AP Physics Nuclear Physics

Nuclear physics takes in a lot of territory and the range of things it effects is enormous from
saving the lives of cancer victims to its use in weapons of mass destruction. Theres a lot to love
and hate in the nuke world.

Now another thing. This handout is like really thick and has lots of good stuff in it. Much of it you
do not need to know for the AP Physics test. So why is the Physics Kahuna wasting your valuable
time with this extraneous stuff? Well, because if only the stuff you needed to know was in here,
then nuclear physics would not be complete, wouldnt make a whole lot of sense, and would be
pretty confusing. Plus you would be shortchanged in a big-time way. The Physics Kahuna,
because of his enormous respect for the Advanced Placement Student, refuses to do this to you. So,
throughout, the document, the Physics Kahuna will make a notation on the stuff you need to know
and also point out the stuff that you do not need to know. Is that fair or what?

Review of Atomic Theory Basics: (Heres important stuff you need to know.) Lets do
a quick review about atoms. Nuclear physics deals with atoms, right? Anyway, the basic idea is
that ordinary matter is made up of collections of atoms. There are around 90 different kinds of
atoms that can be found on our beloved planet. Each of the different types is called an element.
Elements are substances that cannot be broken down into other substances. So far this is nothing
more than a basic chemistry review, aint it? Well, it does get better. Wait and see.

Each atom has a nucleus, which contains most of its mass. In this nucleus are the nucleons the
protons and neutrons (which you no doubt fondly remember from your electrical studies).
Surrounding the nucleus is the electron cloud this is where the electrons go about their
enormously busy little electron thing. There is one electron for every proton in an atom. When the
501
number of electrons and protons is different, you dont have an atom anymore, you have gots you
one of them ions. Remember them? Anyway, just what the electrons are doing in an atom is pretty
complicated well deal with them later when we get to quantum mechanics.

The atomic number is the number of protons in an atom. This information can be easily found
from the periodic table (you will, no doubt, recall that elements are organized by atomic number in
the periodic table). A periodic table is included at the end of this section of the text. You also have
one available in your CCHS planner.

Z is the symbol for the atomic number.

In 1993, Binney & Smith introduced sixteen more colors, all named by
consumers: Asparagus, Cerise, Denim, Granny Smith Apple, Macaroni and
Cheese, Mauvelous, Pacific Blue, Purple Mountain's Majesty, Razzmatazz,
Robin's Egg Blue, Shamrock, Tickle Me Pink, Timber Wolf, Tropical Rain
Forest, Tumbleweed, and Wisteria.
Washington Irving used the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon when he
published The Sketch-Book, a collection of short stories and essays,
including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle.
On average, children between the ages of two and seven color 28 minutes
every day.
The average child in the United States will wear down 730 crayons by his
or her tenth birthday.
The scent of Crayola crayons is among the twenty most recognizable to
American adults.
The Crayola brand name is recognized by 99 percent of all Americans.
Red barns and black tires got their colors thanks in part to two of Binney &
Smith's earliest products: red pigment and carbon black. Red and black are
also the most popular crayon colors, mostly because children tend to use
them for outlining.
Binney & Smith is dedicated to environmental responsibility. Crayons that
don't meet quality standards are remelted and used to make new crayons.
Ninety percent of Crayola products packaging is made from recycled
cardboard. The company also makes sure the wood in their colored pencils
doesn't originate from tropical rain forests.
Binney & Smith produces two billion Crayola crayons a year, which, if
placed end to end, would circle the earth 4.5 times.
Crayola crayon boxes are printed in eleven languages: Danish, Dutch,
English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Spanish, and Swedish.

502
Something Completely Different:

In 1864, Joseph W. Binney began the Peekskill Chemical Works in Peekskill, New
York, producing hardwood charcoal and a black pigment called lampblack. In 1880
he opened a New York office and invited his son, Edwin Binney, and his nephew,
C. Harold Smith, to join the company. The cousins renamed the company Binney &
Smith and expanded the product line to include shoe polish, printing ink, black
crayons, and chalk.
In 1903, the Binney & Smith company made the first box of Crayola crayons
costing a nickel and containing eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet,
brown, and black.
Alice Binney, wife of company co-owner Edwin Binney, coined the word Crayola
by joining craie, from the French word meaning chalk, with ola, from oleaginous,
meaning oily.
In 1949, Binney & Smith introduced another forty colors: Apricot, Bittersweet, Blue
Green, Blue Violet, Brick Red, Burnt Sienna, Carnation Pink, Cornflower, Flesh
(renamed Peach in 1962, partly as a result of the civil rights movement), Gold,
Gray, Green Blue, Green Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Magenta, Mahogany, Maize,
Maroon, Melon, Olive Green, Orange Red, Orange Yellow, Orchid, Periwinkle,
Pine Green, Prussian Blue (renamed Midnight Blue in 1958 in response to teachers'
requests), Red Orange, Red Violet, Salmon, Sea Green, Silver, Spring Green, Tan,
Thistle, Turquoise Blue, Violet Blue, Violet Red, White, Yellow Green, and Yellow
Orange.
In 1958, Binney & Smith added sixteen colors, bringing the total number of colors
to 64: Aquamarine, Blue Gray, Burnt Orange, Cadet Blue, Copper, Forest Green,
Goldenrod, Indian Red, Lavender, Mulberry, Navy Blue, Plum, Raw Sienna, Raw
Umber, Sepia, and Sky Blue. They also introduced the now-classic 64-box of
crayons, complete with built-in sharpener.
In 1972, Binney & Smith introduced eight fluorescent colors: Atomic Tangerine,
Blizzard Blue, Hot Magenta, Laser Lemon, Outrageous Orange, Screamin' Green,
Shocking Pink, and Wild Watermelon. In 1990, the company introduced eight more
fluorescent colors: Electric Lime, Magic, Mint, Purple Pizzazz, Radical Red, Razzle
Dazzle Rose, Sunglow, Unmellow Yellow, and Neon Carrot.
In 1990, Binney & Smith retired eight traditional colored crayons from its 64-
crayon box (Green Blue, Orange Red, Orange Yellow, Violet Blue, Maize, Lemon
Yellow, Blue Gray, and Raw Umber) and replaced them with such New Age hues as
(Cerulean, Vivid Tangerine, Jungle Green, Fuchsia, Dandelion, Teal Blue, Royal
Purple, and Wild Strawberry). Retired colors were enshrined in the Crayola Hall of
Fame. Protests from groups such as RUMPS (The Raw Umber and Maize
Preservation Society) and CRAYON (The Committee to Reestablish All Your Old
Norms) convinced Binney & Smith to release the one million boxes of the Crayola
Eight in October 1991.
In 1993, Binney & Smith celebrated Crayola brand's ninetieth birthday by
introducing the biggest crayon box ever with 96 colors.

503
The mass number is the number of nucleons in an atom so its like the number of protons plus the
old number of your basic neutrons. Atoms are required to have a mass number because the number
of neutrons can vary from one atom of a particular element to another. For example some atoms of
carbon (atomic number 6) have 6 neutrons while others might have 8. Atoms that have different
mass numbers are called isotopes. Isotopes of an element behave pretty much the same way,
chemically (at least) except that they have a very slightly, teeny difference in mass. So far as
chemistry is concerned, isotopes behave the same. So a chemist doesnt really care about the thing.

A is the symbol for the mass number.

You wont find mass numbers on the periodic table. Instead they are supplied as part of the name
of the isotope.
N is the number of neutrons.

Isotopes are identified by their mass numbers. There are several ways to do this. Lets take as our
example an isotope of uranium. We could call it:

Uranium 235 Here we give its mass number, 235.

U 235 The chemical symbol for the element plus the mass
number.

235
U The chemical symbol plus the mass number.

235
92U Both the atomic number and the mass number are
given.

The mass number and atomic number are supplied as follows:

Mass number
235
92 U Symbol for element
Atomic number

Using the atomic symbol and the mass number we can find the number of particles an isotope has.

AZ N
That is to say:
Mass number = atomic number + number of neutrons

How many protons, electrons, and neutrons for 238

U?
92

504
 A = 92, so, this is by definition the number of protons.

Number of electrons = 92, since the number of electrons = the number of protons.

Number of neutrons:

AZ N N AZ 238 92 146

Radioactivity: (You need to know this stuff.) Certain types of isotopes are not, for some
reason, stable. The nuclei just up and break apart. Most disconcerting. We call such elements
radioactive isotopes. The whole general thing is called radioactivity. Radioactivity has to do with
the weak nuclear force and the combination of protons and neutrons. Turns out that some
combinations are more stable than others.

Radioactivity spontaneous
breakdown of an unstable atomic
nucleus with emission of particles
and rays.

=======================================
(Backkground info - you dont need to know this stuff.)
Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 by Antoine-Henri
Becquerel (1852 - 1908). It had been established that
certain substances would fluoresce, giving off the newly
discovered x-rays. Fluoresce means that the substance
absorbs electromagnetic waves of some type (like light)
and then emits electromagnetic waves later on. The
emitted waves do not have to have the same wavelength
as the absorbed waves. For example, we beamed UV
light onto materials that would fluoresce with UV. They
appeared to glow in the dark because the atoms were
emitting visible light. The light causing them to do this
was UV, and was invisible because we cant see
that part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Becquerel devised an elegant experiment to detect

the x-rays. He wrapped a photographic plate with
dark paper so no light could reach it. Then he
placed a piece of potassium uranyl sulfate, a
compound containing uranium, on the paper. His
idea was that the uranium compound would
fluoresce in sunlight absorb light and then give
off x-rays. The x-rays would go through the paper
and fog the film. Sure enough, the plate was
fogged when he developed it. Eureka!
Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, he later
The Becquerel
placed some of the material, in a dark desk drawer on top of a wrapped Plate plate,
up photographic

505
confident that nothing would happen without sunlight. Later, just for the heck of it, he developed
the plate. To his amazement, he found that the plate was still fogged - even though it was in the dark
and away from sunlight! Whatever had been emitted did not require sunlight and was not a
fluorescence byproduct.

But what produced the emissions? A year later, a Polish born French chemist, Marie Skodowska

Curie (1867-1934), found that it was the uranium, which was releasing the radiation. In 1898 she
found that other substances such as thorium also gave off radiation. Working with her husband,
Pierre, she discovered the element polonium (which she named for her native country, Poland)
and radium. She coined the word "radioactivity" to describe the effect.

It turns out that all naturally occurring elements which have an atomic number greater than 83
(bismuth is the element with the honor of having atomic number 83) are radioactive. There are also
quite a few isotopes with low atomic numbers that are radioactive, such as C-14 and Co-60.

Characteristics of radioactive isotopes:

1. Radioactive emissions affect photographic film.
2. Radiation ionizes air molecules surrounding them.
3. Radiation makes certain compounds fluoresce (give off electromagnetic radiation).
4. Radiation has physical effects on living organisms - it can kill or damage tissue.
5. Radiation destroys and alters the nucleus of the atom and produces a new element or
elements from the old one.

=====================================================================
Why Are Some Elements Radioactive? (Important stuff you need to know.) The
mechanism of radioactivity is not really understood. It appears to be related to the interaction of
protons and neutrons in the nucleus. The normal isotope of hydrogen has only one proton in its
nucleus - no neutrons. Most helium atoms have two protons and two neutrons. The neutrons are
required, in some way not fully understood, to "cement" the protons together to form a nucleus.
The protons would normally repel each other because of their like charges, but this does not happen
in the nucleus. As the number of protons increase, the number of neutrons increases. As the
nucleus gets bigger, we soon find that the nuclei have more neutrons than protons. For some
reason, certain combinations of neutrons and protons are more stable than others. For example, C-
12 is stable, but C-14 is radioactive. The force that keeps the nucleus together, that acts between
protons and neutrons is called the nuclear force. Sometimes it is called the strong nuclear force.
This force is many orders of magnitude greater than the electromagnetic force it would have to be
wouldnt it to keep the protons close together? We know that like electric charges repel each other,
so the protons dont want to be close together. The strong force, much greater than the
electromagnetic force binds them together. For this to happen, however, the protons must be very
close together about the radius of a proton or so. Then the strong force kicks in. To sum it up:

The strong force is enormously stronger than the electromagnetic force.

The strong force has a much smaller effective range than does the
electromagnetic force.

Neutrons are required in the mix of protons for the strong force to work properly.
506
===================================================================
Half-life: (This is stuff you do not need to
know.) Any sample of a radioactive element has
atoms that undergo spontaneous radioactive
decay. When it does this, the number of atoms
of the radioactive isotope decreases as the nuclei
break apart and form other elements. These new
decay elements or products are called
daughters. The old, original radioactive
element is called the parent. Because of this
decay, the amount of the parent decreases with
time. The rate of decay is often described in
terms of the half-life.

Half-life the time for one half of a radioactive sample to decay.

For example, radium-226 has a half-life of 1620 years.

This is shown in the graph below. One kg of radium-226 begins the thing. After one half-life
(1620years) only half of the sample remains the other half has decayed into some other element.
After two half-lives only one fourth would remain and so on.
===================================================
Types of Radioactivity: (Important stuff you need to know.) There are three major types of
radiation that the nuclear physicist is concerned with: alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha radiation
consists of particles, alpha particles. The alpha particles are actually helium nuclei. Beta radiation
is also made up of particles electrons. Gamma radiation is made up of very short wavelength
electromagnetic waves. The reason for the odd names is a simple one. The types of radiation were
discovered before the particles were. So Ernest Rutherford discovered alpha particles before
anyone knew anything about helium nuclei.

Here are some characteristics of the different types of radiation:

1. Alpha particles. The symbol for the alpha particle is .

particles are helium nuclei. Each alpha consists of 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
's have a positive charge (+2).
's are only slightly deflected by a magnetic field (because of their large mass).
They are stopped easily by a sheet of paper.

2. Beta particles. The symbol for the beta particle is .

's are electrons, so they have a have a negative charge (-1).
They can be greatly deflected by a magnetic field (because of their small mass and
negative charge).
's penetrate matter a greater distance than particles, but they still arent very
penetrating. They can be stopped by a layer of metal foil or several sheets of paper.

3. Gamma rays. The symbol for gamma rays is .

507
 s are very short wavelength, high frequency photons.
s have no charge.
They are not deflected by magnetic fields (again, they have no charge).
They are the most penetrating form of radiation. Stopping s requires great thicknesses of
heavy materials such as lead or concrete.

Symbols Used For Particles In Nuclear Reactions:

1
Neutron 0 n

1
Proton 1 p

0
Electron 1 e
4
Alpha particle 2 He

Gamma ray 0
0

0
Beta particle 1 e

Nuclear Reactions: (Important stuff you need to know.) Nuclear reactions are somewhat
different than chemical reactions. In chemical reactions, the equation is balanced when the number
of each of the different elements on the reactant side equals the number of the different elements on
the product side. In nuclear reactions, the atomic number and the mass number for each element
must be balanced on both sides (in addition to the number of elements). We say that the mass
number and atomic number must be conserved. The effect of balancing the atomic number is to
actually balance the charge of the reactant and product.

Types of Nuclear Reactions: (Important stuff you need to know.)

Alpha decay: In alpha decay, an unstable nucleus produces a daughter nucleus and releases an
particle.

238
92 U 234
90 Th 4
2 He
U-238 decays to produce Th-234 and an alpha particle. During alpha decay, the mass
number decreases by 4 and the atomic number decreases by 2. The Th-234 is called a
daughter or daughter product.

508
Beta decay: In decay a neutron in the nucleus of the unstable radioactive parent decays and
becomes a proton as it emits a particle (an electron).

234
90 Th 234
91 Pa 0
1 e
Here, Thorium-234 (produced by alpha decay above, say) has one of its neutrons become a
proton - this increases the atomic number by one, but has no effect on the mass number
since a neutron and a proton are both nucleons. A beta particle is also produced. Note that
the atomic number on the left is equal to the total atomic number on the right.

During electron capture, the atomic number of the daughter decreases by one, there is no
change to the mass number. Note that in this reaction, you are producing gold from
mercury. Pretty cool thing.

Gamma Decay :Many nuclear reactions often produce rays. Alpha decay does this
frequently.

238
92U 234
90 Th 4
He
2
0
0

Other Nuclear Reactions: (Important stuff you need to know.) Beginning in the late
1930's, physicists would bombard atomic nuclei with high-speed particles and then see what
happened. Originally the equipment that did the job was called an "atom smasher". These days we
call the things "particle accelerators".

