  The CosmicWatch Desktop Muon Detector is a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) and Polish National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) based
undergraduate-level physics project that incorporates various aspects of
electronics-shop technical development. The detector was designed to be
low-power and extremely portable, which opens up a wide range of physics for
students to explore. This document describes the physics behind the Desktop
Muon Detectors and explores possible measurements that can be made with the
detectors. In particular, we explore various physical phenomena associated with
the geomagnetic field, atmospheric conditions, cosmic ray shower composition,
attenuation of particles in matter, radioactivity, and statistical properties
of Poisson processes.
