WISRD Journal 2020-2021
January Update: WISRD’s work in radio astronomy was featured at a webinar yesterday presented by the American Astronomical Society. Presenter Dr. Glen Langston’s slide deck included acknowledgments of WISRD’s contributions with images of our work. He remotely connected to WISRD’s radio telescope and shared our data in real-time. Congratulations to Allyson, Nnenna, Tobey, Max, and Emile for this acknowledgment of their work.
WISRD UPDATE: Currently, Mr. Steiner is in attendance at Fermilab’s Saturday Morning Physics. The weekly class that he has been attending since September 26th, 2020 is soon coming to an end on December 12th, 2020. Mr. Steiner and Joe decided that the Cosmic Ray Array will get up and running after the start of 2021. Mr. Steiner is currently in the process of analyzing data with the Radio Telescope group. He has learned about coding and improved upon his strength in data analysis during this process.
Attended Flipping the Switch On Right and Wrong:
The Evolving Nature of Ethics in Science on Wednesday, December 9, 1PM-2PM
I joined the Radio Telescope group to analyze data that the Radio Telescope has been collecting.
Tobey Steiner is participating in WWDD by analyzing data collected by the ATLAS detector. They are looking for Muon pairs in the data and then measuring the angles from a reference point for each muon. These measurements are used by scientists at CERN to calibrate the Hadron Collider.
There is a world-wide zoom webinar today at 2:00 pm pacific, featuring CERN scientists working with participants to interpret the collected data.
Tobey, Principal Investigator for WISRD’s Cosmic Ray Detector Group coordinated the event for WISRD’s participation.
World Wide Data Day was a success!
alice in quantumland
10/17/20 Standard Model of Particle Physics Notes SMP
- Fundamental Particles and their interactions is incorporated into the Standard Model, Everything we know about particle physics
-What is a Fundamental Particle?
+ Impenetrable: Infinitely Hard, cannot be broken down into smaller pieces
+ Indistinguishable: Every electron is identical to every other electron
+ Foundational: Building blocks from which everything is is made
History: Ancient Greeks believed water was the underlying principle behind all matter
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/rutherford-scattering/latest/rutherford-scattering_en.html
Things in the works: World Wide Data Day, International Cosmic Day. https://quarknet.org/content/register-w2d2 https://indico.desy.de/indico/event/27426/registration/
10/5/20: Notes from second SMP Lecture: Special Relativity
Special Relativity:
- Time dilation, length Contraction, simulatanety
-“The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics”
-Galileo Galilea
- 1687 Newton: (Classical) gravity
9/30/20: I Attended a lecture by Elena Amato, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, about recent developments on the acceleration and transport of Galactic Cosmic Rays. I learned about recent discoveries on the subjects of acceleration and transport of Galactic Cosmic Rays. I also learned about high energy astrophysical observations, and direct cosmic ray detection data. I attended this lecture because it was about Cosmic Rays which I am very interested in and have worked with in the past in the Cosmic Launch project and I am currently working on the Cosmic Ray Array.
9/30/20 Notes from first SMP Lecture: Introduction
- The Scientific Method: Observation => Hypothesis => Predictions => Experiment
- Example:
- Observation=Light Arrives from the sun and other stars
- Hypothesis=Similar to sound, there is a medium through which light propagates
- Predictions/Experiment=Since the earth is moving through the aether, the speed of light depends on the direction it is emitted
- Example #2:
- Observation=Earth seems to be rotating
- Hypothesis=Laws of classical gravitation, classical mechanics, earths rotation.
- Predictions/Experiment=Foucault’s Pendulum
-The scientific method needs logic/mathematics for predictions
-Experiment needs to be done with great care (unbiased, controlled)
-The choice of observation or question is extremely important
-Experiment should be designed to refute hypothesis
Foucault’s Pendulum (1851)
- At the North Pole, pendulum is oscillating and earth is rotating beneath it.
SCIENCE: Science is the search for truth.
- The catch is that we cannot confirm a hypothesis, we can only reject it! But as more and more tests fail to reject certain hypothesis, we accept it as “the truth as possible”
Particle Physics and Cosmology:
- Gallei, 1564- 1642
- Newton, 1643-1727
-Classical Mechanics
- From Newton’s Laws of motion and some information like position, velocity, and forces, everything can be calculated: past and present of a system
-The Laws of Physics
- Quantum Mechanics: Physics of very small scales, observable quantities are quantized, things are both particles and waves, measurements have intrinsic limited precision.
- Relativity: Physics of fast moving objects, physics is dependent of the reference frame, the speed of light is the limit.
Fermilab Saturday Morning Physics Schedule
9/23/20 Acceptance to Fermilab’s Saturday Morning Physics.
9/21/20 Article Research: Fermilab.
- America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory
- Mission: Solving the mysteries of energy, matter, space, and time.
- Fermilab hosts DUNE and the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, being built by scientists and engineers from more than 30 countries.
- Fermilab explores the universe at the smallest and largest scales, studying the fundamental forces and particles that control our universe
- Fermilab builds, designs, and operates powerful accelerators to investigate natures building blocks, advancing technology for science and society
9/16/20 WISRD Article Topic and study focus for next few months: What can Neutrinos Tell us? Why would anybody be studying Neutrinos? – Fermilab History. Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Neutrino Catastrophe Cern. More Matter than anti matter (right hand over left hand) Solar Neutrino Problem.
9/11/20 COSMIC RAY ARRAY GROUP ELEVATOR ACTIVITY: We are the Cosmic Ray Array Group. Our Goal is to build an array of cosmic ray detectors across SOCAL. Previously, our group participated in a rocket launch for NASA. Our Cosmic Ray Detector was launched in the payload of the rocket. We used the data to test the question, can a cosmic ray detector withstand flight? Our array is important because the data that we collect will contribute to the world of space and science.
9/3/20 TWEET: Update: Not to worry! COVID-19 has not stopped the fast paced cosmic ray array group! Prior to the pandemic, the Cosmic Ray Array Group launched a rocket for the NASA Student Initiative! Currently, the Cosmic Ray Array Group is preparing to build an array of detectors to be placed across Southern California! More updates to come soon. Stay tuned. And that’s all from the Cosmic Ray News. The Cosmic Ray Array group is also in the research phase of working with the Radio Telescope group in measuring and comparing the data of a cosmic ray shower and a radio wave.
| Start of Junior Year. |