In 1932 James Chadwick (1891 - 1974), an English physicist, discovered the neutron. He did this
by bombarding beryllium with alpha particles. The beryllium absorbed the alpha particle and
became carbon. The process released a neutron, which Chadwick detected by the damage it
wrought on a piece of paraffin. (Think about it, how do you detect a particle that has no charge?)
Anyway, the neutron would plow into the paraffin and collide with hydrogen atoms and knock them
about. The tracks of the hydrogen, which showed the path of the neutron, was what he could then
observe. Here is the reaction:

9
4 Be 2
4
He C
12
6
1
0 n energy
The atomic number increased by 2 (the two protons in the particle) and the mass number went up
by 3 instead of 4, this is because a neutron was emitted.

(a) State the type of reaction the following nuclear equation represents and (b) complete it:

15
8O ___ 0
1 e

509
(a) Okay, this is clearly beta decay. We know this because one of the products is an electron.

(b) Oxygen-15 loses a beta particle. The atomic number decreases by one so the oxygen becomes
an element with an atomic number of seven, which is nitrogen. See the atomic number does
this:

8 1 7

There is no change to the mass number, so it stays at 15. Now we can fill everything in.

15
8O 15
7N 0
1 e

Here is a nuclear reaction, see if you can balance the thing.

___ 1
0n 7
3 Li 4
2 He

Here, the mass number on the right side totals up to be eleven. The atomic number total on the right
side is five. On the left side we have a neutron, which has a mass number value of 1, so the mass
number of the decaying nucleus must be ten. The neutron has no effect on the atomic number of the
decaying nucleus, so it must be five (the total atomic number on the right side). So the decaying
nucleus must be boron.

Now we can complete the reaction:

10
5B 1
0n 7
3 Li 4
2 He

======================================================================

Is Radiation All Bad? (Stuff you do not need to know.) The great teeming United States
population is deathly afraid of radiation - any kind of radiation. Yet radiation is a natural thing.
Radiation is all around us - even inside of us. We are exposed to it every second of our lives.

Mutations: Radiation causes mutations and this is a good thing. Doesnt sound like a
good thing though, does it? Makes you think of those old black and white horror movies
with the guy having the head of a fly or something, dont it?

But mutations are of great importance. They are one of the key factors in evolution. And,
without evolution, we would not be here well, we might be here, but in the form of a
single cell happily living on a bit of sludge with no interest in physics whatsoever.

Medical Uses: Radiation is also used to treat cancers. Radiation in high doses is lethal
to tissue. Turns out that cancer cells are slightly more vulnerable to radiation than healthy
cells. A beam of radioactive particles ( rays for example) are directed at the cancer tumor.
510
To make sure that healthy tissue is not destroyed along with the malignant cells, the
radiation source sweeps out an arc with the focus on the tumor. The tumor receives a lethal
dose, but the surrounding tissue receives much less radiation and survives.

Insect Sterilization: Radiation is used to sterilize insects (usually the males) so that
they can be released in the wild and mate without producing any offspring. The females
will have satisfied their mating urges and will lay eggs that will never hatch. This is being
done in Southern California to try and eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly.

Gambling: Another strange use the Physics Kahuna recently ran across -- gambling
casinos! A brochure from a casino states: "The games at Pharaoh's casino are based on true
random numbers, generated by a Geiger-Mller Tube Detector, which uses the
unpredictability of background radiation to generate genuinely random numbers."

Food Sterilization: Radiation is also used to sterilize food. Virtually all spices are
treated with radiation.
Contamination of food with bacteria is quite common around the world, even in the good
old US of A. Ground beef, eggs, and chicken are particularly vulnerable.

Our federal government estimates that 75 million Americans get some kind of stomach
poisoning from nasty bacteria per anum, leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths
every year.

Radiation can be used to truly sterilize food.

This technique has been around for decades -
the Physics Kahuna recalls reading about it in
the good old Weekly Reader in the third
grade. The process is very simple, the food
is simply irradiated with high energy gamma
rays. The gamma rays scream through the
material, killing all the microorganisms in its
path. Gamma rays are electromagnetic waves
and leave no trace of themselves. The food is
not made radioactive; merely rendered sterile.
If the food is then sealed in a sterile
container, it will keep indefinitely at room temperature without spoiling. (Actually, it is
often irradiated after it is sealed. This makes sure that the contents are sterile.) Food has
been irradiated for years in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The United States has not gotten on
board fear of radiation mainly.

Recently there have been some terrible outbreaks of food poisoning from several different
bacteria strains (salmonella, e. coli, etc.) as well as some of the nastier parasites. Many
people are seriously worried about eating hamburgers, eggs sunny side up, or drinking milk.
Oprah has given up eating meat (at least hamburgers)! Using food irradiation, the problem
would go away. The FDA recently approved the process for all foods (it had been
previously authorized for use in pork). So far, however, none of the major food suppliers

511
have come forward to take up the process. Irradiated food has to be labeled as such, and the
big outfits fear that people would refuse to buy such products.

Biological Tracers: Radioactive isotopes can be added to systems and used as tracers.
For example, radioactive iodine is often injected into a person's bloodstream. The isotope
can be tracked as it circulates through the blood vessels, giving a doctor valuable
information about how the individual's circulatory system is working.

Isotopes can be added to fertilizer before it is spread on a field. Later, by testing the plants,
it can be determined how well they took up the fertilizer. Give you an idea how well the
plants liked the stuff.

Smoke Detectors: A trace amount of americium-241 is used in smoke detectors. Am-

241 is an emitter. The particles ionize the air inside a detector chamber causing the
ionized air to conduct an electric current. Smoke particles interfere with the ionized air, the
current flow stops and sets off the alarm.
U.S. Mail Sterilization: (New! This just in!) Radiation is now being used to
sterilize mail sent to the Senate and the House of Representatives to thwart any further
anthrax attacks.

Radioactive Dating: Radioactive isotopes are used to accurately date archeological

sites and the age of rocks and minerals on the earth (and also the ones brought back from the
moon). The one youve probably heard about the most is carbon-14 dating. Carbon-14 is
produced in the upper atmosphere by the collision of cosmic rays with nitrogen-14. Here is
the nuclear reaction for its production:

14
7N 0 n 6C
1 14
11H

512
 The carbon-14 is radioactive and decays over time its half-life is 5730 years. The
production rate is constant, so the percentage of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is also a
constant. The isotope is taken up by plants and ends up in the entire food chain, so all living
things have the same percent of carbon-14 in their tissues. Some of the carbon-14 will
decay, but it is replaced. Once something dies, however, the decaying carbon-14 is no
longer replaced and its concentration begins to diminish. Scientists can measure the amount
of carbon-14 in the tissue and accurately determine the length of the time since the death of
the organism. Because of the half-life, carbon-14 dating is good to only about 70 000 years
ago.

Dear Cecil:
About 15 years ago I read an obscure government publication on the use of uranium in
dental porcelain. It said uranium is added to dental porcelain for cosmetic reasons, to
make the porcelain more luminous like natural teeth. It was estimated that this use of
uranium causes about 2,000 cases of cancer per year.

I've since mentioned this to many dentists, but none of them had ever heard of this. Cecil,
I'm counting on you to find out what's going on here. Preferably before I need more dental
work. And while you're at it, what is the safest dental material?
--Pearl E. White, Chicago

Cecil replies:
You read right, friend--in these days of crummy schools an accomplishment in itself. In one of
those classic wacky moves, manufacturers once upon a time did put uranium in dental porcelain
to give crowns and false teeth that certain glow.

Real teeth have natural fluorescence. If you shine a black light on your teeth they gleam a
brilliant white. To give dental work the same glow, the use of uranium in dental porcelain was
patented in 1942.

The timing of this was suspicious. You have to wonder if those Manhattan Project scientists,
toiling over crucibles of hot uranium, got to thinking, hey, if this nuclear weapon thing, you
know, bombs, we can always go into teeth.

513
I should point out that the glow imparted to false teeth by uranium was not in itself a consequence
of radioactivity. Uranium merely happens to fluoresce in the presence of UV light. Fluorescence
is harmless. Lots of compounds do it. Uranium's advantage was that it would survive the high
heat of porcelain manufacture.

However, you did have the problem that uranium also emitted radioactivity. In the wake of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it occurred to the dental-ceramics industry that a substance that had
destroyed cities might have adverse health effects if used in the mouth. Manufacturers discussed
the situation with the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s.

The debate proceeded along the following lines. On the one hand, putting uranium in people's
mouths might possibly give them cancer and kill them. On the other hand, their teeth looked great.

It was an easy call. The industry was given a federal exemption to continue using uranium.

In the 1970s some began to wonder if this had been the world's smartest decision. The amount of
uranium used in dental porcelain was small--0.05 percent by weight in the U.S., 0.1 percent in
Germany.

Nonetheless the fake teeth bombarded the oral mucosa with radiation that was maybe eight times
higher than normal background radiation. None of the research I came across mentioned a specific
number of cancer deaths, but clearly this was not something you'd do for the health benefits.

514
 Dear Doctor Science,
What's so bad about comparing apples to oranges?
----- Tim from Houston, TX

Dr. Science responds:

Apples and oranges are oppositely charged fruits. When compared, they cancel each
other out, and become Polysorbate 60, a gummy substance used as filler in
shampoos and food by-products. If you'd like to make your apples or oranges even
zestier and full of life-giving energy, wrap them in tinfoil and place them in the
microwave oven for a few minutes. That blue sparking you'll see around the edge is
the energy being absorbed by the happy fruit. Don't leave them in there too long, or
you'll end up with a broken microwave oven full of boiling fruit juice.

Dear Dr. Science,

I've read that there's an antiproton shortage affecting anti-matter research.
Where can we get more antiprotons, anyway?
----- Dave Berglund, Mishawaka, IN

Dr. Science responds:

You're in luck. They're on sale this week at Wal-Mart. Buy 'em by the sack and save,
just like you used to be able to do at the five-and-dime but Woolworth's was another
scarred era of my youth. Oh, your question? Of course, the main thing you want to
do is keep them away from protons. Let an antiproton near one of those pesky
protons and you've got a potential nuclear winter on your hands. Fortunately, most
protons are huddled in proton globs deep beneath the arctic poles. But leave it to
some National Geographic type to dig a hole in the ice, bring a bunch of protons
home and then go shopping at Wal-Mart. I tell you, you can't win. Might as well
stick your head in the target end of a linear accelerator some days.

Neutrinos: (Important stuff you need to know.) Neutrinos are extremely tiny particles that have
very little mass. The story of how they came to be discovered is interesting. In 1930 Wolfgang
Pauli was studying beta decay. He caused the reaction to happen by bombarding an atomic nucleus
with a high-energy particle. He predicted that the nuclear reaction should produce a certain amount
of energy and of course, energy and momentum have to be conserved.

However after analyzing the motion of the particles after the reaction, he could not account for all
the energy and momentum. He surmised that there had to be another particle that had the missing
energy and momentum. So he theorized a new particle had to exist. Later it was given the name
neutrino by Enrico Fermi. It wasnt until the mid 1950s that the neutrino was actually detected.

Heres an example of a reaction that produces a neutrino (this would be beta decay, right?):
515
 14
6C 14
7N 0
1 e v

The symbol for the neutrino is v.

Here are some characteristics of neutrinos:

Neutrinos have zero charge

They have an extremely small mass
Very weak interaction with matter.

Essentially, neutrinos dont interact with matter at all. This made them very difficult to actually
detect if they dont interact with matter, how can you tell if youve got one? At one time it was
believed that neutrinos had no mass at all, but recent experiments have shown that the particles do
have mass, but only a very very small one. Actually they are very common in the universe, a huge
flux of them is passing through your body as you read this thing.

Fission: (Important stuff you need to know.) Fission turns out to be a very important type of
nuclear reaction. In fission, a nucleus splits apart to form two new elements (or daughter fission
products). Lets look at two different reactions involving slow neutron bombardment. One causes
fission and the other does not.

The first reaction is the bombardment of U-238 with a slow neutron. Heres the equation for the
reaction:

238
92U 1
0n 239
92U U-239 is unstable and undergoes beta decay.

239
92U 239
93 Np 0
1 e Np-239 also undergoes beta decay.

239
93 Np 239
94 Pu 0
1 e

Pu 239, the final product is also radioactive, but its rate of decay is much slower that the other
products. It is fairly stable and will hang around for thousands of years before it all decays away.
(Which is not to say that it is a safe material it is extremely radioactive and very dangerous).

Now if you bombard another isotope of uranium, U 235, with the same slow neutrons, something
very different happens we get fission. There are actually a great number of possible reactions
(which are all fairly similar). Here are three common, typical ones:

235
92U 1
0n 141
56 Ba 92
36 Kr 3 01n

235
92U 1
0n 140
54 Xe 94
38 Sr 2 01n

235
92U 1
0n 132
50 Sn 101
42 Mo 3 01n
516
Note that we end up with two new elements. The other critical thing is the production of neutrons.

Pu-239, produced by the U-238, also undergoes fission when bombarded with neutrons. Heres an
equation for the reaction.

239
94 Pu 1
0n 106
44 Ru 131
50 Sn 3 01n energy

The fission process produces an enormous amount of energy (we will see how this happens shortly).
For this reason fission is used to produce electricity in nuclear reactors. It is also used to make
bombs.

The production of three neutrons is a critical thing. It can cause a chain reaction. Do you see
how this would work? A neutron causes a fission. The fissioning nucleus releases three neutrons
and each of these neutrons causes another fission. So we get three fissions. Each of these produces
three neutrons, so we get nine more fissions, which will give us 27 neutrons, and so on. The
reaction increases and multiplies very quickly.
This reaction can have three states: it can be subcritical, critical, or supercritical. A subcritical
reaction basically dies out. This will happen if you do not have a critical mass. In a small amount
of fissionable material, most of the neutrons leak out of the system and do not cause fissions. This
causes the reaction to come to a halt.

If the system is critical, then each nucleus that fissions causes exactly one more nucleus to fission.
The reaction takes place at a steady rate.

Nuclear power plants are designed to operate at a critical state. The reaction is controllable.

The system must have a critical mass for the chain reaction to take place. When the system is
critical, you can see that we have excess neutrons produced and something has to be done with
some of them. Some leak out of the system and the rest have to be absorbed by something. In a
nuclear reactor control rods are inserted into the core (the place where the fuel is located) and
absorbs some of the neutrons. By carefully positioning the rods, the reactor can be kept at a critical
state.

Super critical is when each fissioning nucleus causes more than one other nucleus to fission.
Atomic bomb explosions are super critical events. However, if a nuclear reactor were to go super
critical, it would not cause an atomic explosion. Instead it would heat up, eventually melting the
uranium fuel.

The United States built the first atomic bombs during WWII. The government set up a super secret
program to build the bomb. The program was called the Manhattan Project.

Two bomb designs were conceived and built. One bomb used pure U-235. This was the "Little
Boy" bomb. It used a gun type mechanism to achieve criticality. The uranium metal, highly
enriched U-235, had to be kept out of a critical mass configuration (else it would go critical), so it
was kept in two parts. A long tube separated two chunks of the metal.

517
When the weapon was set off, an explosive
charge was detonated which drove the U-235
"bullet" down the tube and into the uranium
mass at the end of the tube. Almost instantly
the U-235 became a critical mass and went
supercritical.

It takes 10-8 sec for a neutron (these are

available because U 235 is naturally radioactive) to be absorbed and cause a nucleus to fission,
which releases around 3 more neutrons. In 10-6 seconds (a millionth of a second) 100 reactions will
have taken place and so on. The energy that is released is enormous - the first atomic bomb
released around 4 x 1019 J. The output of nuclear bombs are given in kilotons, a kiloton is an
explosion equivalent to the burst of a thousand tons of TNT.

The two chunks of uranium have to be put together into a critical mass almost instantly. Too slow
and an explosion does not occur, instead the metal, while supercritical, would merely get very hot
and melt.

The second bomb used plutonium and was called "Fat Man". It was basically a large metal sphere.
The plutonium was formed an expanded sphere that was sort of spongy so that it would not be
critical. Surrounding the plutonium sphere were explosive charges. The charges formed an
explosive lens. When detonated a shock wave was formed that was focused towards the center.
Anyway, once the charges were fired, the plutonium would be almost instantly compressed to form
a critical mass and at that point the plutonium would go supercritical and yield a nuclear explosion.

The first bomb actually exploded was a plutonium weapon that was test fired at Alamogordo, New

Explosive shape
charge

Plutonium 239 Critical Mass

Critical mass has formed

bomb ready to explode

Plutonium "Fat boy" bomb

Mexico on 16 July 1945. One can say that a new age began with the test firing. The scientists
expected a yield of around 5 000 kilotons). Instead, the bomb produced 20 000 kilotons. The
uranium bomb, Little Boy, yielded about 12 kilotons.

