Extremely energetic cosmic ray Atmosphere Earth's surface Figure 33.27 An extremely energetic cosmic ray creates a shower of particles on earth. The energy of these rare cosmic rays can approach a joule (about 1010 GeV) and, after multiple collisions, huge numbers of particles are created from this energy. Cosmic ray showers have been observed to extend over many square kilometers.

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Chapter1: Units, Trigonometry. And Vectors
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The intensity of cosmic ray radiation decreases rapidly with increasing energy, but there are occasionally extremely energetic cosmic rays that create a shower of radiation from all the particles they create by striking a nucleus in the atmosphere as seen in the figure given below. Suppose a cosmic ray particle having an energy of 1010 GeV converts its energy into particles with masses averaging 200 MeV/c2 .
 (a) How many particles are created? (b) If the particles rain down on a      1.00-km2 area, how many particles are there per square meter?

Extremely
energetic
cosmic ray
Atmosphere
Earth's surface
Figure 33.27 An extremely energetic cosmic ray creates a shower of
particles on earth. The energy of these rare cosmic rays can approach a
joule (about 1010 GeV) and, after multiple collisions, huge numbers
of particles are created from this energy. Cosmic ray showers have been
observed to extend over many square kilometers.
Transcribed Image Text:Extremely energetic cosmic ray Atmosphere Earth's surface Figure 33.27 An extremely energetic cosmic ray creates a shower of particles on earth. The energy of these rare cosmic rays can approach a joule (about 1010 GeV) and, after multiple collisions, huge numbers of particles are created from this energy. Cosmic ray showers have been observed to extend over many square kilometers.
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