Cosmic Ray

Students collect data from muons which decay in the MINERvA detector in the Fermilab NuMi beamline to understand particle decay and determine the muon lifetime.

Rolling dice serves as the model for decaying particles.

In this introductory tutorial that, students learn about how to distinguish muon signals from background and instrumental noise.

Students analyze signals and noise first in audio and video forms and then look at signals and noise from physics measurements.

Teams of students organize cards depicting fundamental particles based on their characteristics. This activity is a foundation for learning about the Standard Model and parallels the methods used by scientists to organize the elements into the period table.

Students learn how physicists measure muon lifetime.

Students roll dice, record the resulting individual values as well as the sum of the values, create histograms of the data and develop insight into the concept of “degrees of freedom." 

Students create and interpret a histogram of penny masses.

Students use statistics to make an indirect measurement they can easily confirm.

Students use Standard Model rules to build hadrons and mesons from quarks.