Once the bomb was tested, a decision about its use had to be made. The war in Europe had ended,
but the war in the Pacific raged on. There was a great deal of debate about how it should be best
employed. Should the Japanese be warned that the US had the atom bomb? Should a bomb be set
off as a demonstration? Well, you know what President Truman decided - use the thing. President
Truman said that he never second-guessed the decision. The main reasoning was that lives, both

518
American and Japanese, would be saved if the war could be ended without having to invade Japan.
So the honor of being the first nation to use an atomic bomb in war belongs to the United States.
The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima with devastating results, this was the Little Boy weapon, the
uranium device. A few days later a second weapon - a plutonium bomb - was dropped on
Nagasaki. There is still a huge controversy about the use of atomic weapons in this way. Many
people think it stopped the war and saved millions of American (and Japanese) lives, - the invasion
of Japan, seen as the only way to make the Japanese surrender, was sure to be a bloody affair (on
both sides). Others believe that it was immoral and unjustified.

What do you think?

Nuclear Reactors: (Stuff you do not need to know.) Nuclear reactors, unlike bombs, are
designed to release the energy stored in the atoms slowly and reasonably gently. Reactors do not
require highly enriched uranium to operate. The fuel is typically 3 to 5 percent enriched. (Meaning
that only 3 % to 5 % of the uranium is U-235.) A reactor must be able to sustain criticality (you
don't want it to be supercritical!).

The core is flooded with water, which does two things: it cools the fuel rods, which are producing a
huge amount of heat, and they moderate or slow down the neutrons. Controlling the neutron speed
helps keep the reactor critical.

The coolant water is circulated through a heat exchanger where it gives up its heat to a second loop
of cooling water called condensate. The condensate is converted to steam which can then drive a
turbine. The turbine rotates an electric generator, generating electricity. The steam is condensed
and returned to the heat exchanger.
The two loops do not mix, so that radioactivity is not released.

Nuclear Power Issues: (Stuff you do not need to know.) Nuclear power makes up 80 % of
the electricity generated in France, yet the United States seems to be determined to get out of the
nuclear power generating business. Today, only about 20 % of our electricity is generated by
nuclear reactors. In fact there are presently no new reactors under construction and several that
were being built have been abandoned. The primary reason for this is environmental concern.
Many people fear that reactors are time bombs waiting to release deadly radiation that will poison
the environment and cause terrible health damage to the populace. The other problem is that the
spent fuel is highly radioactive and we have yet to work out a method of disposing of the nuclear
wastes that makes everyone happy.

519
Nuclear disasters have taken place. The worst one was in Russia at a reactor located at Chernobyl.
The Chernobyl reactor was a bad design to begin with,
the people operating it were badly trained, and it was
very poorly maintained. Due to an operator error, the
reactor core melted which caused a chemical explosion.
The reactor was not within an adequate containment
vessel and huge amounts of radiation were released into
the atmosphere and water system.

The worst reactor incident in the United States

happened at the Three Mile Island reactor. Here, due to
a faulty gauge and improper actions, the core also
melted down. But the United States requires
tremendous safety factors in nuclear reactors. There
was no chemical explosion, the containment vessel was
not breached, and there was no environmental impact.
It was an awful expensive accident, however.

An important thing to remember is that nuclear reactors

cannot undergo a nuclear explosion.

Dear Dr. Science,

What is the odor, if any, of nuclear power?
Jenny, Gainesville, Florida

Dr. Science responds:

It's a smell that the nuclear power industry's house magazine, "Faulty Towers,"
describes as "chocolatey." This same publication refers to cosmic rays as giving
off a "cinnamony" aroma and spent plutonium as "lemony fresh." This is an
example of the power of corporations to inform and delight us about the exciting
world Science has in store for all of us. So the next time you bite into an
artificially flavored and colored food by-product, thank the nuclear power
industry for exchanging our bland, real world for a zesty, imaginative one.

Other Uses of Nuclear Power: (Stuff you do not need to know.) Nuclear power is
currently used to provide propulsion for submarines, missile cruisers, and aircraft carriers by the
U.S. Navy. The Russians and British also have nuclear powered submarines. The old Soviet Union
also operated nuclear powered ice breakers. In the 1950s, serious plans were developed for nuclear
powered aircraft. A civilian merchant ship, the SS Savanah was also in service during the 1950s
and 1960s.

Nuclear reactors are also used to power certain satellites and space probes.
520
Units: (Important stuff you need to know.) Many units are used when dealing with the nucleus
and subatomic particles.

Atomic mass unit: (Important stuff you need to know.) The mass of the atom is frequently
measured in units called the atomic mass unit, which is abbreviated as u. One atomic mass unit is
equal to one twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 nucleus. So one atomic mass unit is about the mass
of a proton or neutron. Protons have a slightly different mass than neutrons. Here is the value we
will use.

1 u 1.66 x 10-27 kg

The electron volt: (Important stuff you need to know.) The electron volt, abbreviated as eV
is a unit of energy that is used with subatomic particles. It is essentially the energy that an electron
gains when accelerated through a potential difference of one volt.

1 eV 1.60 x 1019 J

The electron volt is a small unit, so it is very common to use the MeV (mega-electron volt).

1 MeV 106 eV

Dear Doctor Science,

I don't like to study and so I'm not doing very well in school. Is there any
subject that I could concentrate on that would be fun and easy to master...you
know, that wouldn't involve a bunch of tedious study?
-- Bernie Brown from St. Louis MO

Dr. Science responds:

Have you considered nuclear physics? It's even more unstructured than most art
classes. You just do your own thing and see what happens. Since nobody really
knows what the rules are, it's anything goes, and the burden of proof lies anywhere
but on you. If you can't explain the results of your experiments, you just go ahead
and invent another subatomic particle. Then, if somebody else agrees with you that
the particle exists, they name it after you. You not only get away with murder, you
get famous!

Mass Equivalence to Energy: (Important stuff you need to know.) The reason nuclear
reactions (like fission) release tremendous amounts of energy is due to a discovery made by Albert
Einstein, an overlooked German born physicist who nobody has ever heard of. Its sad how people
521
so easily forget the poor scientists who spend their lives in obscurity trying to understand how the
universe works. Anyway, to be specific, this would be an incidental part of his theory of special
relativity the idea that mass and energy are equivalent.

Perhaps you have seen the equation for this. It is certainly Einsteins most famous equation and is
perhaps the most famous of all equations:
E0 mc 2

E0 is called the rest energy, m is the mass, and c is the speed of light.
On the AP Physics test the equation takes this form:
E m c 2

Note, however, that its really still essentially identical to the E0 mc equation.
2

Heres another conversion value that you will have available for use on the AP Physics test:

MeV
1 u 931
c2
The c2 part of it tells us it comes from the E = mc2 equation. It has a really weird unit, dont you
think? The Physics Kahuna puzzled over this thing for many a microsecond before he finally
figured it out.

Mass is equivalent to energy via the old

E m c 2 equation, correctimundo?

So we take us this here equation and stick in

MeV
1 u 931 for the mass:
c2
MeV 2
E m c 2 931 2 c
c
2
The c term cancels out, so we see that a mass of one
atomic mass unit is equivalent to 993 MeV. So really,
when you want to convert atomic mass units to MeV,
you just use the conversion factor as:

1 u 931 MeV

Meaning of Einsteins Equation: Ah, but what does Einsteins equation mean? Well,
it doesnt say that matter and energy are the same thing. Indeed they are not not even your basic
close. No, young student of physics, what it does say is that mass and energy are equivalent. This

522
means that mass can be converted into energy and that energy can be converted into mass. This
sounds pretty tame, but really, when you think about it, it is pretty revolutionary.

The effects of this are pretty insignificant in everyday life. No one notices that a car speeding down
the interstate at 75 mph has a slightly greater mass than it had when it was at rest in a driveway
(more energy means more mass).

This energy source cannot be tapped into ordinarily. We cant just raid the trashcan and convert
some old coffee grounds into energy (as was done in the first Back to the Future movie with a Mr.
Fusion device). This does not mean that it cant be done, however. Actually back in 1905 when
Einstein published his theory, the response of the physics community was a sort of yawn type thing.
The old boy network thought that the energy mass equivalence thing was interesting, but certainly
nothing that would ever actually do anything.
There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing
atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish
bug-a-boo. Nature has introduced a few fool-proof devices into the great majority of elements that
constitute the bulk of the world, and they have no energy to give up in the process of disintegration.
-- Robert A. Millikan
...any one who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking
moonshine... -- Ernest Rutherford

Even Einstein was of this opinion:

There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that
the atom would have to be shattered at will. - Albert Einstein

Dear Doctor Science,

In positron emission, a proton turns into a neutron and a positron, the positron and one
of the electrons in the atom mutually destroy each other to keep the electrostatic charge
of the atom balanced. My question is why does my nose itch when I think about
chickens?
-- Eric Raxler from Chino, California

Dr. Science responds:

You may be allergic to chickens, and positron emission has nothing to do with it. Or, you
might be one of those unfortunate few who have an electrostatic deficit, resulting in habitual
negativity and a co-dependent relationship to most sub-atomic particles. If that's the case, you
have to start setting limits and sticking to them. You can't be all things to all matter, even if
you'd gladly twist yourself into a Mobius strip to do so. Once your level of self-loathing
exceeds your sense of self worth, your nose begins to itch, chickens or no chickens.

523
Well, obviously, these guys, great physicists all, were mistaken. Hey! It can happen. Anyway,
ways were found to the deed. One of the ways that we can tap into this energy/mass thing is during
nuclear reactions. In fission, mass is converted into energy. This also happens in a process called
fusion. Fusion is when two nuclei are forced together to form a larger nuclei.

Fusion is the source of the suns energy. Deep within the sun hydrogen fuses into helium. Huge
amounts of energy are thus produced. Life exists on earth and we do what we do because of the
energy we get from the sun.
Fusion is also used in hydrogen bombs (which fuse isotopes of hydrogen together to form helium).

We havent been able to figure out a way to use fusion to produce power in reactor plants like we
do fission. Maybe someday.

Binding Energy -- Mass Defect: (Important stuff you need to know.) A weird thing
happens when you put a nucleus together from its spare parts (protons and neutrons). The total
mass of the new nucleus ends up being less than the combined mass of the individual particles that
went into the thing. This means that the mass of the nucleus is less than the sum of the masses of its
individual particles. This difference in mass is called the mass defect. Since mass is equivalent to
energy, the mass defect represents the energy that it takes to hold the nucleus together. This energy
is called the binding energy.

Now mass and energy are equivalent, so the mass defect and the binding energy equal each other.

For example, we can look at a helium nucleus, helium four. He 4 has 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
The mass of the nucleus is 4.001509 u, the mass of a single proton is 1.007276 u, and the mass of a
single neutron is 1.008665 u. We can add up the mass of two protons and two neutrons and see
what they total:

2 1.007276 u = 2.014552 u
2 1.008665 u = 2.017330 u
2.014552 u 2.017330 u 4.031882 u

Now we can compare this mass with the actual mass of a helium 4 nucleus. This is the mass
defect.
4.031882 u - 4.001509 u 0.030373 u

We can find the amount of energy that would be equivalent to it, which is the binding energy.

921.494 MeV
0.030373 u 27.989 MeV
1u

28.0 MeV of energy is bound up in the He-4 nucleus.

The binding energy per nucleon is a critical factor in nuclear physics. Lets calculate it for the
helium nucleus. The helium nucleus has four nucleons.

524
 27.989 MeV MeV
6.99 725
4 nucleon

If the binding energy per nucleon is plotted with mass number, we get the following graph:

From the graph we can see that most elements have a binding energy per nucleon between eight and
nine. The curves peaks around mass number 60, so isotopes that have a mass number around 60
tend to be the most stable. Their nucleons are the most tightly bound.

This curve turns out to be very important. We talked about how energy is released in the fission of
isotopes like U-235 and Pu-239, but also how energy was also released in the fusion of hydrogen
nuclei into helium nuclei. This curve explains how this can happen. For fission, we have elements
with very large mass numbers. If the mass number decreases (i.e., fission takes place) we go from a
low binding energy per nucleon to a higher binding energy per nucleon. This means that the nucleus
changes from one where the nucleus is loosely bound to where the nuclei formed are more tightly
bound. This means that energy can be released.

For small mass numbers, as the mass number increases the binding energy per nucleon also
increases. This would be fusion, so in fusion, energy can also be released.

Another way to see the energy business a bit more clearly (in the opinion of the Physics Kahuna) is
to plot mass per nucleon versus atomic number.
525
Here you can see that as the atomic number decreases for the low atomic number elements, the
mass per nucleon decreases, the mass that is missing will have been converted into energy. Just the
opposite happens for the higher atomic number elements energy is released as the atomic number
decreases.

In this nuclear reaction 1 H 1 H 2 He 0 n two deuterium nuclei combine in a

2 2 3 1

fusion reaction to form Helium three and a neutron. The mass of a deuterium nuclei is 2.014
102 u. The mass of a helium-3 nuclei is 3.016 029 u. The mass of a solo neutron is 1.008 665
u. Calculate the following: (a) the mass defect for the production of a helium-3 nuclei in this
reaction, (b) the energy release from a single fusion reaction in joules, (c) the energy release
from a single fusion reaction in mega-electron volts, (d) A moderate sized city requires 2.0 x
109 J of energy in one year. Calculate the number of deuterium atoms that must be fused in
order to produce this amount of energy.

(a) 2 2.014102 u 3.016 029 u 1.008 665 u 0.003 249 u

1.66 x 1027 kg 27
(b) 0.003 249 u 0.005393 x 10 kg 5.393 x 1030 kg
1u

526
 2
m
E m c 2
5.393 x 10 30
kg 3 x 108
s

E 48.54 x 10-14 J 4.85 x 10-13 J

MeV 2
(c) E m c 0.003 249 u 931 2
2
c 3.02 MeV
c

Or (another way to do it).

1 eV
4.85 x 10-13 J 3.03 x 10 eV
6
-19
3.03 MeV
1.60 x 10 J

The answers are slightly different because the conversion factors are rounded off.

1 nuclei
0.41 x 10 nuclei
9 22
(d) 2.0 x 10 J -13
4.1 x 1021 nuclei
4.85 x 10 J

Dear Doctor Science,

I've heard a lot about the element of Surprise, but I couldn't find it
on my periodic table of the elements. What is the symbol for it?
What is its atomic mass? Does it form compounds, like surprise
oxide or surprise chloride? Does it have any unusual properties?
-- Greg Ellis from ?, ?

Dr. Science responds:

The element of surprise is represented by a simple question mark. Its
atomic mass is the same as a neighboring element on the periodic table,
Tedium. Being covalently needy and hungry for electrovalent stability, it
forms neurotic bonds with any positively charged particle, including
hydroxyl load-bearing ions, including the infamous Heisenberg Self
Congratulatory Reflex, the cause of all emotional conflict. This is why
you can't find these elements on most periodic tables, at least those sold
to high school students.

527
 Dear Cecil:
Why do nuclear explosions form a mushroom-shaped cloud? If you would tell
me why frantic and furious fusion and fission have a fondness for the fungus
form, I would certainly appreciate it.
--Paul Smith, Tampa, Florida

Cecil replies:
Shame on you, Paul. You know I cringe at F-words. You don't need an atom bomb to
make a mushroom cloud, just convection. Mushroom clouds typically occur when an
explosion produces a massive fireball. Since the fireball is very hot and thus less
dense than the surrounding air, it rises rapidly, forming the cap of the mushroom
cloud. In its wake the fireball leaves a column of heated air. This acts as a chimney,
drawing in smoke and hot gases from ground fires. These form the stalk of the
mushroom. Since the center is the hottest part of the mushroom cloud, it rises faster
than the outer edges, giving the impression that the cap is curling down around the
stalk. Thus the familiar fungal form.

Hydrogen bomb explosions are so huge the cloud may reach the tropopause, the
boundary in the atmosphere where a fairly sharp rise in temperature starts. The cloud
generally can't break through this and the top flattens out, producing an especially
pronounced mushroom shape. (The tropopause also forms a ceiling for thunderheads,
producing their anvil shape.)

Mushroom clouds aren't necessarily big. One of the Teeming Millions tells me he
once set off a carbide noisemaker-type cannon with the igniter mechanism removed.
Out of the hole where the igniter was supposed to go there issued a 10-inch
mushroom cloud with a stem of fire and a cap of black smoke. And, we must
suppose, a fabulously fierce FOOMP.

--CECIL ADAMS

A polonium nucleus of atomic number 84 and mass number 210 decays to a nucleus of lead by
the emission of an alpha particle of mass 4.0026 atomic mass units and kinetic energy 5.5 MeV.
a. Determine each of the following.
i. The atomic number of the lead nucleus
Atomic number is the number of Protons 84 2 82
ii. The mass number of the lead nucleus

Number of Nucleons 210 4 206

528
 b. Determine the mass difference between the polonium nucleus and the lead nucleus,
taking into account the kinetic energy of the alpha particle but ignoring the recoil energy
of the lead nucleus.

