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Muon Physics
The muon is one of Nature’s fundamental particles. Its discovery in 1937 by Carl Anderson marked a radical departure in physicists' understanding of the building blocks of matter. Although it was first assigned a place in theory of nuclear forces which was incorrect, it is now understood to be an important member of the lepton family of particles. TeachSpin, in collaboration with Thomas Coan and Jingbo Ye of Southern Methodist University, has made the first commercial teaching instrument for students to determine some of its physical characteristics. The muon is produced copiously in Earth’s atmosphere by interactions
between cosmic rays and atmospheric air molecules, and its flux at sea
level is sufficient for student investigations. The muon’s lifetime
can be measured with our apparatus using experimental techniques common
to nuclear and particle physics. The stopping rate of muons, as a function
of depth in the atmosphere, can be used as a demonstration of the time
dilation effect of special relativity. Since the decay times of individual
radioactive particles are randomly distributed, they are a convenient
source of genuinely random numbers. These can be used to demonstrate common
probability distributions. With this new TeachSpin Apparatus You Can: • Measure Muon Lifetime Detailed technical information and a copy of the user's manual for Muon Physics can be found at www.matphys.com. The website is maintained by Professors Thomas Coan and Jingbo Ye of Southern Methodist University, with whom TeachSpin collaborated in developing this exciting apparatus. |
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