Researchable+CRD+Question

Back =Backround= Cosmic-Rays are energetic particles originating from space that impinge on the Earth's Atmosphere. These Cosmic-Rays are a combination of electrons, hydrogen and helium nuclei, and neutrons. When they enter the Earth's Atmosphere, they become muons. Now electrons and muons both have negative charges, thus they will repel each other. The electrons (TEC) should effect the detectors. When looking at the common map, the most TEC goes right over many of the detectors. I wonder if the TEC effects how the detectors work. Detectors detect muons, which are negatively charged and electrons likewise are negatively charged. = = =Question= 1. Does the TEC affect the detectors? More muons, Less muons... 2. Does the speed of the muons colliding with the electrons effect the detectors picking them up? 3. Would the muons repel up or down or speed up or slow down? = = =To Do= What I need to do, is find 2-4 different detectors on 2 or 3 different days, all in differing places, and look at the data from midnight to midnight, and compare that to the TEC data and see if it shows anything. Now we did run into a problem. Basically, long story short, we found out today (05/22/08) that we cannot access previous data for the Google Earth TEC. So I am going to do more of a hypothetical project, in which I will be getting all of the data together so that once we have access to all the past Google Earth data, I would easily be able to figure out the answer to my question.

=Hypothesis= I would guess that the higher the TEC, the lower the muon count due to the same charge. = = =Preliminary Results= Based on a simple observation I made on all of the flux studies, I do not think that the TEC will genuinly effect the muon count on the detectors. If you look at the start of the project, the flux studies I have are all very different. Golly gosh darn. Probably close to 90 percent of the flux studies I brought up, looked like my last one did, where the muon count stayed the same throughout the entire day. Now this may simply be because the TEC in this area is constant, or it may not vary much throughout the day. But simply based upon the flux's I got yesterday, my hypothesis is wrong and the Electrons play no role in the detection of muons. We will not be able to figure this out though without the TEC data.

**Links**
Where to find the schools and the flux studies: http://www18.i2u2.org/elab/cosmic/library/students.jsp Where to find the barometric pressure and the weather: http://www.wunderground.com/