The kinetic energy of the alpha particle is the mass difference of the two nuclei.
E
E m c 2 m
c2

1.66 x 10 27
kg 1 u 1
m 5.5MeV 2
1u 931 MeV c

c2

m 0.0098 x 1027 kg 9.8 x 1030 kg

c. Determine the speed of the alpha particle.

1 x 106 eV 1.60 x 1019 J 13

K 5.5 MeV 8.8 x 10 J
1 MeV 1 eV

kg m m
2 8.8 x 1013
1 2K s2 m
K mv 2 v 27
1.63 x 107
2 m 6.64 x 10 kg s

The alpha particle is scattered from a gold nucleus (atomic number 79) in a "head-on"
collision.

d. Write an equation that could be used to determine the distance of closest approach of the
alpha particle to the gold nucleus. It is not necessary to actually solve this equation.

At closest approach the kinetic energy becomes zero and the electric potential is
maximized and equal to the kinetic energy the particle began with. (Throw something up
and the kinetic energy is zero while the potential energy is max. The kinetic energy
becomes potential energy.)

K UE
1 2 1 q 1 2 q
mv qV V so mv q k
2 4 0 r 2 r

Thus
529
 1 q2
r 2 2
4 0 mv

Dear Cecil:
What's the difference between a hydrogen bomb and an atomic bomb?! How
lethal are they?! please find out!!!
--Anonymous

Cecil responds:
I told you not to buy stuff at those Kiev flea markets. The original atomic bomb
used nuclear fission, in which big atoms (uranium or plutonium) were split into
littler ones in a chain reaction, releasing vast amounts of energy. The hydrogen
bomb employs nuclear fusion, in which little atoms (various forms of hydrogen)
fuse together to make bigger ones (helium), essentially the same process that occurs
in the sun.

Fusion bombs are a thousand times more powerful than fission bombs, which are a
million times more powerful than chemical ones. Wouldn't you be just as happy
with, say, a cherry bomb?

--CECIL ADAM

530
 1 2
H Official Kahuna Physics Institute He
Hydrogen Helium
1.01 4.00
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Li Be B C N O F Ne
Lithium Beryllium
Periotic Table Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine Neon
6.94 9.01 10.81 12.01 14.01 16.00 19.00 20.18
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
Sodium Magnesium Aluminum Silicon Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Argon
22.99 24.31 26.98 28.09 30.97 32.07 35.45 39.95
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
Potasium Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Gallium Germanium Arsenic Selenium Bromine Krypton
39.10 40.08 44.96 47.88 50.94 52.00 54.94 55.85 58.93 58.69 63.55 65.39 69.72 72.61 74.92 78.96 79.90 83.80
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
Rubidium Strontium Yitrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Technetium Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Indium Tin Antimony Tellurium Iodine Xenon
85.47 87.62 88.91 91.22 92.91 95.94 (98) 101.07 102.91 106.42 107.87 112.41 114.82 118.71 121.76 127.60 126.90 131.29
55 56 57 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86
Cs Ba La Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Ti Pb Bi Po At Rn
Cesium Barium Lanthanum Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury Thallium Lead Bismuth Polonium Astitane Radon
132.91 137.33 138.91 178.49 180.95 183.85 186.21 190.20 192.22 195.08 196.97 200.59 204.38 207.20 208.98 (209) (210) (222)
87 88 89 104 105 106 107 108 109
Fr Ra Ac Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt
Francium Radium Actinium Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium
(223) 226.03 227.03 (261) (262) (263) (265) (266)

58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu
Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium

140.12 140.91 144.24 (145) 150.36 151.97 157.25 158.93 162.50 164.93 167.26 168.93 173.04 174.97
90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103
Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr
Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium Lawrencium
232.04 231.04 238.03 237.05 (244) (243) (247) (247) (251) (252) (257) (258) (259) (260)

531
AP Physics - Nuclear E
Atomic mass unit -- unified mass unit, u

1
1u mass of C 12 atom
12

1 u 1.660 540 x 1027 kg

Find Binding E of deuterium

Mass of tritium nucleus: 3.016 049 u

m p 1.007 825 u
mn 1.008 665 u
Add masses together:
m p 1.007 825 u 2 1.008 665 u 3.025155 u
Binding E:

3.025155 u 3.016 049 u 0.009106 u

931.494 MeV
0.009106 u 8.48218 MeV
1u
Mass of tritium is less than mass of parts.

Mass difference represents energy released

532
 Calculate the energy released when 1.05 kg of U-235 undergoes fission. Each fission produces
208 MeV.

1 mol 6.02 x 1023 nuclei

N 1 750 g
44.8 x 10 nuclei
23

235 g 1 mol
23 208 MeV 106 eV 1.6 x 1019 J
44.8 x 10 nuclei
1 nuclei 1 MeV 1 eV

14 900 x 1010 J 1.49 x 1014 J

An unstable nucleus that is initially at rest decays into a nucleus of fermium-252 containing 100
protons and 152 neutrons and an alpha particle that has a kinetic energy of 8.42 MeV. The
atomic masses of helium-4 and fermium-252 are 4.00260 u and 252.08249 u, respectively.

a. What is the atomic number of the original unstable nucleus?

Z 102

b. What is the velocity of the alpha particle? (Neglect relativistic effects for this
calculation.)
1
K mv 2
2
1.6 1019 J

K 8.42 10 eV 6
1 eV
12
1.35 10 J

kg
m 4 u 1.67 1027 6.68 1027 kg
u
12 kg m
2
2 1.35 10
s 2
v
2K
2.01 107 m s
m
6.68 1027 kg
c. Where does the kinetic energy of the alpha particle come from? Explain briefly.
Mass Equivalence: The original nucleus decays into the product particles and energy.

Energy Conservation: Potential or binding energy was converted into kinetic energy.

d. Suppose that the fermium-252 nucleus could undergo a decay in which a - particle was
produced. How would this affect the atomic number of the nucleus? Explain briefly.
533
 Atomic number increases by one. A neutron converts into a proton and an electron.

252
100 Fm 252
101 Md 0
1 e

A polonium nucleus of atomic number 84 and mass number 210 decays to a nucleus of lead by
the emission of an alpha particle of mass 4.0026 atomic mass units and kinetic energy 5.5 MeV.
(1 u = 931.5 MeV/c2 = 1.66 x 10-27 kg.)

e. Determine each of the following.

i. The atomic number of the lead nucleus
Number of Protons 84 2 82

ii. The mass number of the lead nucleus

Number of Nucleons 210 4 206

f. Determine the mass difference between the polonium nucleus and the lead nucleus,
taking into account the kinetic energy of the alpha particle but ignoring the recoil energy
of the lead nucleus.

The kinetic energy of the alpha particle is the mass difference of the two nuclei.
E 5.5MeV
E m c 2 m m
c2 c2

MeV 1.66 10 kg
27
m 5.5 2 9.8 1030 kg
c 931.5 MeV
c 2

g. Determine the speed of the alpha particle. A classical (nonrelativistic) approximation is

adequate.
1 106 eV 1.60 1019 J 13
K 5.5 MeV 8.8 10 J
1 MeV 1 eV
1 2K
K mv 2 v
2 m

534
v

2 8.8 1013 1.63 107 m s
27
6.64 10

The alpha particle is scattered from a gold nucleus (atomic number 79) in a "head-on"
collision.

h. Write an equation that could be used to determine the distance of closest approach of the
alpha particle to the gold nucleus. It is not necessary to actually solve this equation.
i.
At closest approach KE goes to zero and electric potential goes to max (Throw
something up and KE is zero while PE is max. KE become UE)

KE U E
1 2 1 q
mv qV mv 2 q k
2 2 r

q2
r 2k 2
mv

535
AP Physics Quantum Mechanics
All of this section is stuff that you want to pay attention to. Okay?

At the turn of the century, physics was in a terrible fix. What was the problem? Well, it was with
the behavior of electrons. Classical physics had gotten quite good at dealing with motion, orbits,
etc. A physicist could sit down and figure out exactly what and where an electron should be doing.
Unfortunately, the rotten electrons did not oblige the physicists with doing what it was supposed to
be doing.

Ernest Rutherford pictured the atom as a sort of miniature solar system.

The electrons circled the nucleus in orbits, just like the planets circle the
sun. According to classical, Newtonian physics, a centripetal force acts
on the electron, accelerating it towards the nucleus. This force is caused
by the charge difference between the positive nucleus and the negative
electron. The problem was this: accelerated electrons emitted light.
Thus as the electrons were accelerated towards the nucleus, they should
radiate photons of light. This would cause them to lose energy, which
would give them a smaller orbit, they would emit light, move closer to the
nucleus as their orbit gets smaller, and so on. In about 10-9 seconds the
electron would spiral into the nucleus. This meant that atoms as we know Rutherfords
them could not exist in a stable state.
Model
Unfortunately for classical physics, but fortunately for the universe, this does not happen. Atoms
actually do manage to hang around for times in excess of a billionth of a second. Actually they
seem quite capable of hanging around for billions of years. Clearly something was going on with
the behavior of electrons that did not fit into classical kinematics.

Black Body Problem: All objects in the universe constantly emit electromagnetic waves.
This is a fact of nature. You, as you read this, are quite happily emitting massive numbers of
photons from all over your body into the universe. You, blighter that you are, have done this your
entire life! People mostly emit long wavelength infrared. The army has these night vision scopes
that detect the IR signature given off by humanoids, thus enabling the soldier to see in the dark.

The frequency of the emitted electromagnetic waves is a function of temperature and only
temperature. The higher the temperature of the body, the higher the frequency (and the shorter the
wavelength) of the emitted electromagnetic wave. It doesnt matter what the object is made from,

536
for a given temperature it will emit a given frequency of light. Also of course, the higher the
frequency of the emitted photons, the greater their energy.

At the turn of the century physicists were looking at black bodies. A black body is one of those
ideal things that physicists love to invent. (One definition of classical physics is that it deals with
elephants with zero volume, no friction, acting independently of gravity. Do you think that is fair?)
The black body is defined as an object that absorbs all the light that is incident on it.
Imagine that you have a hollow object any hollow object will do. Lets say you have a white
plastic ball. Its white on the outside and white on the inside because its made of white plastic.
Okay? Got it? Now you make a small hole in the ball. Having done that, you now look into the
hole what do you see? Well, the whole looks black. The inside of the ball looks black, even
though we know that it is actually white. So whats the deal?

The interior of the ball behaves as if were a black body - it absorbs just about all the
electromagnetic waves that enter it. Visible light is absorbed and does not get out. In fact the only
radiation that does comes out of the hole from the inside of the thing is infrared. The infrared is
emitted because of the temperature of the ball. Thus does the stupid hole in the ball behave as a
black body.

Stars are considered to be black bodies (even though they certainly arent black). Planets can be
treated as black bodies as well.

Below is a graph made up of the emissions from a blackbody at three different temperatures. The
area under the curve represents the total radiation. Each curve has a peak wavelength this is the
wavelength at which most of the energy is emitted. For 4 000 K you can see that the amount of
radiation is much greater than for the lower temperature curves. The 3 000 K curve also has a peak
wavelength, but it has a greater value than the one for the higher temperature the wavelength of
the emitted radiation is longer, which means that it has a lower frequency. The 2 000 K curves
peak wavelength is much smaller in amplitude and longer in wavelength. Its frequency is lower as
well.
Intensity

Wavelength
The general rule is that the intensity and frequency of emitted radiation increases with temperature.
This is seen in stars and planets. Planets, which are very cool, dont even emit visible light, they
can only manage infrared. Cool stars give off mostly red light, warmer stars give off yellow light,
and the hottest stars give off blue light.

537
Classical mechanics cannot explain these curves. It works for the long wavelengths, but as the
wavelength decreases (and the frequency increases), classical mechanics predictions become very
bad, very bad indeed. In fact the old theory predicts that the intensity of the emitted radiation will
approach infinity as the wavelength nears zero. You can see that this does not happen. The curve
shows that as the wavelength gets close to zero, the intensity also approaches zero.

This is one of your basic contradictions. Since classical mechanics cannot explain what actually
happens, physicists were forced to abandon the laws of Newton and develop a new theory that
would explain the data. The theory that came out of this is known as quantum mechanics.
Max Planck (1858-1947) was a German physicist who spent a great many years trying to puzzle out
this problem. Planck was trying to find a fundamental law that would describe the energy emitted
by blackbodies. He eventually got the job done, but to get his law to work, he had to assume that
the radiation, which everyone knew was a wave, was actually made up of little packets of energy
(which everyone knew was not true). He called these packets quanta (singular) and quantum
Intensity

Classical
Theory

Plancks Theory

Wavelength
(plural). There was no evidence for the quanta, except that the made his law work. Using this
cobbled up thing, he was able to explain the blackbody radiation curve and calculate accurate
energy for emitted radiation. In other words, the cobbled up thing actually worked! Planck
believed that the quanta were merely an artificial, mathematical device without reality that just
happened to make his equation yield accurate results.

Plancks equation (which we have seen before remember that the Physics Kahuna promised to
revisit it, well, that time is here) is:

E hf

Here, E is energy, f is the frequency, and h is known as Planck's constant. Its value is:

h 6.63 x 1034 J s or h 4.14 1015 eV s

You will have both of these values when you take the AP Physics test.
What energy is carried by a photon of electromagnetic radiation that has a frequency of 1.55 x
1017 Hz?

538
 1
E hf 6.63 x 1034 J s 1.55 x 1017 10.3 x 1017 J 1.03 x 1016 J
s

The energy of a photon can also be calculated as a function of wavelength. Wavelength is related
to frequency by:

v f This is the equation for the speed of the wave.

c hc
v f so c f f E hf E

hc
E

You wont be provided with this equation, so you need to be able to get there on your own.

A photon has a wavelength of 550 nm. How much energy does this represent in Joules?

c hc
v f so c f f E hf E


6.63 x 1034 J s 3.00 x 103
m
s
E 0.036 x 1022 J 3.6 x 1024 J

550 x 109 m
Since the value of Plancks constant multiplied by the speed of light is itself a constant, we can treat
hc as a constant. (Save us some work!) Two such values, using different units, will be provided to
you on the AP Test:

hc 1.99 x 1025 J m

hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm

This makes solving the above problem a lot easier. To wit:

c hc 1.99 x 1025 J m
v f f E hf 3.6 x 1024 J
550 x 109 m

Planck's theory came to be called the quantum theory and proved so important, that it is
considered to be a watershed in science. All physics before Plancks equation is called classical
physics and all physics afterwards is known as modern physics.

539
But what did all this mean?

Momentum and Light: You need to be able to calculate the momentum of a photon as a
function of its frequency or wavelength. Okay, lets do a typical problem.

The momentum for a photon is given by this equation:

E hf pc

What is the momentum of a photon that has a wavelength of 455 nm?

c hc hc
v f f E hf E pc pc

h kg m s
2
1
p 6.63 x 1034 6
s2 455 x 10 m

kg m kg m
p 0.0146 x 1028 1.46 x 1026
s s

Photons and Power of a Source: Imagine that you have a source of light that is rated
at a certain power level. It produces photons of only one frequency. So, how many photons per
second would it produce?

This is pretty simple. Power is simply the rate that energy is produced. The energy is in the form
of photons. All you have to do is calculate the amount of energy produced in one second. Then
determine the amount to energy one photon represents. Then divide the total energy by the energy
per photon. This gives you the number of photons in a second. That last part is really just a
dimensional analysis problem, aint it?

Okay, heres a problem. Lets go for it.

A 505 nm light source produces 0.250 W. How many photons per second does it kick out?

E J
P E Pt 0.250 1.00 s 0.250 J
t s

c hc
v f f E hf

25
1.99 x 10 J m
E 0.00394 x 1019 J 3.94 x 1022 J
505 x 106 m

540

1
0.250 J 0.0635 x 1022 photons 6.35 x 1020 photons
3.94 x 1022 J

photon

Photoelectric Effect: Towards the end of the 19th Century (in 1887 to be exact) Heinrich
Hertz discovered that certain metals would emit electrons when light was incident on them. This
was the first instance of light interacting with matter and was very mysterious. In 1905 Albert
Einstein, a 3rd Class Technical Expert in the Swiss Patent Office, the obscure physicist (although he
was not a physicist at the time, he was a bureaucrat) mentioned before, published a paper which
provided the explanation for the effect. The light was actually made up of small particles - Plancks
little bundles of energy he called the quanta. These particles are now called photons.
The surface electrons were bound to the metal with a small amount of energy. Some of the incident
photons would enter the surface, smack into atoms of the metal and be totally absorbed. They
would give their energy to an electron, which, if the absorbed energy was great enough, could then
break free from the atom. You can think of the photoelectric effect as being the result of collisions
between photons and electrons, which knock the electrons out of the metal.

