Question

This question is regarding background radiation using a Geiger-Muller tube and (lead) absorbers. The question is how does background radiation compare with and without absorbers, and what this difference tells you about the energy of background particles.

Question 1.2 How does the background radiation compare when there is an absorber in place? What does this tell you about the energy of the background particles? Background radiation is usually high energy cosmic rays from sources outside the earth. They make it through the physics building, so the absorber isn't much of an obstacle.

Answer 1

The amount of background radiation being received at a point or being observed using a G-M counter is almost same in both the case i.e. with an absorber made of lead namely or without an absorbers. This clearly also tells us that the amount of energy carried by the background radiation which has it's origin in the form of cosmic radiation to be very large.

This is why they make it through concrete walls, abosrbers blocks/ plates and not to mention the atmosphere of earth.