modern physics 2007 trimester 3
  
   
 
Monday,
April 30
Tuesday,
May 1
Wednesday,
May 2
Thursday,
May 3
Friday,
May 4
class
 
 there may be a walk-around quiz today in class on conservation laws in beta decay
 
 
 
what we'll do
in class

master beta decay




reading
(always done
before class)
 
  bottom of p. 487 - bottom of p. 489
 
 
 
in-class
presentation
1 done in block C
0 done in block D
(3 expected per week;
the course is now more than 50% over; you should already have done 1)





written
homework
(by 5 pm)

 
13(44,51)
 
 
lab
 
 
 top quark lab due
E2 nuclear shielding lab due 
 
other
 

 
 


 
 
Monday,
April 23
Tuesday,
April 24
Wednesday,
April 25
Thursday,
April 26
Friday,
April 27
class
 
 please bring the
"Fundamentals of Particles and Interactions" with you to class if you have one (block C and Astrophysics people do); block D, non-Astrophysics people will get one today in class
 
 
 
what we'll do
in class
quiz on chapters 1 and 2

you will be able to use your notes (and returned homework) on today's quiz (to look up formulas for relativistic collisions, for example); so please bring those with you to class; please pick up all homework for the box or stray-paper envelope

you will not be able to use the book
talk about binding energy:

be prepared to

1) define binding energy in words

2) define binding energy in terms of an equation
(and explain how equation 13.4 comes out of the conservation of energy principle)


3) understand the implications of the binding-energy curve: how does it tell us which nuclear reactions are exothermic and which endothermic?
how does it explain why we have stars of hydrogen and nuclear power plants that use uranium rather than vice versa?

4) how the conservation of energy principle allows us to determine a limit on the size of the nucleus (mid-page 466)

5) block D only:
the range of the weak force is 10-18 m... what can you therefore say about the exchange particle of the weak force?


a lab on the mass of the top quark

bring your E1 lab notebook to class for this lab

questions you should be able to answer after you have done the reading:

1) what particles are colliding in this accelerator
(the one that produced the top quark)?

2) how did we accelerate the particles to great speed?

3) what keeps the beam from spreading out and dispersing
(beam dispersion would result in not many head-on collisions)?

4) why did they build the accelerator in a circle (rather than a line)?

5) what makes the particles go in a circle?

6) what's the signature of a top quark?
(what would the experimenters have to see -- since we cant actually see a top quark -- to know that one was there)?

leftovers from tuesday:

3) understand the implications of the binding-energy curve: how does it tell us which nuclear reactions are exothermic and which endothermic?
how does it explain why we have stars of hydrogen and nuclear power plants that use uranium rather than vice versa?





how the conservation of energy principle allows us to determine a limit on the size of the nucleus (mid-page 466)

and so why did he get the wrong answer (10x too larger than the actual size) when he applied this principle?

where did Rutherford get the alpha particles to do his scattering experiments?
(well, he didnt do the experiments, of course, his grad student, Geiger, did, but it was Rutherford's idea)

so why is the answer to his calculation of the size of the nucleus (based on measurements)
too small compared to the "claimed" nuclear size?

plus new questions from your reading:

in alpha decay, which of the two products has more momentum?
more kinetic energy?
higher speed?

ditto for beta decay?
reading
(always done
before class)
 
 no new reading, but please make sure that you can answer the questions above from last week's reading.... I will go around the room asking people in turn these (and other) questions
 Essay,
pp.  590 - 600,
on how to find a top quark


pp. 484 - top of p. 486

bottom of p. 487 - bottom of p. 489
in-class
presentation




yes!

top quark lab:
bring your neutrino momentum magnitude and direction and the total energy of each jet/particle to class

written
homework
(by 5 pm)
pick up graded homework

rocket/earth homework will hopefully be graded by 9 pm
 
turquoise sheet

#3 and #12
 
 
13(15) (just ONE of the nuclei given, your choice)
BUT please start from scratch with conservation of energy

does you result match the BE/nucleon graph?

lab
 
 
we still need to learn some stuff about alpha and beta particles in order to answer all the analysis questions in the lab, so the lab is probably postposed to either friday or monday..... however, the only question you don't know enough to answer is analysis question, so please finish all parts except that for today 
 
 
other
 

physics at  Fermilab

what's the beam doing now?


 


 
 
Monday,
April 16
Tuesday,
April 17
Wednesday,
April 18
Thursday,
April 19
Friday,
April 20
class
 
 
 
 
 
what we'll do
in class
an explosion problem, wherein we conserve momentum and total energy



lab E2

compare gravity, electric, and nuclear force basics

flesh out more details on how forces are transmitted, how we know the size of nuclei, and what  binding energy is
reading
(always done
before class)
 
section 2(4) and the contained example

chapter 13, section 1 up to (not including) nuclear stablility.... much of this should be a review (mostly from chemistry, some from physics);  helpful for prelab

chapter 15, section 5 on conservation laws, but this probably also requires the first 2 pages of section 15(4), up to, but not including
"the solar neutrino mystery...."  
 
look over your reading for tuesday on nuclear physics to make sure that you can answer the following:

hopefully in your first physics course, your teacher expected you to know the answers to the following for the gravity force and the electrostatic force (and maybe even the magnetic force).... your reading should have been sufficient to answer these same questions for the strong nuclear force:
(I will ask you these tomorrow)

what particles does the force act on?
(or equivalently, what is the "charge" of the force?)

how many "charges" are there?

what are the rules for attraction and repulsion?

what things does the magnitude of the force depend on?
(and how does the strength depend on these things)?

how does the strength of the force compare to the strengths of the other forces?
 











section 13(2) on how forces are "transmitted":

know what determines the range of the strong force (and the other forces too!)

&

what binding energy is, and how to calculate it

&

how they got the first equation on page 466























in-class
presentation


yes, today



yes, today
written
homework
(by 5 pm)

 
problem 1 from the turquoise sheet
& prelab to E2 done in new lab book
 
problem 7 and 10 from the turquoise sheet 

(also remember to bring to class the ratio of the grav force to the electric force for a proton/electron in the H atom and the magnitude of the electric force between 2 protons in a helium nucleus)
lab
 
 
we do lab E2 
 
lab E2 will be due next wednesday 
other
 

 
 


modern physics pages for march 2007