The amount of energy binding the electrons to the metal is called the work function. The symbol
for this is the Greek letter .

Work Function

Recall that:

E hf This is the energy of the photon.

The electron that has been knocked out of the metal has some amount of kinetic energy. This
kinetic energy has to be less than the photons energy because some of the energy added to the
system was used to break the electron free of the metal (this amount of energy is given by the work
function). So the photon has to provide more energy than the work function if the electron is to be
set free.

The maximum kinetic energy that an electron can have is just the difference between the energy of
the work function (the energy that binds the electron to the metal) and the energy of the photon.

K Max hf

This equation will be provided to you on the AP Physics Test.

Each metal has its own value for the work function. A handsome table of such values for selected
metals has been helpfully provided to you.

541
Dear Doctor Science, Work Function for some
What is a laser beam made of? Different Metals
-- Lauren Grace from Toledo, OH Metal Work Function
(eV)
Dr. Science responds: Sodium (Na) 2.28
Normal light is comprised of zillions of photons. Laser light is Aluminum (Al) 4.08
made of futons, which are fat, stuffed photons with a zipper down Copper (Cu) 4.70
the side. Some have a foam core and these are often mistakenly Cobalt (Co) 3.90
referred to as mu mesons, which is just a fancy oriental term for
Zinc (Zn) 4.31
futon. As in retail advertising, Science often gives the prosaic a
Silver (Ag) 4.73
new name to make it seem like things are really happening when,
in fact, everyone is just playing Tetris on their office computers Platinum (Pt) 6.35
and waiting for lunch. Lead (Pb) 4.14
Iron (Fe) 4.50
Wavelength and the Photoelectric Effect: We have an equation that relates the
electrons energy to frequency, but what about the wavelength of the photon? For some reason
physicists are very fond of wavelengths and prefer them frequencies.

The frequency and wavelength are related by the speed of light. So when we want to find the value
for the frequency we get:

c
v f so c f f

we can substitute this into the Plancks equation and get:

c hc
E hf E h

You can then plug this into the photoelectric equation for the energy term:

hc
K Max hf K Max

Of course, this equation you will not have for the AP Physics test.

What was strange about all this is that the effect is based on the energy of the photons, a function of
its frequency or wavelength. The intensity of the light how strong the beam is, does matter, but
only if the frequency of the photons is high enough. Photons which have too low a frequency (or
too long a wavelength) will not knock any electrons loose no matter how intense the light is. The
intensity is really a measure of the number of photons that will be incident on the surface in a given
amount of time. So if the frequency is large enough to cause the effect and you increase the
intensity, you will increase the photocurrent because there will be more photons hitting the metal to
knock loose more electrons.
The kinetic energy of the electrons is also independent of the intensity of the light. More intense
light will dislodge more electrons, so the current will increase, but the kinetic energy of the
electrons will all be limited to the same value (the maximum kinetic energy).

542
 What is the maximum kinetic energy of a photoelectron that has been liberated from a silver
metal surface by a photon that has a frequency of 3.13 x 1015 Hz?

K Max hf
1
4.14 x 1015 eV s 3.13 x 1015 4.73 eV
s
K Max 8.22 eV

What is the velocity of a photoelectron that has been liberated from a zinc metal surface by a
photon that has a wavelength of 275 nm?

Consulting the table, we find that the work function for zinc is 4.31 eV. We can use this and the
wavelength of the incident photons to find the kinetic energy of the ejected electrons. We can then
solve for their velocity.

c c hc
vc f f E hf h

hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm
K Max 4.31 eV 0.00451 x 103 eV 4.31 eV
275 nm

K Max 4.51 eV 4.31 eV 0.200 eV

1.60 x 1019 J 19
K Max 0.200 eV 0.32 x 10 J 3.2 x 1020 J
1 eV
20 kg m
2
2 3.2 x 10
s 2
1
K mv 2 v
2K
v
31
2 m 9.11 x 10 kg

m2 m2 m
v 0.7025 x 10 2 11
7.025 x 1010
2.65 x 105
s s2 s

Typical Photoelectric Effect Experiment: A typical laboratory setup for a

photoelectric experiment would consist of a metal plate that the light will be incident upon. This
plate is called the emitter (E). Across from the emitter is a plate called the collector (C). The
emitter is connected to the negative terminal of a variable dc voltage source and the collector is
connected to the positive terminal of the source. An ammeter is placed in series with the
collector/battery and a voltmeter is placed in parallel with the photoelectric element. A typical
circuit is shown below.

543
 E C
e A
V

Variable power
supply

Incident light strikes the emitter, which causes photoelectric electrons to be emitted. The electrons
are attracted to the positively charged collector and a current is established. We can then measure
the current and voltage.

If the wavelength of the incident light is varied, but the intensity of the light is kept constant, then
we get a graph of current VS. wavelength that looks like this:

Current

0
Wavelength
Notice that the current is emitted only for wavelengths less than 0. For longer wavelengths, no
current is emitted. These represent photons that dont have enough energy to knock the electrons
out of the metal.

This maximum wavelength, 0 , is called the photoelectric threshold wavelength.

The amazing thing is that the current does not depend on the intensity of the light. This seems to
make no sense. You would think that if you made the light brighter, you ought to get a bigger
photoelectric current. Its another instance where classical physics fell apart.

544
According to classical physics, the incident waves would provide the energy to knock the electrons
out of the metal. The greater the intensity of the light, the more electrons ought to be knocked
loose. But this didnt happen. For a great many wavelengths, no photoelectric current would flow
no matter how large the intensity.

Current does depend on intensity, but only for wavelengths that cause the photoelectric effect.

Effect of Collector Voltage: If the positive voltage on the collector is increased we soon
get a maximum amount of current. If the intensity is increased, we also see an increase in the
current. But even for zero voltage on the collector, some current will flow. But what happens if
you make the collectors voltage negative instead of positive?

The electrons will be repelled from the collector. If the voltage is small, some will still make it, but
as the voltage gets more negative it becomes harder and harder for the electrons to bridge the gap.
More and more are turned away and the current falls off. At some voltage value, none of the
electrons make it to the collector and current is zero. This is shown in a graph of Voltage VS.
Current below.

High Intensity
Current

Low Intensity

VS Applied Voltage

At Vs the current stops completely. If V is less than or equal to Vs no electrons reach the
collector and all electrons are repelled.

Vs is called the stopping potential.

The stopping potential is independent of the intensity of the light!

The electron is accelerated through the electric field between the collector and emitter. The energy
it gains is equal to the potential energy the electron starts with. The equation for this energy is in
the Electricity and Magnetism section of the equation sheet. It is given as U E qV . So at the
stopping potential, the potential energy of the electrons is equal the maximum kinetic energy.

We can write:
K Max qV

Note here that KMax is also independent of the intensity of the light!

545
If we look at a graph of frequency VS. kinetic energy, we see it has a straight line.

There is a minimum frequency before the electrons have any kinetic energy. The minimum
frequency is called the cutoff frequency. The photons with a frequency less than fC dont have
enough energy to dislodge the electrons from the metal.

The slope of the graph is h, Plancks constant.

The value for the cutoff frequency is simply the intercept on the x axis.

The equation for kinetic energy as a function of frequency is:

K Max hf

This is a linear equation and the values for it can be found from the graph.

KE

f
fc
Finding the Cutoff Frequency: The cutoff frequency is the minimum frequency that
will generate photoelectrons. So we use the max kinetic energy equation. The minimum frequency
occurs when the kinetic energy is zero.

K Max hf hf f fC
h h

So the cutoff frequency is:

fC
h

546
 A sodium photoelectric surface with work function 2.3 eV
is illuminated by electromagnetic radiation and emits
electrons. The electrons travel toward a negatively charged
cathode and complete the circuit shown above. The
potential difference supplied by the power supply is
increased, and when it reaches 4.5 V, no electrons reach the
cathode.

(a) For the electrons emitted from the sodium surface,

calculate the following.

i. The maximum kinetic energy.

K Max qV

K Max 1.6 x 1019 C 4.5 V 7.2 x 1019 J or

1 eV
K Max 7.2 x 1019 J 19 4.5 eV
1.60 x 10 J

ii. The speed at this maximum kinetic energy.

1
K mv 2
2
19 kg m
2
2 7.2 x 10
s 2
v
2K
1.26 x 106
m
31
m 9.11 x 10 kg s

(b) Calculate the wavelength of the radiation that is incident on the sodium surface.

c c hc
E hf c f f E h

c c c
K Max h K Max h h
K Max

hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm
0.182 x 103 nm 182 nm
K Max 4.5 eV 2.3 eV

(c) Calculate the minimum frequency of light that will cause photoemission from this
sodium surface.

K Max hf But K Max 0 for the minimum frequency, so

547

0 hf hf f
h

2.3 eV
f 0.555 x 1015 Hz 5.55 x 1014 Hz
4.14 x 1015 eV s

What is the cutoff wavelength for a copper metal surface?

hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm
C 0.264 x 103 nm 264 nm
4.70 eV

Note that this wavelength is much smaller than visible light, so no photoelectric effect for copper
with visible light this would have to be like ultraviolet light.

Finding the Work Function: To find the work function, set the kinetic energy to zero as
above and solve for . The frequency is the cutoff wavelength, which is the minimum frequency.
Recall that the work function is the minimum energy needed to break an electron out of the metals
surface.

K Max hf 0 hf hf

500.0 nm light is incident on a metal surface. The stopping potential is found to be 0.440 V. (a)
Find the work function for this material and (b) the longest wavelength that will eject electrons
from the metal.

(a) work function:

c c hc
E hf c f f E h

hc hc hc
K Max K Max qV qV qV

Now, when we plug in our values, we will stick in the symbol e for the charge of an electron.
This will get us eV as a unit, eventually.

1.24 x 103 eV nm
e 0.440 V 0.00248 x 103 eV 0.440 eV
500 nm

2.48 eV 0.440 eV 2.04 eV

548
(b) longest wavelength

Set the maximum kinetic energy equal to zero to get the longest wavelength.

hc hc hc hc
K Max 0

1.24 x 103 eV nm
0.00608 x 103 nm 608 nm
204 eV

Stuff Classical Mechanics or Wave Theory Cannot Explain:

No electrons are emitted if the light frequency falls below some cutoff frequency, fC

Maximum kinetic energy is independent of the light intensity

The electrons are emitted almost instantaneously

KEMax increases with increasing frequency as it is function of hf

Happens so fast because it is a one to one photon/electron deal

Stopping Potential versus frequency: Stopping potential is a function of frequency.

The higher the frequency, the higher the stopping potential. On the following graph stopping
potential is plotted along the y axis while frequency is along the x axis. As you can see, the
intercept on the x axis represents the stopping potential for the cutoff frequency.

At the cutoff frequency, the total energy is equal to the work function, so
hf

So you can find the work function if the cutoff frequency is known.

At the stopping potential, the energy of the electron is equal to the electron charge times the
voltage. This is the potential energy gained by an electron in the field at the stopping potential.

E qV

But this energy has to equal the energy of the photon, so:

hf qV

q is the charge of an electron, so we can plug in e for the electrons charge

and write the equation as:
549
 hf eV
solving for h/e

h V

e f

Thus, h/e is simply the slope of the graph.

Vs

f
fc
threshold frequency
or
cutoff frequency

AP Test Item: In a photoelectric experiment, light is incident on a metal surface. Electrons are
ejected from the surface, producing a current in a circuit. A reverse potential is
applied in the circuit and adjusted until the current drops to zero. That potential
at which the current drops to zero is called the stopping potential. The data
obtained for a range of frequencies are graphed below.

a. For a frequency of light that has a stopping potential of 3.0 volts, what is the maximum kinetic
energy of the ejected photoelectrons?

550
Set the maximum kinetic energy equal to the potential energy gained by the electrons in the
electric field at the stopping potential.

K Max qV e 3.0 V 3.0 eV

b. From the graph and the value of the electron charge, determine an experimental value for
Planck's constant.
h
Slope of graph is:
e
h 2V 0V 1.6 x 1019 C 2 V 0 V
h
e 10 5 1014 Hz 10 51014 Hz
3.2 x 1019 J
h 0.64 x 1033 J s 6.4 x 1034 J s or
1
5 x 1014
s

h V2 V1 2V 0V e2 V
h
e f 2 f1 10 51014 Hz 5 x 1014
1
s
e2 V
h 0.40 x 1014 eV s 4.0 x 1015 eV s
1
5 x 1014
s

b. From the graph, determine the work function for the metal.

The graph is a straight line so: y mx b

Plug in the values on the graph for the terms in the straight line equation:

h
y mx b Vs f b eVs hf b
e
But eVs is KMax K Max hf b so y intercept is work function
This is 2.0 eV

551
d. On the axes above, draw the expected graph for a different metal surface with a threshold
frequency of 6.0 x 1014 hertz.

Dear Doctor Science,

What is a laser beam made of?
-- Lauren Grace from Toledo, OH

Dr. Science responds:

Normal light is comprised of zillions of photons. Laser light is
made of futons, which are fat, stuffed photons with a zipper down
the side. Some have a foam core and these are often mistakenly
referred to as mumesons, which is just a fancy oriental term for
futon. As in retail
advertising, Science often gives the prosaic a new name to make it
seem like things are really happening when, in fact, everyone is
just playing Tetris on their office computers and waiting for lunch.

552
Dear Straight Dope:
How does a particle accelerator work? I know it has something to do with huge magnets,
but how can they make two atoms line up correctly and hit each other at such incredible
velocities? Also how do they ensure that there are no other atoms besides the ones the
are colliding inside the track?
--Ryan, Tucson, AZ

Cecil replies:
Jeez, if you're going to slam only two particles together at a time, you're going to be the
absolute worst accelerator physicist ever. A particle accelerator isn't the delicate instrument
you imagine--it's more akin to a fire hose. The idea is to aim billions and billions of particles
at billions and billions of other particles, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. The more
particles you have in the beam, and the more tightly bundled the particles are, the better
chance you have that you'll get a collision that produces exciting new particles.

The first step in operating a particle accelerator is coming up with some particles to
accelerate. You can get electrons from a device called an electron gun, which boils electrons
off a filament. An electron gun is basically the same device you have in the back of your TV
or your computer monitor. You can get protons by ionizing (that is, stripping the electrons off
of) hydrogen gas, whose atoms consist of one proton plus one electron. To get other types
particles, you need to smash your accelerated protons or electrons into something else in order
to produce other particles, then use some fancy particle selection techniques to separate the
wheat from the chaff, as it were. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The main tool for accelerating particles is powerful electric fields. (We'll get to the powerful
magnets in a bit.) Let's say you're accelerating electrons (which are negatively charged). You
turn on a powerful electric field, and the electrons rush to positive potential. As the electrons
get there, you turn off the first electric field and turn on another one downstream, and the
electrons rush there. You keep doing this until your electrons are rushing like blazes and
you've achieved the electron speed you desire. Of course the process is a little more
sophisticated than I've described. Instead of turning on and off the electric fields, you
modulate your electric fields sinusoidally, such that the negative electric potential is always
just behind where your electrons are, and the positive electric potential always just in front.
The electrons sort of surf down the beam line on the electric field modulation wave.

Where do magnets come in? They have two purposes: to steer the beam and to focus it. To
steer the beam you set up a dipole magnetic field (a dipole field is a regular uniform magnetic
field; you can create one with permanent magnets, but usually you use an electromagnet).
When charged particles cross a magnetic field, they experience a force perpendicular to both
the magnetic field and to the particle's direction of motion (F = qv x B, for you scientist-
types). Thus, if you have an up-down magnetic field, and the particles are moving forward,
the particle will turn to the left or right, depending on its charge.

Obviously you need to steer your beam so that it collides with something, but there are other
difficulties as well. To accelerate your particles, you need a lot of electric fields and magnets,
and a lot of room for your particles to build up speed. Stanford's linear accelerator is two

553
miles long! That means two miles' worth of magnets, two miles' worth of beam pipe, two
miles' worth of vacuum, electricity, tunnel, radiation shielding, etc. It's really huge. And
impressive. If you get a chance, take a tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center--they'll
let you stand in the access gallery and you can look up and down the two-mile-long facility.

However, most people don't have two miles to donate to particle acceleration (and you'd need
a lot more than two miles to accelerate protons, which are 2000 times heavier than electrons).
Typically, you reuse your accelerator components by moving your particles around a ring
accelerator, where they can pass by the same electric fields thousands of times. To steer your
particles around the ring you'll need powerful magnets. The main disadvantage of a ring
accelerator is that every time you steer a charged particle, it gives off energy in the form of
synchrotron radiation (powerful X-rays). You have to compensate for this energy loss with
more and bigger electric fields, which cost a lot to operate, and when you have X-rays being
sprayed off all around your accelerator, you've got a shielding nightmare.

