Friday Flyer - September 18, 2015

Spotlight on Altitude with Attitude: Several QuarkNet centers did the cosmic ray flux vs. altitude experiment this past summer. The Colorado State group drove two cosmic ray detectors high up into Rocky Mountain National Park; Purdue Calumet and Notre Dame lofted detectors into the sky on airplanes. These efforts follow experiments in previous years by the University of Cincinnati center visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Purdue with their balloon flight; Berkeley Lab teacher Sean Fottrell and his students going up Mt. Diablo; the Virginia group going to the Blue Ridge; and the original QuarkNet mountain climb from Snowmass Village to Independence Pass in the 2001 Lead Teacher Institute. Next challenge: Would anyone like to use all this data to create a muon attenuation function for the atmosphere? (Warning: Relativistic calculations required!)

News from QuarkNet Central: Autumn is upon us (the equinox is next Wednesday, September 23). That means it is time to turn in those abstracts for summer research and center annual reports. Here are some basic instructions. While we are in this season, if you need a new Cosmic, CMS, or LIGO e-Lab account, please contact Ken Cecire for at least the next few weeks.

Also, be sure we have your attendance sheets for this summer. Thanks! 

New App! QuarkNet PI Dan Karmgard has developed a new CMS app for Android and he needs your help to test it. Learn more here.

One last reminder: If you'd like to join our QuarkNet IB group, please fill out this Interest Form. 

Physics Experiment Roundup: From the Possibly Earth-shattering News Department (PEND) we learn that maybe lepton universality isn't so universal after all. (This is a PENDing result.) Speaking of Earth, it's now been mapped in neutrinos. 

Resources: Don Lincoln has produced useful videos on the Quark-Gluon Plasma and LHC Computing.

Just for Fun: Raven about mathematics and the latest from Teaching Center

QuarkNet Staff Teachers:
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Bob Peterson: rspete@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu