1. Of all the materials tested,
HYPOTHESIS
Of all the materials tested,
the shielding that allows the least radiation (in vapor trails) through it will have the highest mass
Radioactive Pebbles, Space Suits, and Cloud Chambers The Effect of Space Suits in Comparison to Other Materials when Shielding Radiation By Jonathon Horbaly
RESULTS
(See center)
Due to the erratic nature of background radiation, small fluctuations in data in this test may have been caused by changes in the background radiation. As such, with very similar measurements and shield masses, it would not be responsible to attribute trends in data to the mass of the shields alone. See the report for a list of possible extraneous variables.
METHODOLOGY
Independent Variable: Mass of Different Shields
Dependent Variable: Vapor Trails on Far Side of Shield
Materials:
Cloud chamber (see below)
Denatured Alcohol
Felt
Uranium/radium source
Shields (Mine include pieces of a multi-layered space suit produced by ILC Dover, binder paper, Great Value© Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil, and part of a Mylar emergency blanket 
Procedures:
Construct/buy cloud chamber
It is an airtight box out of transparent plastic or glass
Paint/cover some sides black for visibility
Prep cloud chamber
Place felt strips soaked with denatured alcohol along top
Place on dry ice
Allow minutes to supersaturate atmosphere
Replenish dry ice as necessary
Count visible vapor trails for one minute and record for “Background Radiation Trial 1” on table (See right)
Re-measure under “Trial 2” and average values
Reset with source in center
Measure for “Control Trial 1”, and subtract background average
Repeat for “Trial 2” and average
Reset with source and first shield on one side
Repeat steps 4a-4b for first shield, but subtract only half background value (since only half the chamber is being observed)
Repeat step 5 for all shields
ABSTRACT
I investigated if the effectiveness of different materials’ ability to block radiation was affected by their mass. The hypothesis is: of all the materials tested, including layers of a multi-piece space suit produced by ILC Dover, the shielding that allows the least radiation (in vapor trails) through it will have the highest mass. I built a cloud chamber, placed a source and different shields, and measured how many vapor trails appeared on the other side. The source (without shielding or background radiation) gave off an average of 59 trails in one minute, and there were an average of 12 trails per minute on the far side of the entire space suit (which had a mass of 25g), four beyond the binder paper (mass less than 1g), 0 beyond the aluminum foil (mass less than 1g), 13 beyond the Mylar film from the space suit (mass less than 1g), 3.5 beyond the Mylar emergency blanket (mass less than 1g), and 14 beyond the outer shell of the space suit (mass 8g). However, due to the erratic nature of background radiation and similar masses of the shielding, it is not responsible to make a connection between the mass of the shield and how effectively it blocks radiation with this data.
Works Cited
Adams, Andrea. Personal interview. Jan
American Nuclear Society. Detecting Radiation
  in Our Radioactive World: Teacher Resource
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Berry, Lieutenant Colonel Brad. Telephone
interview. 6 Feb
Bixler, David, Ph.D., Toni Sauncy, Ph.D.,
and Angelo State University Department of
Physics. "Radiation and Radioactivity.“ 
Introductory Physical
Science: Laboratory Experiences - II. Print.
Cloud Chamber Experiment. N.d. Instructions
Sheet.
"CLOUD CHAMBERS FROM SUPERSATURATED
ENVIRONMENTS." CLOUD CHAMBERS FROM
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n.d.Web. 17 Jan
Dixon, Bethany. Personal interview. Winter
2014.
Horbaly, William S. Personal
interview. Winter 2014.
"Lesson Plans - Unit 1: Radiation." U.S.NRC. 
United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, n.d. Web. 20 Jan
"Lesson Plans - Unit 2: The Uses of Radiation.“
  U.S.NRC. United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, n.d. Web
"Lesson Plans - Unit 3: Nuclear
Reactors/Energy Generation." U.S.NRC.
United States Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, n.d. Web. 23 Jan
Ronca, Debora. "How Radiation Works." 
HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Jan.
Data