[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: Cosmic ray muons
John,
The muon has a rest mass of 107 MeV, and interacts weakly with nucleons.
When it decays after 2 microseconds, it decays into an electron, neutrino,
and antineutrino as occurs in beta decay. Assuming that the maximum decay
energy is transferred to the electron, the energy would be 206 MeV. If the
ionizaiton energy is 33 eV, there could be over 6.2 E6 primary ion pairs
formed.
The range of a 206 MeV electron is 103.5 g/cm^2, or 103.5 cm in water.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024
E-mail: jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
-----Original Message-----
From: john grant [mailto:grantjoh@pacbell.net]
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 11:57 AM
To: Radsafe
Subject: Cosmic ray muons
When a cosmic ray muon travels through a 6 foot tall person how many atoms
will
it ionize?
John Grant
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.