Scott Chan Industry Initiative for Science & Math Education 2013

Stanford University  World-renowned center for advanced physics research  Home to 9 Nobel Prize winning physicists  Host to 24 science and math teachers for summer research fellowships in science and engineering labs

Fundamental Particles Building Blocks of all ordinary matter  Quarks – heaviest; electrically charged (Protons and Neutrons are made of these)  Electrons – small electric charges, trivial to find  Neutrinos – very tiny, uncharged; they pass thru everything without stopping image: zauberkugel.blogspot.com

Physicists Probe Fundamental Particles  Team of physicists led by Prof Giorgio Gratta  Alexis Schubert, PhD, diagrams how sub-atomic particles can be detected

Neutrinos  Tiniest, lightest sub-atomic particles  We are bathed in neutrinos; millions pass harmlessly through our bodies every second  Most were formed in Big Bang, flying across the universe for 14 billion years  Because they are so tiny and don’t interact with anything, detecting and studying neutrinos is very difficult

EXO: Enhanced Xenon Observatory Determining Neutrino’s Mass  One goal of EXO Experiment is to determine mass of neutrino  Neutrinos can be produced by radioactive decay Ge-76  Se-76,or Xe-136  Ba-136  Need ultra-sensitive electronic sensors to measure evidence of neutrino production Image: A. Schubert

EXO : Enhanced Xenon Observatory  Liquid Xenon chamber buried in mineshaft  Multi-year experiment to unlock mysteries of neutrinos images: L.Kaufman EXO-200 Primer

Accurate and Precise Measurements are critical in scientific research  A small error in measurements could lead to false conclusions or missed discoveries  My work involved computer simulation of proposed detectors and measuring the sensitivity of the instruments

Professor Gratta’s Labs  High-energy lasers  Cryogenic (super-cold) liquids  (Very low) radiation sources  Ultra-sensitive electronics

Your Lab Activity: Exploring Electric Circuits with Digital Multimeters  In physics labs, Digital Multimeters (DMMs) are frequently used to set up experiments  In your lab activity, you will use a DMM to measure parts of an electric circuit  Based on measurements, you will determine the relationships between voltage, current, and resistance

Learning to use a Digital Multimeter ON-LINE VIDEO TUTORIALS to WATCH  Measuring Voltage   Measuring Current   Measuring Resistance  PRE-LAB QUIZ on using Digital Multimeters