Blog: Summer of 2008
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Summer of 2008
July 7, 2008
Morning of the 1st Day of the MARIACHI workshop
So we are back again to the MARIACHI workshop. There are some new people from school here, and kids who did this last year as well.
Helio Takai's demo: Intro to Cosmic Rays
Before lunch, Helio Takai gave an intro to cosmic rays. In this power point, we learned that they were discovered in 1921 by Victor Hess. By this time, Rutherford had already experimented and gave his therory on atomic structure. Also during the time, Marie Curie was working with radiation and electroscopes, and discovered that they discharge faster in the presence of radiation. However, there was still discharge when there was no radiation.
There were two therories about where cosmic rays come from. The first was that they came from outerspace, and the second was that they were from inside the Earth. A man named Robert Millikan believed that they came from inside the Earth. However, it was Victor Hess who not only discovered them, but determined that they come from space. Ironically, it was Millikan who gave cosmic rays their name.
We also learned about Carl Anderson, who in 1932 found positive electrons. In 1937, Pierre Auger discovered particle showers using Geiger counters.
Some other information is that cosmic rays can come from 2.5 million light years away. Cosmic rays can be used for Carbon dating and therefore in Carbon-14. However, it does distrubt computers and other things in our everyday lives. The good thing is, these everyday problems, such as with the computer, telephones, ect, are already being taken care of.
The last part stated the fact that cosmic rays are very hard to pin point, particuarlly their origin because of the Earth's magnetosphere. Cosmic rays are being studied everyday in two major places; Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, and in Utah at Telescope Array.
Mr. Gearn's talk
In the afternoon, we went into groups and moved around to different stations. Our first station was with Mr. Gearns. We learned that the scintalators in Cosmic Chris, and this is how the cosmic rays are counted. In Cosmic Chirs, there are two of these, which allows different settings. A shows the amount through one of the detectors, B shows through the other one, and C shows both. These cosmic rays goes through us all the time.
We then did an experiment to see what effects the amounts of cosmic rays at any point.
Trial 1: 9,320- horizontal- 5 min.- basement
Trial 2: 4,702- verticle- 5 min.- basement
Trial 3: 8,302- horizontal- 5 min.- vault
Trial 4: 10,780- horizontal- 5 min.- top floor
Trial 5: 9,923- horizontal- 5 min.- top floor
We found that some cosmic rays come in horizontal, vertical, and others at different angles.
July 8, 2008
Morning
In the morning, Mr. Gearns taught us how to use the Excel program. With this program, there are a lot of things that you can do. You can use it to plot data and make graphs from the information you plotted. Also, it is good to be able to make equations with the information you have in the computer.
After Lunch
After lunch we were given a demo on liquid nitrogen. We started out by talking about science in general, how it is something you do, not something you know. We were also told how we should always be asking questions.
We were then shown an experiment using liquid nitrogen, we learned that is is smoky but also a liquid. It also looks hot because it gives the impression of boiling, but also looks cold because it makes condensation on the glass. The last thing is that the smoke goes down, not up.
A rose was put into the liquid. When it was taken out, it looked as if it had froze. It also had lost it's smell and was brittle. However, we learned that the change was reversible. When the flower was crushed, it sounded as if it was glass that was broken. The metal that was dipped into the nitrogen did not change and there was no sound. We also learned that you can make bags and film containers explode.
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Time
After the demo with liquid nitrogen we went our groups and from the day before and went to work with Subodh and learned about clock synchronization. When people were starting to really pay attention to time and were trying to get somewhat accurate, the most advanced thing that they had was sundials. However, these were very slow in nature and not at all accurate. They also do not have seconds or anything smaller, which makes it very hard to use the sundial for measurements. The next big advancement was the big clock in the UK. How ever, this was to big to use in experiments. Scientists needed something smaller. Desk clocks and wrist watches were the next best thing. However, the accuracy was still limited. The stop watch was next. After that was the atomic clock, and was said to be the best. The only problem was it was so big. After it was sized down, it was the perfect device for time.
Gillian Winters
After the work with Subodh we went to learn from Gillian Winters. In this part we took two cosmic rays and changed the angle that they were. We did two trial for each angle. The results look like this.
Trial 1:
0 degrees, 1 min.- detector 1: 1,663, detector 2: 1,683, coincidence rate: 168
Trial 2:
0 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,705, det 2: 1,556, cr: 170
Trial 3:
90 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,689, det 2: 1,819, cr: 210
Trial 4:
90 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,566, det 2: 1,801, cr: 207
Trial 5:
180 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,628, det 2: 1,875, cr: 191
Trial 6:
180 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,966, det 2: 1,710, cr: 225
Trial 7:
270 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,703, det 2: 1,939, cr: 185
Trial 8:
270 degrees, 1 min.- det 1: 1,719, det 2: 2,037, cr: 196
The last thing we did on Tuesday was work with an antenna. After learning a little about the way they work, we were able to do an experiment. The graphs and data turned out like this.
