Conclusion and All References

What was concluded?

  • The Thorium and Granite Experiments concluded that the LBNL Cosmic Ray Detector can and will detect radioactivity, misinterpreting it as cosmic particles and mistakenly increasing the count rate.
  • The Angle Experiment concluded that of the cosmic particles that reach the surface of the earth, the majority of them tend to travel along vectors closer to a perpendicular orientation relative to the ground than at other angles.
  • The trial of Cosmic Particle Detection throughout a Full Battery Life showed how even though there may be fluctuations in the rate of cosmic particle detection at a given spot with constant conditions in a given period of time, the pattern will even out to obey normal statistical distribution over time.
  • The Sunlight Experiment showed that like radioactivity, the LBNL Cosmic Ray Detector can also misinterpret light as cosmic particles. Light causes inaccurate increases in count rate, which is why it is crucial to protect the detector from light sources while conducting experiments.
  • The Water Experiment concluded that water, in low volumes, has no statistical effect on the rate at which cosmic particles are detected as a relatively thin layer of water can do very little to obstruct the paths of cosmic particles.
  • The Elevation Experiment showed that cosmic particles are found in higher abundances at higher altitudes.
  • The experiments at Orinda Theatre Square, in which the cosmic particle flux of a building was measured, showed that cosmic particles can be absorbed by large structures. It also showed that the rate at which cosmic particles were absorbed increased as the detector was brought further underground and more building matter was brought into the detector's field of cosmic particle detection. Likewise, the rate at which cosmic particles were absorbed decreased as the detector was brought closer to the top of the building and building matter was removed from the detector's field of detection.

Learn More!

What are cosmic particles? How can these particles be detected? How do they interact with other particles?

  • For information regarding particle physics and its standard model, particle accelerators, particle decays, particle collisions, and much more, refer to The Particle Adventure, a mind-blowing educational utility that teaches users about the fundamentals of particle physics. Start your next adventure right away at The Particle Adventure to rediscover the world on the smallest scale known (so far)!
  • To learn about the inner workings of a particle detector and to see how an earlier model of the LBNL Cosmic Ray Detector was used, watch The Cosmic Connection Movie.
  • To visit the detector's website, see The Cosmic Connection.
  • For information regarding nuclear science, access the nuclear wall chart on The ABC's of Nuclear Science.
  • To build your own cosmic particle detector, access the assembly manual and the guide to obtaining parts in the following links:
  • To view the detector's instruction manual that discusses how to use the detector, see the instruction manual.

All References

Hogan, Robin. "How to combine errors." University of Reading. Published June 2006. Accessed 30 March 2019. http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~swrhgnrj/combining_errors.pdf .

Matis, Howard, Ph.D. Personal interview. 20 March 2019.

"My Elevation." RHD Software. Accessed 26 March 2019. https://rdhsoftware.com.

"Reduced chi-squared statistic." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Accessed 29 March 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_chi-squared_statistic.

Twitty, Colleen and Howard Matis. "Guide to Using the Berkeley Lab Cosmic Ray Detector." LBNL. Published August 2002. Accessed 29 March 2019. https://cosmic.lbl.gov/documentation/UsingtheDetector.pdf.