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Jim Pacini
Desert Ridge Middle School

Experiment Overview
Measure the Earth's magnetosphere (region in space whose shape is determined by the Earth's internal magnetic field) as the rocket travels from Earth to space & back using a student designed gauss meter.

Experiment Description
The purpose of this experiment is to measure the amount of magnetism in the magnetosphere. This experiment will determine if differences in the magnetosphere can be measured. Data will be stored on a data logger/voltmeter.

A nine-volt power source will be used to power the voltage regulator. The voltage regulator steps down the voltage in the nine volt battery to five volts. Then the data transfers to the data logger/voltmeter, and then it gives a reading and the voltmeter/data logger once per second. For this experiment students will launch a gauss meter (experiment), a 9v battery and a data logger.

Hypotheses
1.As the experiment enters space (approximately 62 miles or 100 kilometers), the Hall effect sensor and data logger will record a significant difference in the strength of the magnetosphere.
2.As the experiment rises in altitude, the measurements of magnetic field strength will increase.
3.As the experiment rises in altitude, the strength of the magnetic fields will decrease.

Analysis
With the data students can determine if the measurements of the magnetosphere are different at different levels of the atmosphere.