The Effect of Water Depth on Time of Flight of Cosmic Ray Muons

The Effect of Water Depth on Time of Flight of Cosmic Ray Muons 

Deven Misra (Canton High School), Max Tomaszewski (Eisenhower High School) 

Michael Niedballa (Wayne State University) 

Robert Harr (Wayne State University) 

 

In our experiment, we attempted to establish a link between the depth of water which a muon passes through, and the time it takes that muon to travel between two detectors. We accomplished this by placing bins of water between two cosmic ray detectors and measuring the time of flight of muons passing through both detectors. The results of our experiment were inconclusive in that we did not find a precise correlation between depth of water and time of flight, but we did determine that the water did increase the time of flight to varying degrees. While we were unable to find an exact correlation, we believe that the connection between water depth and time of flight can be quantified, and reflects an inverse relationship between the two variables. This establishes that muons are, in fact, affected by the materials which they pass through in some capacity, with water appearing to have a significant effect.