Friday Flyer - September 12, 2014
Spotlight on the Idaho State University Center: Seven teachers attended the June Idaho State QuarkNet workshop guided by fellow Robert Franckowiak. They jointly calibrated 36 detector counters. That’s quite a stack of counters! First, they used the Cosmic Ray e-Lab plateauing instructions found in the Library: resources to find the PMT voltage sweet spot. Then, they adjusted the rates using the new EQUIP data interface (also found in the Cosmic Ray e-Lab: Library: Resources), and lastly, an upload to the Cosmic Ray e-Lab allowed a comparison of the time-over-threshold histogram using the performance studies. The tall stack confirmed everything and was fun. All of this was in preparation for developing cosmic ray studies that could be implemented when the teachers returned home. Five posters resulted focused on geometry and barometric pressure effects. Search the Cosmic Ray e-Lab posters during the workshop date window of June 16-20 to see the posters. With common detector calibration, the group hopes to coordinate flux studies after returning to their home schools; all separated by hundreds of miles and thousands of feet.
Other Idaho State news: Robert Franckowiak attended last summer's CERN program along with Kevin Martz from the Johns Hopkins center.
International Muon Day: Join your colleagues worldwide! QuarkNet is invited by DESY/Zeuthen to participate in an IPPOG-sponsored worldwide day of collecting cosmic ray data. The date is Wednesday, October 8. This annual event alternates with a similar QuarkNet effort in the spring. The fall event focuses on one-day collection; the spring event is weeklong data gathering. We hope to get many detectors on the air simultaneously. Data will be shared in the Cosmic Ray e-Lab (www.i2u2.org/elab/cosmic) and students will share their results. This fall’s topics will focus on cosmic showers and zenith angle. Find the announcement website and register: www.cern.ch/icd2014
Resources:
The Expanding Universe by Don Lincoln and Brian Nord publlished in The Physics Teacher (pdf file attached)
Five Reasons We Think Dark Matter Exists by Amanda Yoho at medium.com
QuarkNet Staff Teachers
Ken Cecire, kcecire@nd.edu
Tom Jordan, jordant@fnal.gov
Bob Peterson, rspete@fnal.gov