Skill: Developing Models

Students analyze tracks in a cloud chamber.

Students examine data to find how energy, momentum, and mass are related.

Students construct histograms, identify the best value to represent the data, and report the uncertainty in their answers. 

Heisenberg knew that, at the quantum level, we cannot know everything, at least not all at once. Students explore uncertainties in measurements of complimentary variables to find this out for themselves.

Students collect data from muons which decay in the MINERvA detector in the Fermilab NuMi beamline to understand particle decay and determine the muon lifetime.

Students use momentum conservation to examine the decay of top-antitop pairs to determine what is missing from the event.

Rolling dice serves as the model for decaying particles.

Students explore some basics of magnetic fields that can be related to experimental particle physics.

Students measure the effects of electric and magnetic fields on particles. 

Teams of students organize cards depicting fundamental particles based on their characteristics. This activity is a foundation for learning about the Standard Model and parallels the methods used by scientists to organize the elements into the period table.