Hatrack River Forum: I hate when that happens...

This is topic I hate when that happens... in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

A curse on Popper and all his ilk! I had a very fine theory to explain my forward creep. "Suppose", said I to myself, "our detector is losing efficiency in the backwards regions? Then, when looking at those tracks with the most detector hits, it would look as though the fraction of forwards tracks were increasing, which indeed is precisely what we are trying to explain. Well then, " (I continued to pontificate), "if that's true, then in the other track category, those with fewer hits, it ought to look as though we are getting a higher fraction of backwards tracks. And this I hav some nice plots to check!

But alas, the ratio of forward to backwards tracks in that category is not decreasing, it looks quite flat. If there is any movement at all, it's in the opposite direction of what my theory would predict. :cries: My lovely theory! Now I have to come up with a new one. [Frown]

And I could have blamed all my troubles on the drift chamber people, too, for letting their efficiency decline unevenly.

Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :

*befuzzeled*

That sound skinda poetic unfortunately I have not the foggiest idea of what your talking about [Smile]

KoM I left a message on your answering machine whenever your able to come on ICQ I would greatly appreciate additional help.

Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :

context would be nice.

Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :

Sounds like the crap spammers put in emails to get past filters. [Wink]

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Physics.

Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :

Well I can tell that much, but a bit more background information would still be nice.

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Ah, well, then...

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Does this help?
Maybe this?
Or how about this?

Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :

KoM... take me now.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

Popper: Every theory must be falsifiable. And if the data falsifies it, it is no longer a theory.

Gotta question for ya though. What is your detector actually composed of? The mention of a time-dependent increase suggests a crystalline array, a gel stack, or something similarly solid.

[ October 18, 2006, 06:23 AM: Message edited by: aspectre ]

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

[Laugh]

Telp

Ah, the "detector fatigue" hypothesis -- the favorite refuge of the detector salesman! [Big Grin]

But aspectre does have a point.

KoM, have you ruled out environmental contamination?

I assume your detector is a very expensive component or you could simply swap in a new one to see if the results are still just as skewed.

Do you get the same results after a period of "rest" (such as after the weekend first thing Monday morning) as you do on runs in the middle or later in the week?

Also, I assume you have reference samples you can run. Are they messed up too or is everything working properly and you suspect the material you are testing really is the problem.