What are cosmic rays? Detailed answer

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What are cosmic rays? Detailed answer

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What are cosmic rays?

Of course, you read that the launched satellite is equipped with various research and scientific equipment. Have you noticed that they are almost always equipped with instruments that investigate and detect cosmic rays? These rays are still a mystery to us!

About 60 years ago, scientists discovered a strange phenomenon. It turned out that air samples in a closed container have negligible electrical conductivity. Even if the container was covered with a thick protective layer, the same thing happened. This meant that unknown radiation, which had a huge penetrating power, got into the container!

What is this mysterious radiation? Many experiments were carried out to get the answer. At first they made sure that it was not of earthly origin, since it also exists above the sea. This radiation exists day and night, so it does not come from the Sun. When rising in a balloon, this radiation was recorded everywhere and in space - hence the name "cosmic", which means ubiquitous.

What are cosmic rays? These are particles of atoms. They travel outside the earth's atmosphere at a speed close to the speed of light. Some of them penetrate the earth's atmosphere.

These particles of atoms are called "primary cosmic rays". They collide with air atoms. As a result, new particles are created that move in the same direction with huge speeds as the primary particles. These new particles are called "secondary cosmic rays". They in turn collide with other atoms and create new particles. Thus, a real shower of radiation bombards the Earth. One proton coming from space creates such radiation, which is enough to cover 90 square meters. meters.

As far as we know, cosmic rays bombarding the Earth's surface are harmless, as their impact over billions of years has not adversely affected life on Earth.

Science still does not know where cosmic rays come from, but we hope that by exploring space, we will gradually solve this problem.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

When did the bath appear?

In ancient times, people bathed for two reasons: to maintain cleanliness and to observe religious rites. The ancient Greeks and Romans loved to take a bath for relaxation and pleasure. Washing places became social centers, and bathing was also considered a way to cure diseases. Among the ancient Egyptians, it was mainly a religious ritual. The Jews, like the Hindus, believed in bathing as a religious rite.

The very first baths known to man are the palace baths on the island of Crete. They are about 4000 years old. The palace housed bathrooms with foot baths and tubs. A bathtub was found in the royal chambers of the palace, which dates back to 1700-1400 BC. It looks like a modern one. In fact, since a person had a desire to use baths, its design has not changed throughout history.

Even in ancient times, the Greeks washed in the bath. They were usually made of polished stone, marble or wood. The great Greek poet Homer describes a particularly beautiful silver bath brought from Egypt. The early Christian church did not preach purity as something related to religion. In ancient times, there were even some Christians who considered an unwashed body as one of the ways to atone for sins. This view began to change in the Middle Ages.

After the Middle Ages passed, most Europeans began to use perfumes and cosmetics instead of bathing. Very few houses had bathtubs. And only in the time of Queen Victoria did the bathroom become a separate place in the house. The tub, made of copper, wood, or iron, was covered with a lid to make it look like a sofa.

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Internet makes us feel smarter 08.04.2015

With the advent of the World Wide Web, a huge amount of information has become easily accessible: we can find out anything about anything at any time. Perhaps that is why we often think that we ourselves have become smarter. This is not a joke at all: experiments by psychologists from Yale have shown that people sitting on the Internet really increase the illusion of their own intelligence.

The study involved about a thousand people who had to answer some question - for example, how does a zipper work. Only one was asked to search the World Wide Web for the answer, while the others were given printouts of texts from the websites where the Internet group had found the answer. That is, the information, in fact, was the same, just the form of submission and the search process were different. Then they both had to say if they could answer another question - for example, why are cloudy nights warmer than cloudless ones.

The answer itself was not important here, and it was not necessary to answer at all, only self-esteem, confidence or uncertainty in one's own competence was required. And it turned out that those who had previously searched for an answer on the Internet considered themselves more knowledgeable, more aware of the new problem (although the next question had nothing to do with the previous one).

Moreover, intellectual self-confidence increased even when the network could not find a satisfactory answer at all (psychologists either chose a too difficult question - for example, why was the history of the ancient Meroitic kingdom more peaceful than the history of the states of Ancient Greece? - Or they used network filters, to make inaccessible sites with the necessary information). Before the experiment, the confidence in their own knowledge was approximately the same for everyone, that is, it was precisely in the Internet search.

Moreover, people increased confidence in their personal intelligence, that is, they believed that they themselves knew a lot, and access to the network had nothing to do with it. However, there was another nuance here: when a person was offered to immediately follow the link to the necessary information, then the intellectual self-esteem remained the same. In other words, it is not just access to the Internet that is important, but an active search in it.

The explanation here can be simple: when a person looks for answers with the help of a source that needs to be worked on (for example, in a book, or talking with someone else who needs to ask clear questions and analyze the answers), he has time to realize what exactly he does not know. In the case of Internet surfing, it can be impossible to distinguish between "what I know" and "what I think I know".

The problem might not be worth talking about, but real competence does not necessarily increase after an online search session, and even if a person did not learn anything as a result, it would seem to him that now he knows everything about everything. And now let's multiply such a curious psychological effect on the worldwide prevalence of mobile gadgets connected to the global network, and think about whether we are now facing a general intellectual stagnation - as a result of information technology progress.

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