Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Science → Physics

Scientists design $100 muon detector

It's a unique chance to do some top notch science from the comfort of your own home.

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
November 28, 2017
in News, Physics

With the price you’d pay for a big night out with your friends, you could build your very own muon detector.

Physicists at MIT have designed a pocket-sized cosmic ray muon detector to track these ghostly particles. Courtesy of the researchers.

Our planet is constantly showered with a cocktail of high-energy cosmic rays. Thankfully, we have the atmosphere to protect us, and the cosmic rays don’t really penetrate to the planetary surface; after colliding with the Earth’s atmosphere, they disintegrate into muons — elementary particles similar to the electron, but with a larger mass.

The problem is that muons disintegrate extremely fast. They can be found in every layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, circulating in the air around us, but they’re hard to study because their entire lifespan stretches to approximately 2.2 microseconds.

Now, physicists working in MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science have designed a small, pocket-sized muon detector. Using only common, relatively cheap electrical parts, MIT researchers have built a detector that lights up and counts each time a muon passes through. It only costs $100 to build, if you have the necessary facilities.

Spencer Axani, the man behind the project, set up an outreach program called CosmicWatch with a website that lists where to buy all the parts and how to assemble them into a functioning device. The team estimates that it would take a high school student with average skills about 4 hours to build it, and then just one hour to build it a second time.

The more of these are built, the more useful the measurements get, Axani explains.

“If you make 100,000 of these, it starts becoming a very large detector,” Axani told Symmetry Magazine. “Instrumenting airplanes and ships would let you start measuring cosmic ray rates around the world.”

You might not get much of a thrill from the detector, but for a physics demonstration, or for unleashing your inner scientist, it’s a unique project which allows you to do some top notch science from the comfort of your bedroom. You might also get some secondary applications, such as checking the altitude you’re at — through muon detection.

“You get funny looks when you take particle detectors into the subway, but we did that in Boston,” Axani says. “Since the muon rate will decrease the further down you go, we put the detectors in a subway station to measure how far underground we were.”

“At sea level, you might see one count every two seconds […] but on a plane at cruising altitude, that rate increases by about a factor of 50 — a dramatic change,” Axani says. “From the measured rate you can back-calculate what the actual altitude of the plane was.”

Recently, a different team of researchers also identified a potential cavity beneath the Great Pyramid in Egypt using similar muon measurements.

Was this helpful?


Thanks for your feedback!

Related posts:
  1. Scientists build chemical weapon detector with Lego
  2. Lie detector uses high-profile court cases to spot cheats better a human
  3. Spinach doped with carbon nanotubes turns into explosive detector
  4. Prions picked up by tuning fork detector
  5. This App Turns Your Phone Into A Cosmic Ray Detector
Tags: detectormuonPhysics

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW