PMT statistics issue

I'm working with a PMT in pule counting mode. NAI scintillator is connected to the PMT.

I set the discriminator level to 60kEV with plenty of dynamic range above that.

I'm measuring background counts at around 90 CPS long term average. We are applying a Cs source that raises teh count rate to about 700CPS long term average.

What the user wants to do is measure the background at 1sample/sec for 45 seconds then measure a 1 sample/second with the source for 45 seconds. Subtract the mean of those two for use elseware.

the problem is that when the measurement is repeated there is a fairly wide spread in the two averages taken.

What I would like to know is how to calculate the spread in the two averages. given the same source is used and the background levels are the same(no sources running around).

Reply to
mook Johnson
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Poisson statistics, right?

John

Reply to
John Larkin

yup

Reply to
mook Johnson

formatting link

If you are counting random events, the standard deviation on your count is just the square root of the accumulated count. Successive counts are likely to differ by around a standard devaition. A range of +/-2 standard deviations includes about 95% of a long series of counts,

+/-2.5 standard deviations gets this up to about 99%.
--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
Reply to
bill.sloman

If I sampled the erect status of my c*ck at one sample per day for forty-five days what is the probability that it is permanently floopy?

DNA

Reply to
Genome

100% ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Bugger!

DNA

Reply to
Genome

What about conecutive 45 sample means?

Reply to
mook Johnson

So that's why its floopy? You need to find new friends, or lay off the female hormones.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

I would hope 100% if your talkin to me. LOL

Reply to
mook Johnson

Try bottom posting.

If each sample covers the same amount of time on the same source, the standard deviation of the mean over the 45 samples has a standard deviation that is root 45, or 6.71 smaller than the standard deviation on any single mean.

There are a couple of ways of screwing this up, but you will have to read up on elementary statistics before you start needing to worry about the tricky stuff.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
Reply to
bill.sloman

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Heres the question in a simplified manner.

If I measure the counts acquired in 1 second, 45 consecutive times, and calculated an average of those 45 samples and came out with say a mean of

700 counts / sec.

Standard Dev. would be sqrt(700) = ~26 assuming a poisson distribution

If I ran this test say 10 times. How much scatter in the MEAN would I expect for the consecutive runs of the 45 sample test?

I realize that the next 1 second sample would fall with in 3 sigma of the mean but I'm curious about how to calculate standard deviation of the means of several 45 sample tests.

Reply to
Mook Johnson

If your mean count rate is 700counts/sec, the standard deviation on a single 1 second observation is 26.5 counts.

If you accumulate 45 seconds worth of 700count/sec data, you've got

45x700 counts -31,500 counts, and the standard deviation on that is going to be 177.5.

This implies that you then know that your count rate is 700+/-10 counts per second with 99% confidence.

If you process is stable at 700 counts per second., the standard deviation on any one second sample will stay at 26.5 counts, and any 45 second sample will have a standard deviation of 177.5 counts.

Note that if you got a count of 700 after one second of observation, all you can say about the "true"count rate is that is has an even chance of lying between 673.5 and 726.5, and that 99 times out of a hundred it will lie between 633.75 and 766.25.

As you average over long time periods, the confidence limits on the mean count rate creeps down, but the standard deviation on a single one second measurement isn't going to change at all (unless you were unlucky with your first few measurements).

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
Reply to
bill.sloman

Now that is crystal clear.

Thanks.

Reply to
Mook Johnson

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