Environmental Data Analysis EESC BC 3017

Lab: Dry deposition of particulate matter in New York City

Part 2

  1. Count the number of particles in each of the five 1cm2 squares of your samples with the provided magnifying lens and write down the results on an extra sheet.  Repeat counting particles of the 5 squares of one of your experiments without looking at your previous results and note the counts (You should have done this already at home).
  2. Download the table template from the web
  3. Put your own data (counting the 5 squares twice for one experiment) into the spreadsheet. XY stands for your initials. If you performed two experiments call them XY1 and XY2. Also fill in information regarding sample time, location and any observations you made during your experiment.
  4. Determine average, median, standard deviation, standard error, and 95% confidence interval of the first 5 counts, and the second 5 counts. Is there a difference between the two sets of counts? What could be the cause?
  5. Do the same for other peoples's samples that you have collected (but only counts each square once).
  6. Determine average, median, standard deviation, and standard error of the  5 counts of the second experiment.
  7. Convert the count rates into fluxes (particles per cm2 per hour, or: part cm-2 h-1).
  8. Store the file as PMXY.xls (XY: your initials).
  9. Look at the provided sheet with sand grains and decide what the minimum particle size would be that you can still see with the magnifying lens.
  10. We will put the data together in one master table. Send the EXCEL file via e-mail to me or put them on the disk provided in class.
  11. Plot the data as