A Heitler model of extensive air showers

A simple, semi-empirical model is used to develop the hadronic portion of air showers in a manner analogous to the well-known Heitler splitting approximation of electromagnetic cascades. Various characteristics of EAS are plainly exhibited with numerical predictions in good accord with detailed Monte Carlo simulations and with data. Results for energy reconstruction, muon and electron sizes, the elongation rate, and for the effects of the atomic number of the primary are discussed.