ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which the study of the muon and hadron components of the extensive air showers (EAS) can lead to a better understanding of its composition. Muons produced in EAS can be used to study the chemical composition of the primary cosmic ray flux because their multiplicity depends on the atomic number of the primary particle. Detectors which study low energy muons from EAS do so using counters buried under ten or more feet of earth. Such detectors can study the muon lateral distribution and the muon multiplicity. High energy muons are generally measured in deep underground detectors. The number of low energy and high energy muons in an EAS depends on the atomic number of the primary particle. This can be seen most simply by comparing what one expects for protons and iron primaries. Other techniques for studying composition focus on the behavior of the hadronic component of the EAS.
