Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers
4th Edition
ISBN: 9781133103721
Author: Stephen T. Thornton, Andrew Rex
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Chapter 2, Problem 37P
To determine
The rough figure of classical and relativistic number of muons at sea level and reason behind taking 104 muons instead of only 103.
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Mass of a proton: 1.007825 u; Mass of a neutron: 1.008665 u
1 The lifetime of a free neutron is 887 s. If a neutron moves with a speed 2.9 × 108
m/s relative to an observer in the lab, what does the observer measure the neutron's
lifetime to be? What is this an example of?
2. (a) What is the rest energy (in joules) of a subatomic particle whose (rest) mass is
6.7 x 10-3¹ kg? (b) How many MeV's of energy is this?
3. The rest energy of a particular subatomic particle is 1200 MeV. If this particle is
traveling at 90% the speed of light, what is its total relativistic energy?
Electrons are accelerated through a potential difference of 850 kVkV , so that their kinetic energy is 8.5×105 eVeV .
A) What is the ratio of the speed vv of an electron having this energy to the speed of light, ccc?
Express your answer as a multiple of speed of light cc.
B) What would the speed be if it were computed from the principles of classical mechanics?
Express your answer in meters per second.
Particles accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can accelerate particles up to
tremendous energies. Suppose the LHC accelerates alpha particles (a.k.a. helium nuclei with a
charge of +2e and a mass of 6.645 x 10-27 kg) with a kinetic energy of 7.5 TeV*, what would the
speed of one particle be if relativistic effects** are ignored?
Give your answer in units of Gm/s.
*T as in Tera, for 1012. "eV" stands for "electron volt," which is a non-Sl unit of energy equal to what
one electron would gain after travelling through 1V. 1eV = 1.602 x 10-19 J.
**Special relativity is necessary to correctly account for the limiting speed of light, which is about 3 x
10° m/s. Note that in ignoring this effect and applying Newtonian mechanics (what you learned in
Phys1210 or equivalent), you'll be getting a speed way above 0.3 Gm/s. That's just how insanely
energetic the LHC is.
Chapter 2 Solutions
Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers
Ch. 2 - Michelson used the motion of the Earth around the...Ch. 2 - If you wanted to set out today to find the effects...Ch. 2 - Prob. 3QCh. 2 - Prob. 4QCh. 2 - Prob. 5QCh. 2 - Prob. 6QCh. 2 - Prob. 7QCh. 2 - Prob. 8QCh. 2 - Devise a system for you and three colleagues, at...Ch. 2 - In the experiment to verify time dilation by...
Ch. 2 - Can you think of an experiment to verify length...Ch. 2 - Would it be easier to perform the muon decay...Ch. 2 - On a spacetime diagram, can events above t = 0 but...Ch. 2 - Prob. 14QCh. 2 - What would be a suitable name for events connected...Ch. 2 - Prob. 16QCh. 2 - Prob. 17QCh. 2 - Explain how in the twin paradox, we might arrange...Ch. 2 - In each of the following pairs, which is the more...Ch. 2 - Prob. 20QCh. 2 - Prob. 21QCh. 2 - A salesman driving a very fast car was arrested...Ch. 2 - A salesman driving a very fast car was arrested...Ch. 2 - Show that the form of Newtons second law is...Ch. 2 - Prob. 2PCh. 2 - Prob. 3PCh. 2 - A swimmer wants to swim straight across a river...Ch. 2 - Prob. 5PCh. 2 - Prob. 6PCh. 2 - Prob. 7PCh. 2 - Prob. 8PCh. 2 - Prove that the constancy of