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Kelly Floresta

Hi, my name is Kelly Floresta and I am a freshman here at Stony Brook. I am a commuter and have lived in Commack NY all my life. Technically my major is undeclared but I am probably going to be pre-med. I like bowling, skiing, swimming,volleyball, horseback riding, flying etc. In highschool I was able to take some free flying classes with Wilson Tech and experience actually flying a plane. It was a lot of fun and I hope to someday continue with lessons but at this point they are just too expensive. I am also a born again Christian and hope to be an example of Christ's love; I attend Cleft of the Rock Chapel. I have three older brothers, and when I'm not busy I like to hangout with them and my friends. I have never worked in a lab until recently when I worked on a WISE rotation. We infected some cells with viruses and GFP and then looked at them through a microscope. The external link is to the website of one of my friend's bands. And the picture is of me and my dog Chloe.

http://www-mariachi.physics.sunysb.edu/wiki/index.php/2007WISE187SESSIONII

Contents 1 Journal 2 Journal 2 3 Journal 3 4 Journal 4 5 Journal 5 6 Journal 6 7 Journal 7 8 Final Thoughts

Journal

February 26 2007

In the first class we were introduced to cosmic rays. We learned what they are and how we can detect and count them by using equipment like a cloud chamber and a scintillator detector. It was really cool to actually be able to see them in the loud chamber; it is one thing to just be told that they are all around us but it really comes to life when you can physically see them. We also tested out the scintillator detector which was a bit confusing, but hopefully we will become more comfortable with it as time goes on.

Journal 2

In this class we all got to experience how to use the scintillators. It was cool figuring out how to connect each channel to the amplifier and the descriminator. At first we didn't know what to do but in the end through trial and error we learned how to operate everything. We counted both channels as well as the coincidences and dicovered that there was a big difference in the number that goes through both as opposed to the number that goes through the single ones.The reason may be because cosmic rays can come into the scintillator at angles. Therefore if it does come in at an angle it may only go through one counter. Even though this sounds plausible I would like to discover the real answer somewhere in the future. The following is a plot chart of the number of cosmic rays that went through the scintillators.

Journal 3

So last class we got to experience using the scintillators again. It is cool learning how to hook all the equipment up, especially since I was clueless when I first looked at it. We are also learning about excel and how to transfer data from one file to another. The main purpose was to test the efficiency of the counters. We took several counts of scintillators one and two and then moved on to all three counters. We used this cool computer program that calulated everything for us like the rate as well as the percent of efficiency. Then we exported the data to excel. I think it is really helpful to know how to use technology like this because it saves a lot of time, so hopefully by the end of this class I will have learned how to operate all these programs.

Journal 4

It was our fourth session yesterday and since we now know the basics about cosmic rays and scintillators, we got to start brainstorming about our experiments. Throughout playing with the equipment we have come across some questions that we can now find the answers to. Some of the questions we came up with were about location, angles, and weather. Unfortunately because we only have four sessions left we do not have the time necessary to do experiments having to do with weather or the seasons. My favorite question was: What happens if cosmic rays hit the earth at an angle? The answer may explain why two counters that are stacked on each other come up with two different cosmic ray counts. The way to test this is to place the counters at different ranges. For example first put the counters close to each other and then put them further away from each other so that now they will not count the cosmic rays that go between them. We can either put the counters on the floor and the table, or even just in different positions on the octogonal wooden spool.

Journal 5

Today we started our experiment to see if location and specifically altitude affects the number of cosmic rays. First we took a reading in the basement and proceeded to the top floor as well as the middle floor. The results showed that the higher you are, the more cosmic rays around you. We also found out that while a thicker ceiling lowered the number of cosmic rays it did not prevent them entirely. A thought that just occured to me and I have no idea if it is right is: Perhaps the reason the ceiling did not affect the cosmic rays as much as we thought is because cosmic rays may have a limit to their "lifespan". I don't really know how to say this but maybe the reason the cosmic rays do not penetrate the earth farther down is not because they can't go through but because they sort of fizzle out. In my mind I think of them sort of like fireworks. For example after the fireworks explode they then go down to the earth but before they hit the earth they simply fizzle out. I don't know, it was just a thought hopefully it will make sense to you.

Journal 6

In this clas we learned how to make our data readable and have some meaning to it. After making the graphs for our experiment, although they were nice graphs, they did not nessecarily help us determine whether or not we had taken enough data. However we have now learned about absolute error and error bars which are very helpful in being able to see the pattern is the bars are small enough. Fortunately our bars did turn out rather small so we could see a clear line. From the results we were able to deduce that the more "stuff" you have above you the less comsmic rays are going to hit you. This indicates that cosmic rays do not penetrate material well and that they do indeed come from above us.So obviously the safest place to be is deep down in the earth, far away from the cosmic rays.

Journal 7

Since our last set of data was good we decided to see what happens when we take cosmic chris away from the building. Our thinking was that the number of cosmic rays would increase as we got away from the building because there would not be anything to hinder the cosmic rays from hitting the counter. We took several runs to make sure that they were consistent with the trials we had already taken. First we ran it in the NSL then we went on the same floor by the elevator, after that we went up one floor and measured inside, just outside, and then further outside away from the building. Like we thought the number of cosmic rays was slightly higher when we were the farthest away from the building. From this experiment I have learned that to avoid cosmic rays, try to have as much "stuff" as possible above you!!

Final Thoughts

Overall I thought the program was informative and helpful, I thought it could have been a little clearer at times but realize that to some extent that is how you want it. I enjoyed being able to figure things out on my own and really be in control of the experiment. The biggest suggestion I have is to clarify the assignments for upcoming classes, maybe even have a little write up that they can look back at chould they have any questions. Also I would suggest another switch for Cosmic Chris to stop the counter without resetting it. In general it was a good rotation, I definately learned a lot.