The other way magnets come into play is in focusing the beam. You want your particles to be
in as tight a beam as possible, particularly if you're trying to slam them into another beam. A
higher concentration of particles means a higher probability that a couple of them will smash
directly into each other. In addition, if you try to cram a bunch of electrons together, they will
start to repel each other, and naturally make the beam larger. For focusing you use quadrapole
magnets. These focusing magnets have specialized magnetic fields, such that if a particle is
straying to the right, the magnet steers it a little to the left, but if the particle is straying to the
left, it gets steered a little to the right.

Finally you've got to steer the beam so it smashes into something. The two smashing methods
are fixed target and colliding beams. For fixed target, you slam a beam of particles into some
stationary chunk of matter. The advantages of the fixed target method are: (a) it's easier to aim
the beam at a large non-moving target, (b) lots and lots of protons are available in chunks of
matter, and (c) most all the products of the particle interaction will be moving in a very
definite forward direction, so you can easily build detectors in the forward region to detect
them. The disadvantages are that chunks of matter pretty much only provide protons and
neutrons to smash into--the electrons aren't concentrated enough to be consequential--and
there are certainly no anti-protons or positrons (anti-electrons). Also, a target which is just
sitting there does not bring any kinetic energy into the equation. Since you are typically trying
to convert energy into massive particles (via E = mc2), more energy is better.

That brings us to the other particle smashing method, colliding beams. For colliding beams,
you typically smash particles into their antiparticles. (The HERA accelerator at DESY in
Germany is unique in that it collides electrons or positrons with protons, for some very
interesting physics effects.) For example, to create positrons (anti-electrons), you first
accelerate some regular electrons, smash them into a fixed target, and collect any positrons
resulting from this interaction. This generally takes a few minutes. Then you start accelerating
the positrons and electrons. In a linear accelerator, you accelerate the positrons in a bunch just
behind the electrons. (They surf the same electric field waves, but they surf up instead of
down, if you get my drift.) In a ring accelerator, you're golden because the same accelerator
elements that steer electrons clockwise automatically steer positrons counter clockwise.

554
The advantage of colliding beams is you get lots of energy from both beams, so you can create
lots of exciting particles. One disadvantage is that collisions occur in the center of mass, so
particle debris gets sprayed all over. That means you have to build a detector that completely
surrounds the collision site (typically called a 4 detector), which is expensive. The other
disadvantage is that it is very difficult to steer two beams directly into each other. Beams are
typically the diameter of a human hair, and the length of a needle. You try smashing together
two beams that size going 99.999% the speed of light!

Fortunately, there are talented accelerator physicists everywhere, or at any rate at these fine
accelerators: Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(SLAC), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
(Fermilab)), and European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

-----Cecil Adams

Dear Cecil:
I have long been interested in the "Philadelphia Experiment," which was supposedly
conducted by the U.S. Navy during World War II as one of the three "city projects."
The Manhattan Project, of course, was the development of the atomic bomb. The Philadelphia
Experiment supposedly involved the use of magnetism to bend light rays and thus make
objects invisible. Legends and sketchy reports have it that objects could be transported from
place to place by the use of strong magnetic fields.

I grew up around Portsmouth, Virginia, and have long heard rumors that the degaussing
facility at the mouth of the western branch of the Elizabeth River was the "receiver" facility
for this project, and that a destroyer was briefly transported here before being returned to the
Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Is this true?
--John H., Norfolk, Virginia

Cecil replies:
Right, John, another world-shattering secret that the military has managed to keep hushed up
for 50 years. Betcha they store the giant magnets right next to the Roswell alien spacecraft.

Even the author of one of the better-known books about the Philadelphia Experiment has
backed off on his more outrageous claims, although he still maintains an experiment of some
kind did take place.

The whole thing first came to light in the mid-1950s, when someone variously identifying
himself as Carlos Allende or Carl Allen wrote several strange letters to a UFO writer named
Morris Jessup.

Filled with misspellings and stylistic eccentricities, the letters told of a U.S. Navy destroyer
that in October 1943 had been subjected to a force field in an effort, apparently successful, to

555
make it invisible. Somehow the ship was also teleported from the Philadelphia Navy Yard to
Norfolk, Virginia, and back, all within a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, the experiment
also had the side effect of rendering half the officers and crew insane, with some of the
crewmen unpredictably becoming invisible or bursting into flame years later. Since this had a
decidedly negative effect on morale, the Navy halted the experiments and hushed up the
whole affair. Or so the letter writer claimed.

The story was taken up by various writers over the years. But received its fullest treatment in
The Philadelphia Experiment by William L. Moore with Charles Berlitz (1979). The book,
which was the basis for a 1984 movie, claimed the ship involved was the U.S.S. Elbridge, but
offered no hard evidence. The Navy, unsurprisingly, says it has no knowledge of any such
experiment.

Cecil spoke with William Moore and found he no longer believes the Philadelphia Experiment
involved invisibility or teleportation.
Instead, further research has convinced Moore it was part of an effort by the Navy to make
ships radar-proof, supposedly in an effort to foil radar-guided torpedoes that the Germans
were believed to be developing.

The idea was to feed a high-power, low-frequency current into the ship's hull, in effect making
it into a radar antenna that would jam incoming radar.

But the initial experiment had unintended side effects on the crew, ranging from nausea to
hallucinations and loss of consciousness. The hallucinations were the basis for the wild tales
that later arose.

This version is a lot less implausible than the original yarn, but it's still got some holes in it.

A Navy historian sensibly points out there's no such thing as a radar-guided torpedo. Radar
doesn't work underwater, something people understood even back in 1943. (The Germans
used acoustic torpedoes, which homed in on the sound of a ship's engines.)

And Moore still doesn't have much documentary evidence. If it exists, both he and the Navy
agree it's in the National Archives in Washington.

Moore says R&D records take up "a mile and a half of shelf space" and aren't indexed, so
finding the right stuff could be a bit of a project. I might get around to it one of these days, but
I dunno, I might have to wash my hair that night.

In the meantime purge yourself of any thoughts of invisible warships. Right now the only
proven way to make ships disappear is budget cuts.

--CECIL ADAMS

556
More Important Stuff: If you thought that this section of the handout was over, you are
sadly mistaken. Theres lots more stuff for you to study, master, imprint on your brain, worry
about, sweat over, and be all around concerned
with. So here we go.

x-ray Production: x-rays, you will recall, High Voltage

are a group of electromagnetic waves, part of the
old electromagnetic spectrum. But where do they Target
come from?

One source, and this is how they were first

discovered, is from bombarding a metal surface Filament
with high energy electrons. What happens is that x-rays
the electron collides with one of the metal atoms.
The electron has enough energy to remove one of
the inner-shell electrons. When this happens, an
outer-shell electron must drop down and fill the
vacant energy shell. To do this, it must lose a large amount of energy, typically in excess of 105
eV. This energy is emitted in the form of a high-energy photon. Typical wavelengths would be
between 0.001 and 0.1 nm. This is the x-ray region of the good old electromagnetic spectrum.

Wilhelm Roentgen (1845-1923)

discovered x-rays. He basically
constructed a cathode ray tube. This
is a large, long glass tube that is
evacuated so that there is a vacuum
on the inside of the thing. TV
picture tubes and computer monitors
are basically cathode ray tubes.
Anyway, at one end of the tube was
a small filament called a cathode.
When electric current was passed
through the cathode, it gave off
electrons. This is called thermonic
emission. Anyway, these electrons
are then accelerated to a high
velocity with an electric field.
Typical potential difference in such
a tube would be around 30 000 to
100 000 V. The high velocity
electrons collide with a metal target
atoms and x-rays are given off.

Roentgen of course didnt know that

this would happen. What he did
notice was that a phosphorescent
screen several feet from his tube
began to glow brightly when the
557
tube was lit off. The glow continued even when he stuck a piece of wood between the tube and the
screen. He concluded that some very penetrating type of radiation was being given off. Since he
didnt know what it was, he called them x-rays. x meaning unknown.

Many physics teachers in the past had cathode ray tubes that they would use for demonstrations, not
realizing that they were producing massive amounts of x-rays.

x-rays are produced by TV tubes and computer monitors as well. The glass on the face of the tubes
contain lead, which absorbs x-rays. Before they began doing this, it was dangerous to sit too close
to a TV set. These days its okay it only hurts your eyes.

AP Physics Quantum Mechanics Part 2

The photon theory received further support from the discovery of the Compton effect. This was in
1923. Arthur Compton aimed an x-ray beam at a chunk of graphite. An amazing thing took place;
the scattered photons had a longer wavelength than the incident photons!

Scattered photon
The drawing above shows what happens. An incoming photon has a
collision with an electron, which heads off at some angle to the photons
original path. The photon is scattered as well and head off at some angle
to its original path. The critical thing is that the photon ends up with a
longer wavelength after the collision.

The energy of the scattered photons was less than the incident photons because the wavelength
was longer, right? The change in wavelength is called the Compton shift. So what happened to
cause this energy to be lost? Compton figured that the photon, acting like a particle, has a collision
with an electron in a carbon atom. Energy and momentum must be conserved, and the electron,
initially at rest, gains energy. That energy has to come from something and it does, it comes from
the incident photon. The energy gained by the electron is equal to the energy lost by the photon.
558
Since the photon has lost energy, its wavelength must increase. This was stunning proof for the
photon theory of light.

In a collision, the photon acts like particle.

Energy and momentum are conserved.
The electron gets some of the photons energy and momentum.
The photon loses energy, so its wavelength must increase (the frequency gets smaller,
i.e., lower energy).
Serves as valid proof of photon theory.

Wave Properties of Particles: In 1905 Albert Einstein showed that waves behaved like
particles. This was very disconcerting how could a wave be both a particle and a wave? But
what about the opposite thing? Could matter (which is what particles are) exhibit wave-like
properties? In 1923 (seems like a busy year, dont it) Victor De Broglie (1892-1987) suggested
just that. And he got Einstein to support him!. It seemed logical, if not symmetrical, to De Broglie
that if waves had particle characteristics, then particles ought to demonstrate some wave
characteristics. Fair is fair!
The wavelength of a massive particle, like a baseball, would have matter-waves of such ultra-short
wavelength, that it would be impossible to detect. But the wavelength of a small, high-speed
particle such as an electron ought to be long enough that it could be measured. In 1927 an
American physicist, Clinton Davisson (1892-1975) did just that. He found that a beam of fast
electrons could be diffracted and refracted. This was substantial evidence for the wave-like
behavior of matter.

All matter behaves as both a particle and a wave.

It seems odd that a photon could have momentum since it has zero mass. But according to special
relativity, photons do indeed have momentum.

hc
The energy of a photon is of course: E hf

The photons wavelength can be expressed as a function of its momentum:

h

p
This equation is provided on the AP Physics Test equation sheet.

So we now have an equation for the momentum of a photon.

Wavelength of Particle: We can now develop an equation for the wavelength of a particle.

The momentum of a particle is:

559
 p mv

We now plug this value into the equation for the momentum of a photon and see what happens:

h h

p mv

This gives us an expression for the wavelength of a particle.

h

mv

You will be expected to be able to calculate the wavelength of a particle, but will not be given this
equation. So prepare thyself to the thing all on your own, but its a pretty simple thing to do, dont
you think?

Find the wavelength of a 1.2 kg rock thrown at a speed of 22 m/s.

h h
p mv
p mv

kg m m s
6.63 x 1034
s2 0.25 x 1034 m 2.5 x 1035 m
1.2 kg 22 ms

This is a very small wavelength, one that would be impossible to measure.

Calculate de Broglie wavelength for an electron moving at 1.50 x 106 m/s.

34 kg m m
6.626 x 10 2
s

h s

mv


9.11 x 1031 kg 1.50 x 106

m
s

0.485 x 109 m 4.85 x 109 m

This wavelength we can measure. Countless experiments have been done which have shown the
wave nature of matter.

560
The reason that we do not notice matter behaving as a wave is because the wavelengths of ordinary
matter are incredibly small, way too small too measure. It is only when we get down to the scale of
subatomic particles that this wave behavior becomes something that we can actually observe taking
place. Heres one of them.

Davisson-Germer Experiment: Another experiment that demonstrated the wave nature

of electrons was the Davisson-Germer experiment. This took place in 1927. A beam of electrons
was aimed at a chunk of nickel crystal in a vacuum. The regularly arranged nickel atoms in the
crystal lattice scattered the electrons, producing a diffraction pattern with minima and maxima. The
diffraction pattern was used to measure the wavelength of the electrons, which was found to be
equal to the wavelength calculated using De Broglies equation.

We Forge Into Quantum Theory: Now that weve got into the wave nature of particles
like electrons, we can explore the atom itself and try to understand how it works.

At the turn of the century, physicists were totally puzzled by the behavior of atoms and electrons.
They did not seem to obey Newtons law. Heres what seemed to be happening.

When an electron was accelerated, it would give off light and slow down. Why?

Allligning slits Emission spectrum

Light
source

Spectroscope
Light from the sun and from stars was a continuous spectrum the light ran all the way from red
light of long wavelength to violet light with a short wavelength. Actually this was one of Newtons
discoveries, but he used a simple prism. Later sophisticated spectroscopes were developed which
allowed a really good examination of the spectrum they spread the colors out more. With this
better view of the spectrum, it was discovered that there would be places where a certain color was
missing. These appeared to be dark lines in the spectrum. These missing colors were called
"Fraunhofer lines" (named after the dude what discovered them). The same thing was found when a
continuous spectrum of light was sent through a sample of a gas. The light that emerged from the
gas would also have some of these dark lines. These came to be called absorption spectrums. Each
element had its very own emission spectrum. These absorption spectrums are really useful. We can
identify elements in stars and elements in unknown substances. This is done on that CSI show all
the time.

561
Another interesting thing was
discovered. When a gas was heated
to incandescence (i.e., so it glowed),
the gas would give off light, but only
certain wavelengths. You would see
various bright lines of color and
nothing else, no continuous
spectrum of light like from the sun.
These came to be called emission
spectrums.

For a given element, the emission

lines and the absorption lines occur
at the same frequency.

This is where quantum mechanics comes in. Heres the basic idea (which was the product of Niels
Bohr, Erwin Schroedinger, and Verner Heisenberg).

The atom has a minimum energy state which is called its ground state. Energy levels above that
are called excited states. In the ground state, the electrons (and therefore the atoms) have the least
amount of energy they can possibly have. Above the ground state are a series of discrete allowed
energy levels for the electrons. When an atom is excited, the electrons absorb the amount of
energy (and only that amount) which is equivalent to one of the allowed energy levels. The
electrons instantaneously jump to one of those higher energy levels. This is a now-you-see-it-
now-you-don't kind of deal. They have one energy, then ..ZAP! ..they have a new energy
level - nothing in between. When an electron makes one of these jumps, it has made a quantum
leap. (Have you ever watched the program of the same name?) The electron doesnt stay in the
new energy level for long, it is unstable in this higher energy level, and loses the gained energy.
As it does this it falls back down to a lower allowed energy level. The energy it lost is released as
a photon of electromagnetic radiation. The energy amount that is absorbed or emitted is called a
quanta.

The quantum theory does a good job of explaining why objects can give off light when they are
heated to a high temperature. Heat a steel nail in a lab burner flame. The nail absorbs thermal
energy, this causes the atoms in the metal to become excited. As they gain energy, the electrons
will make quantum leaps. They will jump to higher energy levels. Once there, as we said before,
the electrons aren't stable and will fall back down to a lower energy state. When they fall, they
release the energy they absorbed in the form of photons of electromagnetic energy - light (although
the emitted electromagnetic energy is not limited to visible light, other frequencies can also be
emitted, we just don't see those). Anyway, the nail glows - it gives off light. Initially, it doesn't
glow very brightly - sort of a dull red glow. But as more energy is available (the nail gets hotter)
the nail glows brighter and brighter. Red light is the lowest frequency of visible light, and it
appears first. (Actually, infrared light shows up first, but we can't see it.) As the metal becomes
hotter and hotter, the color that is seen changes. A nail will melt at a temperature that finds it
glowing yellow. The filament in a light bulb is made of tungsten, which has a very high melting
point, so the filament can achieve a very high temperature. It is excited by the flow of current
through it. It glows red, then orange and then yellow. It finally appears to be a yellowish white.

562
This happens because tungsten has a lot of allowed energy states and when it is really excited you
end up with a continuous spectrum of light. At lower temperatures, you only get the lower energy
excited states, so the thing glows in a sort of reddish orange color.