the speed of light...Ch. 2 - Prob. 10PCh. 2 - Prob. 11PCh. 2 - Prob. 12PCh. 2 - Two events occur in an inertial system K as...Ch. 2 - Is there a frame K in which the two events...Ch. 2 - Prob. 15PCh. 2 - An event occurs in system K at x = 2 m, y = 3.5 m,...Ch. 2 - Prob. 17PCh. 2 - Prob. 18PCh. 2 - A rocket ship carrying passengers blasts off to go...Ch. 2 - Prob. 20PCh. 2 - Particle physicists use particle track detectors...Ch. 2 - The Apollo astronauts returned from the moon under...Ch. 2 - A clock in a spaceship is observed to run at a...Ch. 2 - A spaceship of length 40 m at rest is observed to...Ch. 2 - Prob. 25PCh. 2 - A mechanism on Earth used to shoot down...Ch. 2 - Prob. 27PCh. 2 - Imagine that in another universe the speed of...Ch. 2 - Prob. 29PCh. 2 - Prob. 30PCh. 2 - Prob. 31PCh. 2 - A proton and an antiproton are moving toward each...Ch. 2 - Imagine the speed of light in another universe to...Ch. 2 - Prob. 34PCh. 2 - Three galaxies are aligned along an axis in the...Ch. 2 - Prob. 36PCh. 2 - Prob. 37PCh. 2 - Consider a reference system placed at the U.S....Ch. 2 - Prob. 39PCh. 2 - Prob. 40PCh. 2 - Use the Lorentz transformation to prove that s2 =...Ch. 2 - Prob. 42PCh. 2 - Prove that for a spacelike interval, two events...Ch. 2 - Given two events, (x1, t1) and (x2, t2), use a...Ch. 2 - Prob. 45PCh. 2 - Consider a fixed and a moving system with their...Ch. 2 - Prob. 47PCh. 2 - An astronaut is said to have tried to get out of a...Ch. 2 - Prob. 49PCh. 2 - Do the complete derivation for Equation (2.33)...Ch. 2 - A spacecraft traveling out of the solar system at...Ch. 2 - Prob. 52PCh. 2 - Prob. 53PCh. 2 - Prob. 54PCh. 2 - Newtons second law is given by F=dp/dt. If the...Ch. 2 - Use the result of the previous problem to show...Ch. 2 - Prob. 57PCh. 2 - Prob. 58PCh. 2 - A particle having a speed of 0.92c has a momentum...Ch. 2 - A particle initially has a speed of 0.5c. At what...Ch. 2 - Prob. 61PCh. 2 - Prob. 62PCh. 2 - Prob. 63PCh. 2 - Prob. 64PCh. 2 - Prob. 65PCh. 2 - Prob. 66PCh. 2 - Prob. 67PCh. 2 - Prob. 68PCh. 2 - Prob. 69PCh. 2 - Prob. 70PCh. 2 - What is the speed of an electron when its kinetic...Ch. 2 - Prob. 72PCh. 2 - Prob. 73PCh. 2 - Prob. 74PCh. 2 - Prob. 75PCh. 2 - Calculate the energy needed to accelerate a...Ch. 2 - Prob. 77PCh. 2 - Prob. 78PCh. 2 - Prob. 79PCh. 2 - Prob. 80PCh. 2 - The Large Hadron Collider at Europes CERN facility...Ch. 2 - What is the kinetic energy of (a) an electron...Ch. 2 - A muon has a mass of 106 MeV/c2. Calculate the...Ch. 2 - Prob. 84PCh. 2 - The reaction 2H + 3H → n + 4He is one of the...Ch. 2 - Instead of one positive charge outside a...Ch. 2 - Prob. 87PCh. 2 - Show that the following form of Newton’s second...Ch. 2 - Prob. 89PCh. 2 - For the twins Frank and Mary described in Section...Ch. 2 - Frank and Mary are twins. Mary jumps on a...Ch. 2 - A police radar gun operates at a frequency of 10.5...Ch. 2 - Prob. 93PCh. 2 - Prob. 94PCh. 2 - A proton moves with a speed of 0.90c. Find the...Ch. 2 - A high-speed K0 meson is traveling at a speed of...Ch. 2 - Prob. 97PCh. 2 - The International Space Federation constructs a...Ch. 2 - Prob. 99PCh. 2 - Prob. 100PCh. 2 - A spaceship is coming directly toward you while...Ch. 2 - Quasars are among the most distant objects in the...Ch. 2 - One possible decay mode of the neutral kaon is K0...Ch. 2 - Prob. 104PCh. 2 - Prob. 105PCh. 2 - Small differences in the wavelengths in the sun’s...
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