Modern Physics Homework

Homework 4:  Due Friday, October 9. 

We will have an Exam on relativity and Waves on Monday, October 19.

1.    A spacecraft is heading out of the solar system with a velocity v, directly away from the earth.  They transmit data back at a frequency of 1 MHz.  If we receive the data at a frequency of 0.9 MHz, how fast are they traveling?  (cf. problem 51.)

2.    A neutron is moving with a speed of 0.9c.  What is its energy (in MeV) and Momentum (in MeV/c)?

3.    A particle has an energy of 1MeV and a momentum of 0.99 MeV/c.  (cf. problem 59.)

a)    What is its speed in units of c?

b)    What is its mass in MeV/c2?

4.    Someone tells you that a particle has an energy of 10MeV and a momentum of 11MeV/c.  What do you think of this?  Explain!

5.    A free neutron is an unstable particle and will decay to a proton and electron, and anti neutrino which can be approximated as having 0 mass.  How much energy will this decay release? 

6.    Find the binding energy of 7Li in MeV.  (The mass of 7Li = 7.016004 u)

7.    A Carbon-14 nucleus decays to a 14N nucleus plus an electron (and an antineutrino again).  How much energy (in MeV) is released in this reaction?

 

       The table below lists the masses of some particles in atomic mass units, amu.  (You can check Wikipedia for more information about atomic mass units.)  Appendix 8 in the back of the book has the masses of many atoms in amu.  1u = 1.66×10-27kg.

Oblect

Mass (u)

MeV/c2

 

1.00

931.5

Electron

0.00054858

0.5110

Proton

1.007276

938.27

Neutron

1.008665

939.57

H

1.007825

938.78