The Effect of Water
Note: Diagram not to scale.
Setup
In this experiment, four trials were run: two with two one-gallon water jugs on top of the detector, and two without the water jugs in place. One set of both conditions was run in coincidence mode, and the other set was run in upper single mode.
The detector was oriented with a heading of N56W. All tests were run at night in minimal light conditions. Each condition was run for a total of 10 minutes.
Results - Coincidence
The graph's data points differ far to little relative to their margins of error for the effect of the jugs of water to be determined.
Thus, two gallons of water have no statistical effect on the rate of cosmic particle detection that is observable within the given experiment parameters.
Results - Upper Single
Even in upper single mode, the experiment results show that a layer of two one-gallon water jugs does not effect the rate of cosmic particle detection.
Despite these results, it is likely that higher volumes of water within the field of cosmic particle detection would affect the rate of cosmic particle detection.
Experiment Setup - Photo
Note: The photo is a reconstruction of the original experiment designed to give viewers a better understanding of the experiment setup. As it is a reconstruction, all and any values displayed in the photo (heading, light level, water jug orientation, surroundings, etc.) are not to be considered as true to the original experiment.
Note: The original experiment was conducted at night to minimize light pollution. It was reconstructed during the day for better photo quality. As it was originally conducted at night, no light level change was recorded by the light sensor used when the water jugs were placed over the detector.