Dear Doctor Science,

I recently heard that "quantum leap" is a scientific term. I always thought
it was some kind of track event, like the broad jump or 75 yard dash.
Would you explain?
-- Bob Reeves from Las Cruces, NM

Dr. Science responds:

The quantum theory says that energy exists in units called quanta. The
quantum of light is the photon, a quantum of nuclear energy is the meson. A
half quantum is called a pint, and half of that is a microcup. From there it's
broken down into teaspoons and tablespoons - all theoretical quantities, of
course. Four quanta do make a gallon, but unless you're painting the living
room, a gallon of light is more than anybody needs. When scientists say they've
made a quantum leap, it's merely jargon which means they went outside to
catch some sun. Scientists are very pale as a rule, and when we go outside we
tend to make a big deal out of it. Hope this answers your question.

Fluorescent bulbs work on a different but similar principle (does that make sense?). A tube is
filled with a gas at low pressure (the tube is almost a vacuum with just a trace of gas, say neon). A
high voltage is applied across the tube (the high voltage is developed by a step-up transformer).
The gas in the tube is ionized by the electric field, which allows electrons to pass through the tube.
This energy excites the gas atoms, which emit the energy as light, but mainly as ultra violet light.
The emitted light photons collide with a fluorescent powder that is coated on the inside of the tube.
The various atoms in the powder are excited, the electrons jump up to higher energy levels, fall
back down, and emit visible light photons, but they do so at a great many wavelengths, very nearly
a complete spectrum. This is the light that you see.

Remember the absorption spectrum with the Fraunhofer lines? It turned out that the wavelengths
absorbed by the atoms represent the photons that have the allowed energy levels for that element.
The wavelengths that are found in an emission spectra also represent the allowed energy levels.
See how neat all this is? If an element has a certain set of energy levels that are available to the
electrons, photons that have that energy will be absorbed. This will cause the electrons to make
quantum leaps to higher energy levels. Photons that have different energy amounts will not be
563
absorbed. When the electrons drop to lower energy states, the photons they emit are limited to
only those wavelengths that correspond with the allowed energy states.

The idea that only certain energy states are allowed and others are prohibited is not intuitive. But
that is what happens. We can visualize it by imagining that we have a quantity of pennies. The
weight of the pennies must be a multiple of the weight of a single penny, so their weight is also
quantified. A pile of pennies cannot have a weight that is not a multiple of the weight of a penny.

Electron Position: From chemistry, you will have learned about the various orbitals that
electrons fill. Remember , the s, p, d, and f orbitals and the suborbitals? These were found by
measuring the location of electrons over time. The electrons were
found to be located in certain spaces about the nucleus 90 % of the
time. The volume that the electrons stayed in for the 90 % became
the shape of the suborbital. You couldn't really predict where the
blame electrons were going to be - they don't follow orbits like planets
do. But you could be sure that 90 % of the time, the electrons would
be somewhere in this funny little cloud shape.

Why Energy Levels:

Niels Bohr came up with idea of the allowed energy levels, but, quite frankly, they didnt really
make much sense. Why were electrons restricted in the amount of energy they could have?

De Broglies wave model for electrons is what came to the rescue. Schroednger thought, What if
the electrons are moving around the nucleus as a standing wave? This would explain why only
certain energy levels were allowed.

Remember standing waves? Schrodinger developed an equation that described the behavior of
electrons in all the elements. This is the famous Schrodinger wave equation. Sadly, because of the
mathematical difficulty level of the thing, we wont get to play with it.

Lets look at an energy level diagram for an atom.

Energy eV
0

Third Excited State - 0.5

Second Excited State - 1.0

First Excited State - 3.5

Ground State - 5.0

Okay, right now it doesnt look so good. Just a bunch of lines. The bottom line represents the
ground state of the atom. This is its lowest energy level, above that are the allowed energy levels.

564
In this example there are three possible energy levels. The top line is zero energy and represent s
the point where the electron has left the atom (causing the atom to be ionized Ladies and
Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.)

There are several possible energy transitions. Here are a few of them:

Energy eV
0

Third Excited State - 0.5

Second Excited State - 1.0

First Excited State - 3.5

Ground State - 5.0

Here we have an electron at the ground state. It can leap to any of the three excited states available
to it. These possible leaps are represented by the arrows. All that is needed for the electron to
make a quantum leap is the proper amount of energy. If the electron does not get exactly the right
amount of energy to take it to one of the excited states, it will not do so.

Lets imagine that the electron jumps up to the third excited state. What can it then do? Well, it
can make any of the following transitions:

Energy eV
0

Third Excited State - 0.5

Second Excited State - 1.0

First Excited State - 3.5

Ground State - 5.0

Heres an example of what could happen when an electron leaps to the third excited state:

565
 Energy eV
0

Third Excited State - 0.5

Second Excited State - 1.0

First Excited State - 3.5

Ground State - 5.0

The electron jumps up to the third excited state. This represents 4.5 eV of energy (5 eV-0.5 eV). It
could absorb a photon that has that amount of energy in order to make this jump. Once there, it
drops down to the second excited state. This represents 0.5 eV. It would release a photon that has
this amount of energy when it does this. It then drops down to the ground state. This represents 4.0
eV and another photon would be released with that amount of energy. Do you see the other energy
amounts that are represented?

Photons are always released when the electron falls to the lower energy state. This is where the
energy goes.

See how it works?

Of course, we dont identify photons by the energy of the thing in eV. Usually we represent them
by their wavelength.

So what would be the wavelength of a photon that caused the 4.0 eV quantum leap that started
things?

c hc
E hf c f f E


E 1.24 x 103 eV nm 4.01eV 0.31 x 103 nm 310 nm

This photon would not be visible light the wavelength is too short. Were looking at UV here.

The photons emitted? Well, one represents a quantum leap of 0.5 eV. Lets find its wavelength.

E 1.24 x 103 eV nm 0.51eV 2.5 x 103 nm 2 500 nm

This would definitely not be visible light wavelength is way too long.

566
In a typical kind of problem, you might be told that a gas absorbs a certain wavelength and gives
that one off as well as another. How would that work?

A monotamic gas is illuminated with light of wavelength 400.0 nm. It absorbs some of the light
and gives off visible light at both 400.0 nm and 600.0 nm. (a) draw an energy level diagram,
(b) If the ground state of the atom has energy 5.00 eV, what is the energy of the state to which
the atoms were excited by the 400.0 nm light? (c) At which wavelengths outside the visible
range do these atoms emit radiation after they are excited by the 400.0 nm light?

(a) E (eV)
0.00

600.0 nm

400.0 nm

- 5.00 eV
c hc
(b) E hf c f f E

E 1.24 x 103 eV nm 400.01 nm 0.0031 x 103 eV 3.10 eV

So the third energy level that the electron jumped to is 3.10 eV from the ground state or:
5.00 eV 3.10 eV 1.90 eV

So the third excited energy level would be at 1.90 eV on the scale.

(c)
E 1.24 x 103 eV nm 600.01 nm 0.00207 x 103 eV 2.07 eV

This is the energy of the 600 nm photon. To find its corresponding energy level we merely subtract
it from the one we already figured out.

E 3.10 eV 2.07 eV 1.03 eV

567
A photon can be released by an electron dropping down from this energy level to the ground state.
Lets find the wavelength for this photon.

hc hc
E
E

1.24 x 103 eV nm
1.20 x 103 nm
1.03 eV

1 200 nm

This represents a photon that is outside the visible spectrum.

568
Dear Cecil:
I've gone through life wondering about a childhood discovery that I must resolve before I
slip into chronic adult paranoia. Lying in bed with a winter cold, I noticed that when I
coughed, I sparked-- but only when my eyes were closed. What does this mean? Am I all
right? Need we be concerned about the power drain? It would be a shame to short out
before my time. Should I avoid coughing in the tub? In the rain?
--Sparky, Washington, D.C.

Cecil replies:
Don't worry, goofball, you're not going to electrocute yourself. The sparks are an optical illusion.

In the first stage of a cough, pressure is built up in the lungs, and for a split second that pressure
inhibits the flow of blood through them. This causes a momentary imbalance in the circulatory
system, forcing more blood to the head, and, naturally, the eyes.

The eyeball is entwined in a network of blood vessels--you've seen the Visine commercials--that
we normally see right through. But when these vessels are slightly overloaded, thanks to the
pressure in the lungs, they become a little harder to get around.

At the moment of the cough, when the lung pressure is released, a final wave of pressure travels
to the head, and the combined effect of the bloated vessels and this final burst creates enough
pressure to stimulate the photoreceptor cells. The sparks you see are the outline of the veins.
Usually, the sparks are concentrated at the periphery of the eye, where the network of blood
vessels is densest.
Interestingly, children spark more than adults--as you get older, you get bigger and less
susceptible to subtle changes in pressure. But you can recapture the bliss of childhood by closing
your eyes, looking all the way to the right, and touching the left side of your eyelid. Sparks are
less likely than a dull glow, but the principle is the same: pressure on the eye creates an illusion
of light.

--CECIL ADAMS

Erwin Schroedinger gained inspiration

From a belly dancers navel vibration.
Surely here was an article
Which was both wave and particle
And modeled his famous equation.

-- Lewis Elton

569
 The ground state energy of an atom is 10.0 eV. When the atoms in their ground state are
illuminated with light, only wavelengths of 207 nm and 146 nm are absorbed by the atoms. (a)
Calculate the energies of the photons of light of the two absorption-spectrum wavelengths (b)
draw a energy level diagram (c) Show by arrows on the energy level diagram all the possible
transitions that would produce emission spectrum lines (d) What would be the wavelength of the
emission line corresponding to the transition from the second excited state to the first excited
state? (e) would the emission line be visible?

E (eV)
0.00
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10 - 10.0 eV
c hc
(a) E hf c f f E


E 1.24 x 103 eV nm 2071nm 0.00599 x 103 eV 5.99 eV

E 1.24 x 103 eV nm 1461nm 8.49 eV

(b) 10.0 eV 8.49 eV 1.51 eV

10.0 eV 5.99 eV 4.01 eV

(d) 8.49 eV 5.99 eV 2.50 eV

hc hc
E
E

570
 1.24 x 103 eV nm
0.496 x 103 nm 496 nm
2.50 eV

(e) visible, visible light is 400 nm 700 nm and this value falls within that range.

Things get Strange: (Note this is stuff that you do not need to know for the test, but it
is cool and very useful for a full understanding of quantum
mechanics.)

Well the quantum thing was odd nobody expected that atoms would behave as they did. But
stranger things were yet to come. So far things had gone well. Once the wave thing was figured
out for particles, all the odd stuff seemed to make sense. But this was only a momentary illusion.

This is where a dude named Verner Heisenberg comes in. Newton had shown that the universe was
a predictable place; governed by the laws of physics. So naturally scientists were confident that
with proper instruments, careful technique, and a little delicacy, don't you know, all the secrets of
the universe could be extracted. By that, it is meant that anything observable could be measured to
any degree of accuracy if you just had the right instrument. Physicists jumped in with both feet
and set out to pin down those electrons and see exactly what they were doing. However this was
not to be. Heisenberg in the late 20s experienced some problems with gathering data on these
little subatomic particles. He came to realize that the quantum mechanical world was quite
different than the everyday world. After careful study, he found that he could determine the
position of an electron with great accuracy or he could accurately measure the momentum of an
electron, but he could not do both at the same time. As you try to zero in on the electron's
location, the less certain you become of its momentum and vice versa. This is because the act of
measuring a thing changes the thing you are observing. Its like those anthropologists who set out
to study a primitive tribe in the mountains of New Guinea. Here these backward natives are,
totally ignorant of the rest of the world busy worshiping rocks or trees or perhaps a large
coconut. All of a sudden heres a bunch of scientists with Sony Walkman cassette players,
camcorders, flashlights, and polyester pants. The tribe will never be the same again. They are no
longer ignorant savages the very appearance of the scientists has changed the people and their
society forever. This is what happens when you try to study electrons. The very act of measuring
what they are doing changes the thing they are doing, so you cant be certain about it.

The idea that you cannot know the momentum and the position is called the uncertainty principle.
Heisenberg found that the uncertainty in the momentum multiplied by the knowledge of the
position was equal to Planck's constant. What a weird thing.

571
From Marilyn vos Savant: The
answer was uncertainty principle. Here are
some questions:

What was Heisenbergs justification for

prenuptial agreements? Karl Hester,
Seattle, Washington.

What underlies the rhythm method of

birth control? Wayne Wilkinson, New
Orleans, La

Whats the name for the fear of a

husband who cant remember if today is
the birthday of his wife or girlfriend?
Gerald Swick, Clarksburg, W. Va.

Heisenberg might have slept here. --

Anonymous

Planck's constant is a measure of the

graininess of the universe. Think of the
universe as a sort of magazine photograph.
When you do your normal look at a magazine
picture, you see a nice sharp image, but if you magnify it look at it close up - you find that it is
made up of bunches of little dots. The closer you get to the picture, the more you notice the dots.
You can still make out the subject of the picture, but you have to work at it. As you get closer and
closer, the picture gets grainier and grainier harder and harder to make out. Eventually all you
see are these big old dots that just lie there, not making much sense. The picture is gone. In fact,
beyond these little dots, there is nothing that can be known. Turns out the universe is the same
way.

Heisenberg had discovered the uncertainty principle.

Uncertainty principle It is impossible to know

simultaneously the exact position of an object, such
as an electron, and its momentum.

It also was learned that the act of measuring a quantity

would change the quantity. This makes it even more
unlikely that anything can be truly known.

Einstein had trouble accepting the uncertainty principle.

He recognized that quantum mechanics worked, but felt
that the uncertainty was a result of the lack of refinement
in the theory and that, with a little work, the uncertainty
would vanish and we would be able to truly know some
ultimate things. He believed that the laws of the
572
universe are simple, elegant, and beautiful like special relativity. Quantum mechanics was none
of those things. Thus he opposed it, mainly on philosophical grounds. His really famous quote,
which he made about uncertainty, is, "I cannot believe that God plays dice with the universe." Of
course Niels Bohrs answer was, Who is Einstein to tell God what to do?

Heisenberg is out for a drive when he's stopped by a traffic cop. The cop says "Do you know how
fast you were going?" Heisenberg says "No, but I know where I am."

Quantum mechanics is not governed by hard, discrete laws as the rest of physics is, instead it is
governed by probability and statistics. When we discuss electrons, we discuss the probability that
they will be in a certain place or having a certain energy or momentum. If you deal with a large
number of them, you are okay, and can make accurate predictions, but when you deal with just a
few or one, then you cannot be certain and your prediction will be unreliable.

Again, it is important to recognize that this uncertainty only happens when we deal with very small
events. When we deal with anything material, the numbers of particles are so vast that the
probability effect becomes a certainty. Which is why we can get away with ignoring the whole
thing -- most of the time.

Bruce Baskir
"Electrons all jumbled like rice?"
Quoth Einstein, "That's too high a price."
In reply, answered God
"Well I don't find it odd.
So shut-up and let me play dice."

Schrodinger's Cat: A really weird outcome of quantum mechanics is that, under certain
conditions, matter can exist in more than one state or position at the same time.
This is a wild concept. There is a probability (pretty small and most highly unlikely) that the
atoms that make up the seat you sit on could, all at one time, go somewhere else leaving you to fall
to the floor. It really could happen. Be pretty cool if it did too don't you think (as long, one needs
point out, that it happens to someone else)?

Schrodinger came up with a marvelous way to illustrate the weirdness of this dilemma. In 1926 he
proposed a puzzling thought experiment. Imagine that a cat is placed in a sealed box and its fate -
whether it lives or dies - depends on whether or not an atom undergoes radioactive decay. The
atom is hooked up to a flask of poison gas. If the atom decays, the gas is released and the cat
croaks. We cannot predict what the individual atom will do - decay or not decay, so we consider its
probability of decaying. This probability is, let us say, 50 50. The presence of the atom's decayed
and undecayed quantum states translates into a cat that is both dead and alive at the same time - a
highly counterintuitive idea. So is the cat dead or is it living? If you open the box, the cat will
automatically be killed (by making our measurement we have changed the state), so there is no way
to know what the cat's state is or was or will be.

We get around this by defining the cats state as being both alive and dead.

When we observe felines, we don't expect our observations to influence whether the kitty dies or
stays alive--or to see one of the critters both dead and alive. But you must remember that we don't

573
live in a quantum world (well, actually we do, but we aren't aware of it because the graininess of
the quantum is far smaller than our threshold of noticing things).

The Cat in the Tree

by Peter Price
Another great Dane has made free
With a question of Be or Not be.
Now might Schrdinger's puss,
In descending by Schuss,
Leave one track on each side of a tree?