 Graph 1 |
 Graph 2 |
 Graph 3 |
 Graph 4 |
 Graph 5 |
 Graph 6 |
 Notes for Antenna |
July 9, 2008
In the morning, we learned about analyzing data with Gillian Winters. We worked individually to try to find out information about a solar flare that occurred in late April of 2008. In this we used Excel to graph data that was collected from five schools. Smithtown, Shoreham, Suffolk, Bayshore, and Sachem all gave data for the cosmic rays. We learned how to find a trend and then the residual count rate using just one school, and then also by combining all five schools. We got two graphS for each school.
 Bayshore |
 Bayshore |
 Sachem |
 Sachem |
 Shoreham |
 Shoreham |
 Smithtown |
 Smithtown |
 Suffolk |
 Suffolk |
We did this for just about the entire day.
July 10, 2008
In the morning, we went right back to working with Jillian Winters and data analysis. We graphed all of the schools again, only this time we added all of the residuals of the schools and got the total residual. We then graphed total residual data verse time and date. We came up with the conclusion that there was a possible solar flare by looking on the graph.
Before lunch
We had a video conference with Dave Meisel who was at SUNY-Geneseo. He talked about meteors. There are 3 different Societies that he told us about. These three are TV Meteor Project of American Meteor Society, Radiometer Project of American Meteor Society, and UHF Precision Meteor Observations from Kiruna Sweden - Swedish Space Institute and EISCAT. Theses are set up to observe meteors.
First we were shown pictures of meteor showers. The first one was taken out in the desert. The trial that you can see was extremely bright and looked great. There was also a very faint line that came from the same origin as the very clear trial. The next picture had tons of trails. It was taken from inside a plane and was actually taken from a video camera. Even though there was so many trails in the picture, you were able to track them all back to one original meteor. The third picture was a picture of a fireball. It was extremely bright. These three pictures were used through a television camera.
Next we went through the radio process of detecting and recording meteors. The first slide was a graph for August 12, 1993. It was during the Perseids shower. The next slide was after the peak of the shower on August 30, 1993. The magnitude was and unmber was about the same as on the main day. The next one was a graph that showed a huge number of UTC-hour on August 12, 1993. The fourth showed a very difference graph for hourly on August 30, 2008. The numbers showed that there really was a difference in the amount of meteors. This is an example on why an hourly graph should be used. In order to determine whether these are cosmic rays or not we can use duration time. The 5th slide showed the duration for August 12, 1993, and showed how long each meteor lasted. The next one showed the Log 10 durations, which showed the longest meteors. It was determined that there was no cosmic rays in the information on the graph.
The next pictures we saw were of the Ice Cap radar in Sweden. It is used to detect meteors and also record and obtain data of meteors. The next slide showed graphs of the meteors. This includes the meteors inclination, semi-major axis, and the eccentricity. We also learned that comets look like meteors but are in fact different because of the area in which they are. Comets move outside of our atmosphere, while meteors are inside it.
Through out the week
Through out the week we have been working on a book about cosmic rays. This book has two parts to it. One is the fiction part, and the other is the non-fiction. The group that I am in is a group of five and we have the fiction part of the book. The main characters in the book are two step cousins twice removed, three times put back in. Their names are Cosmic Chris and Cosmic Caitie, and they have a dog named Cosmo. There good friend Helio is a scientist trying to discover cosmic rays. The only problem is there have never entered the Earth's atmosphere. Helio's so-called friend Arjuna is also a scientist who is deathly afraid of lightning. Follow the link under the word fiction to find out what happens.
July 11, 2008
Summary of the week
So this week has been fun. We learned more about cosmic rays and meteors and "things"(Thanks Akshay) like that. From making liquid nitrogen ice cream to making a t-shirt and being a DK, it was good. I hope to be able to do this again next year...It should be fun.
July 14, 2008- July 18, 2008
QuartNet week
Through out the week I worked on my research paper and further developed what I was going to do for my procedure in finding out how a way to count the number of times lightning strikes during a storm. I also worked on the lightning detector Helio brought over from Brookhaven National Lab.
Monday
On Monday I worked on the back round information of cosmic rays, lightning, meteors, and micrometeorites for the research paper. I went more in depth into the types of cosmic rays and lightning, and was really able to understand everything because of the MARIACHI program that I took last week.
Tuesday and Wednesday
On Tuesday and Wednesday I continued to work on the research paper. I was also able to start working on a Boltek lightning detector that Helio Takai brought to Stony Brook University from Brookhaven National Lab.
Thursday and Friday
On Thursday we had a picnic in the front of the physics building. Everyone brought in one or two things. We were able to pick from a list that was posted.
