, by the way. No less than two years, if not more.

 

- Alisa