Muon Directional and Angular Flux Study

Garrett Weidig (Grosse Pointe South HS), Kristopher Mortensen (Groves High School)

Mike Niedballa (Michigan Collegiate High School)

Robert Harr (Wayne State University)

The purpose of the research was to find a pattern in the direction and angle of which muons enter and hit our atmosphere.  To test this, we set up a telescope, a device used to separate cosmic ray detectors and also to keep them in alinement, so that it could be maneuvered to face North, South, East, and West and also pivot in the middle to make angles of 0, 30, 60, and 90 degrees. From there, we set the coincidence level to 2 and started recording data for each direction at each angle.  After this, flux studies were ran and our results showed that for all channels in all directions the ideal angle to detect muons is at 30 degrees from the vertical (60 from the horizontal).  Of the data involved with the 30 degrees, there were an overwhelming amount of hits coming from the North and the West.  This result could have been the result of a faulty voltmeter which would then lead to faulty volt settings in the experiments.  These results (the heavy favoring of the North) could be suspected of being this way because of the magnetic field.  For later experiments, we suggest that they are conducted in different parts of the world where the magnetic field is stronger or weaker.