Skill: Uncertainty

In this activity, students use authentic detector data to apply simple 1D kinematics (v=d/t), interpret graphical data, and evaluate measurement uncertainties.

This activity is based on the data analysis used for World Wide Data Day,

Students are physicists for a day at a university or lab where they work with physicists to learn how to analyze real particle physics data in the form of event displays.

Students construct histograms, identify the best value to represent the data, and report the uncertainty in their answers. 

Students build basic histogram skills required in many of the other activities in the Data Activities Portfolio.

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.

Students use momentum conservation to examine the decay of top-antitop pairs to determine what is missing from the event.

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.

Students are physicists for a day at a university or lab where they work with physicists to learn how to analyze real particle physics data in the form of event displays.