Does anyone know of any good relativity labs for an
introductory course? Jackson refers to a lab with a
NaI detector to verify the relativistic energy-
momentum relationship, but I haven't yet made the
pilgrimage to the closest school that has the
journal it's described in. Other possibilities
that occur to me include observing pair production
by cosmic rays in a cloud chamber, or doing something
with GPS (GPS requires general relativity
corrections). Ideally I'd like something affordable
that could be done hands-on by six lab groups,
each with their own equipment, but I realize that's
asking a lot.
On a related note, has anyone bought and maintained
a NaI detector for undergraduate use? Can they
be gotten cheap via surplus? Is there
cheap ADC/histogramming software and
hardware for PC-compatibles?