The quantum mechanical universe is like so strange, you know what the Physics Kahuna means?
For example, take your largest atom. This would be, of course, good old cesium, which is a really
nasty, highly reactive alkaline metal. Cesium atoms are big because the outermost electron is not
very tightly held, so the electron's orbital is quite large. A cesium atom is about 6.68 angstroms
across (0.0000000263 inch), which is not all that more spectacularly bigger than many other atoms.
But this is the atom in its ground state, when it is unexcited. What happens when the atom absorbs
energy? Well, them atoms can get a whole bunch bigger when they absorb photons of energy --
electrons can jump into a higher energy quantum level, which effectively makes the atom larger.
Out there in its higher orbital, the electron can be easily lost, leaving the atom smaller than a normal
one. Or the energized electron can also re-emit the light photon (falling back to a lower excited
state), restoring the atom to normal size. In the real world, energized atoms almost always emit a
photon or lose their outer electron within a fraction of a second. But it's theoretically possible for an
atom to be energized to any size, even as large as the whole universe. Now that, the Physics
Kahuna must tell you, is weird.

Quantum mechanics has had a huge effect on our perception of the universe. It effectively tossed
out Newtons idea of a clockwork universe. We now realize that the universe is a place full of
uncertainties and things that we cannot know or even find out. Not only do we have trouble
figuring out the location of an electron, the darn thing can even be in two places at the same time!

Heres a Niels Bohr story related by a physics professor, one Ed Schweber. One of his professors
when he was in grad school in the early 70's, Aage Peterson, had worked with Bohr early in
Peterson's career and toward the end of Bohr's career.

Once Bohr, Peterson and some colleagues went to see an American western movie and began
talking about the film afterward. What follows is the gist of what transpired. The exact dialog is an
approximation. "What did you think?" they asked Bohr and he replied,

"Too Implausible."

"Come on Bohr, its just a movie, you can't subject it to too rigorous an analysis."

Bohr kept responding, "Too implausible."

Finally they relented. O.K. Bohr, why is it implausible?"

574
"That a man runs off with a woman - that I can accept - it happens all the time. That the woman had
a jealous brother who chased after them - that too I can accept - there certainly are jealous brothers.
That the brother caught up with his sister - that too I can accept. One person must have the faster
horse and one the slower horse, That the brother caught his sister as they were crossing a bridge -
that I can accept as well. The brother has to catch his sister somewhere. And that the bridge
collapsed just as everyone was crossing it - even that I can accept. Bridges do collapse and the
people on them must have some reason for being there. And you don't make movies of everyday
events. But that at the precise moment the bridge collapsed, a movie crew should just happen to
have been in the ravine to film it -- too implausible!

Dear Dr. Science,

When my boss asks me for a "ballpark figure", what figure should I give
him?
-----------Pedro Rodriguez, El Paso, Texas

Dr. Science responds:

Your boss is probably more scientifically astute than you are. When he asks you
for data in these forms, he's utilizing principles of Statistics. Specifically, he's
referring to Indeterminacy and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. These
principles are the foundation on which is based the uncertain future of our modern
world. So, the next time he asks you for a "guesstimate", round off to the nearest
significant figure and show him you've got your head screwed on right,
statistically speaking. As for ballparks, tell him you'll have to travel to Denver,
Cleveland, Baltimore or Chicago's Wrigley Field. Now those are real ballpark
figures. Unless they've raised the price of popcorn over 50 cents, that is.

Dear Doctor Science,

How many electrons can the sixth energy level of an atom hold?
--------David Crowley from Petaluma CA

Dr. Science responds:

It depends on the size of the electrons. Being negatively charged, they have a great
deal of excess emotional baggage, a surfeit of unforgiveness that drags them down
like a lead overcoat. The only electrons that can mass together and share the same
energy level are those who have truly forgiven other subatomic particles for
whatever insults, imagined or real, they've suffered and moved into the glorious
freedom that each of us, no matter what our size, enjoys when we've looked the
universe square in the eye and said, "Yes, things are OK just the way they are."
These atoms and their electrons are unusually stable and are concentrated in small
towns in the upper Midwest.

575
Lasers: (Another thing you dont need to know, but is cool.) One really awesome device
which, makes most excellent use of the quantum nature of the atom is your basic laser. The word
laser is an acronym. It is taken from Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
The word has given rise to a verb, atoms that emits light when stimulated in a laser are said to lase.
There are two types of light emission that your basic atoms can undergo. One type is called
spontaneous emission. This is the one we talked about that is involved in ordinary lights like the
old screw in light bulb. The other type is called stimulated emission. Spontaneous emission is an
indiscriminate process. Photons are emitted spontaneously, in random directions, without external
provocation. Stimulated emission is very different.
The idea of stimulated emission is credited to Albert Einstein. In 1917, he considered what would
happen to an atom that had already gotten itself into an excited state if it were to be struck by
another photon of the same energy as the original photon (the one that got it all excited to begin
with). The master speculated that the excited atom would emit a photon of the same energy and
move to a lower energy state. The photon that caused, or stimulated, the emission would not be
affected. This process is called stimulated emission. The two photons leaving the atom will be in
phase and have the same wavelength. Either of the two photons can now strike other excited atoms
sort of a chain reaction kind of deal - producing even more in-phase photons. . This process can
continue, producing a huge cascade of photons, all of the same wavelength and all having their
maxima and minima at the same times.

The trick is, of course, to actually make this happen. Einstein only thought it up, but never made it
happen (in fairness, the Physics Kahuna must point out that he didnt try). Heres what you need to
make the thing go: you must first have atoms in the excited state. Next, the photons have to have
some sort of a pathway that will allow them to collide with the excited atoms. The invention that
does all that is, of course, the good old, trusty laser

The atoms in a laser can be put into the excited state, or pumped, in different ways. An intense
flash of light with a wavelength shorter than that of the laser can pump the atoms to the required
state. The more energetic photons produced by the flash collide with and excite the lasing atoms.
One atom decays to a lower energy state, starting the avalanche. As a result, a brief flash or pulse of
laser light is emitted. Alternatively, a continuous electric charge can be applied to hornswaggle the
atoms into the necessary excited state. The laser light resulting from this process is continuous
rather than pulsed. The helium-neon lasers which the Physics Kahuna employs in his little pathetic
laser demonstration bill of fare are continuous lasers. An electric discharge excites the helium
atoms. They collide with the neon atoms, pumping them to an excited state and causing them to
lase. The photons emitted by atoms are collected by placing a glass tube containing the atoms
between two parallel mirrors. One of the mirrors is near 100 percent reflective and reflects most of
the light hitting it. The other mirror is only partially reflective. It allows about one percent of the
light to pass through.

When a photon strikes an atom in the excited state, it stimulates the atom to make a transition to the
lower state. Thus, two photons leave the atom. These photons can strike other atoms and produce
more photons, thereby starting the avalanche. Photons that are directed toward the ends of the tube
will be reflected back into the gas by the mirrors. The reflected photons reinforce one another with
each pass between the mirror and build to a high intensity. The photons that exit the tube through
the partially reflecting mirror produce the laser beam. Laser light is highly directional because of
the parallel mirrors. The light beam is very small, typically only about 0.5 mm in diameter, so the
576
light is in a tight beam, monochromatic, in phase and has a very high intensity (which is why you
should never look into a laser). The light is all of one wavelength, or monocromatic, because the
transition of electrons between only one pair of energy levels in one type of atom is involved. All
the stimulated photons are emitted in phase with the photons that struck the atoms. This type of
light is called coherent light. Coherent light is, of course, light that is of the same frequency, in
phase, and traveling in the same direction your basic laser beam deal.

Many substances--solids, liquids, and gases--can be made to lase this way. Most produce laser light
at only one wavelength. For example red is produced by a neon laser, blue by an argon laser, and
green by a helium-cadmium laser. The light from some lasers, can even be tuned, or adjusted, over
a range of wavelengths.

All lasers are very inefficient. No more than one percent of electrical energy delivered to a laser is
converted to light energy. Despite this inefficiency, the unique properties of laser light have led to
many applications. Laser beams are narrow and highly directional. They do not spread out over
long distances. Surveyors use laser beams for this reason to make measurements. Laser beams are
also used to check the straightness of long tunnels and pipes. When astronauts visited the moon,
they left a mirror which was used by scientists to reflect a laser beam from Earth. The distance
between Earth and the moon was thus accurately determined.

Laser light is used in fiber optics as well. A fiber uses total internal reflection to transmit light over
many kilometers with little loss. The laser is switched on and off rapidly, transmitting information
through the fiber. In many cities, optical fibers have replaced copper wires for the transmission of
telephone calls, computer data, and even television pictures.

The single wavelength of light emitted by lasers makes lasers valuable in spectroscopy. Laser light
is used to excite other atoms. The atoms then return to the ground state, emitting characteristic
spectra. Samples with extremely small numbers of atoms can be analyzed in this way. In fact,
single atoms have been detected by means of laser excitation and even have been held almost
motionless by laser beams.

The concentrated power of laser light is used in a variety of ways. In medicine, lasers can be used
to repair the retina in an eye or the lens itself. Lasers also can be used in surgery in place of a knife
to cut flesh with little loss of blood.

Lasers are used to cut materials such as wood and steel and to weld materials together.

Lasers are also used to read bar codes on price tags on your basic consumer goods in the stores of
the world. It is rare to pay for something that has not had its price tag scanned by a laser.

577
Dear Cecil:
After watching a campy mid-1950s science fiction movie recently, I was left
wondering: how radioactive must something be to begin glowing? And could a living
creature become that radioactive and survive, even briefly?
--Ranchoth, via AOL

Cecil replies:

Radioactive stuff doesn't glow, muchacho. Hollywood screenwriters just think it does.
(Frail creature that I am, I admit to having helped perpetuate this myth.) High-energy
radioactive particles sometimes cause other stuff to glow, but that's the exception, not the
rule. For example: Cerenkov radiation. Perhaps you've seen depictions of the eerie blue
glow emanating from spent nuclear fuel that's stored underwater. That's Cerenkov
radiation. It occurs when beta particles (electrons) travel faster than the speed of light.

578
You reply: Say what? I thought nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.

Not exactly--nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, c. However, in
translucent media, notably water, light travels much slower, at maybe 75 percent of c. A
beta particle traveling through air, say, moves considerably faster than light traveling
through water.

Now suppose a beta particle enters the water. What happens? It throws up a shock wave of
photons, much as a boat plowing through water creates a bow wave or a jet creates a sonic
boom. It gets a little complicated after that, but basically constructive interference between
wave fronts generates visible light. Note that the radioactive stuff isn't what glows, nor
does the water glow once the radioactive stuff is removed.

Fluorescence. When certain compounds are struck by radiation, they glow. For instance,
glow-in-the-dark watch dials used to be painted with a mixture of radium and zinc sulfide.
Radiation from the former caused the latter to fluoresce. There's nothing magical or
dangerous about fluorescence; it can be caused by lots of things, including ordinary
sunlight. The radioactive material itself emits no visible light. Madame Curie, who
discovered radium, talked about watching the stuff glow in the dark, but the light was
emitted by minerals mixed up with the radium, not the radium itself.

Bremsstrahlung. When a charged particle speeds up, slows down, or changes direction, it
emits bremsstrahlung radiation. Typically bremsstrahlung consists of invisible X rays, but
I'm told that under certain circumstances it can be visible, making it the closest thing to a
glow arising from radioactivity itself. Even so, an intervening medium is generally required
to speed/slow/divert the charged particle.

None of these phenomena is going to make you or any living creature glow. If you were to
tarry near a spent fuel canister bathed in Cerenkov radiation, you'd receive a lethal dose in
seconds. You wouldn't glow, though; you'd just die. Tragic, but at least we'd put this silly
misconception to rest.

--CECIL ADAMS

Dear Cecil:
About 200 years ago Sir Edmund Halley discovered an anomaly in space around the
stars of the Pleiades. A hundred years later Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel confirmed
Halley's findings. In 1961 Paul Otto Hesse defined and measured this anomaly. It's an
energy ring of incredible size, 760 thousand billion miles wide, and is due to intersect
the earth just about any minute now. He also calculated that this is part of a 25,000-
year-long cycle that our solar system goes through.

579
It's expected that once we're into the Photon Belt, electricity won't function and there
will be three to five days of total darkness. All indigenous cultures and religions
prophesy three days of darkness to mark the "end times."

Scientists discussing the Photon Belt have been fired, moved, or denied access to the
equipment used to study it. If you cast around on, say, the Internet for information,
folks with CIA or NSA credentials likely will show up and say it would be in the best
interest of your family if you gave up the quest.

So my question is, what can you tell us about the Photon Belt? Any hard data?
--N. A., Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Cecil replies:
Get off it. Nobody wants hard data. If hard data were the filtering criterion you could fit the
entire contents of the Internet on a floppy disk. My mission in life is a little different: you
provide the bubble, I provide the pin.

The "photon belt" has been a hot topic in New Age circles since 1991, when a story about
it appeared in Australia's Nexus magazine. In 1994 it received a book-length treatment in
You Are Becoming a Galactic Human by Virginia Essene and Sheldon Nidle. Essene and
Nidle claimed to be "channeling" members of the "Sirian Council," beings from a distant
planet.

Exactly when we're going to enter the photon belt is a matter of debate. Originally it was
thought that the arrival of the belt would lead to a vast transformation of society starting in
1992. So what did we get instead? Bill Clinton. Not to be critical in any way, but I for one
would have expected something a little grander than a hike in the minimum wage.

The next target date was May 5, 1997, though there was to be a long buildup. "Apparently,
by the end of Summer [1996]," one newsletter noted, "most of us will be having
conversations with Masters, the spiritual hierarchy, and space commanders of all kinds."
Don't know about you, but all I've been seeing is more Bill Clinton. As a fallback, some
New Agers are saying the photon belt won't get here until 2011.

The question is not whether it's nuts to believe in the photon belt. Of course it's nuts. How
many great scientific discoveries do you know of that were channeled from aliens? For the
record, however, I feel obliged to say that:

(1) No photon belt or other such region of increased energy has been discovered. Photons
in any case are merely particles of electromagnetic energy, which we commonly
experience as light. Upon exposure to excess photons the most common transformation of
your being is sunburn.

580
(2) There's no "anomaly" near the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades are surrounded by a
nebula, or gas cloud. This cloud is composed not of photons but of dust and hydrogen gas.
(3) The earth isn't heading toward the Pleiades but away from them. In the 1850s it was
conjectured that the earth orbited the Pleiades, but this has long since been discredited.
(4) Paul Otto Hesse is unknown to astronomers. Someone dug up a reference to a 1986
book by him in German whose title translates as "Judgment Day: A Book to Mankind That
Speaks of Things to Come." 'Nuff said.

What puzzled me was where the photon-belt story came from. The 1991 Nexus article was
based on a 1981 article in an Australian UFO mag. I spoke to Colin Norris, head of the
Australian UFO society that publishes the magazine, and he said it was coauthored by a
"middle-aged mother" and a college undergraduate. Norris denied it was a prank, but it
seems clear these folks didn't have detailed technical knowledge, unless of course they
were on the horn with the guys from Sirius.
So it's a crock. But don't worry. I'm sure your five-day supply of candles will come in
handy for something.

STILL WAITING

Dear Cecil:
Just a note--my family and I just came back out of hiding, and boy are we
embarrassed. How was Cinco de Mayo?
--Susan Gleason, via the Internet

Cecil replies:
Pretty quiet, and it's been pretty quiet since--although now that you mention it, the power
did go out for a couple minutes Saturday night. However, to my way of thinking, the
arrival of the Photon Belt ought to be heralded by something a little more impressive than a
message saying "RESET" on the microwave. As of this writing (early July, 1997), the New
Age crowd had not given up on the Photon Belt, but it sounds like they're getting a little
fidgety. PB promoter Sheldon Nidle, trying to buck up the troops in a recent communique,
notes that "time is extremely elastic in its properties." Whatever you say, Shel. But to me
that sounds an awful lot like, "The check is in the mail."

--CECIL ADAMS

581
AP Physics Quantum Wrap Up
Not too many equations in this unit. Just a few. Here they be:

E hf pc

This is the equation for the energy of a photon. The hf part has to do with Plancks
constant and frequency. The other part, the pc bit, shows that the energy is a
function of the photons momentum (p) and the speed of light (c).

K max hf

This is the equation for the maximum kinetic energy of an electron that has been
expelled from a metal by a photon. hf is the energy of the photon and the part is
the work function for the metal. Note that the electron can have less energy than
this, it just represents a maximum.

h

p
This is an equation for the wavelength of a photon as a function of its momentum
and Plancks constannt.

E m c 2

This is a ridiculously complicated way to write Einsteins famous E mc

2

equation. What this one is saying is that energy and mass are equivalent to
each other. This means that when a system undergoes change in energy,
there will be a change in mass as well the mass being converted into
energy, see?

v f

This equation is not part of the modern physics equation set, but is needed to
solve the problems. Using it, one can relate frequency and wavelength. For
many of the problems you will be tasked to solve, you will be given
wavelength and not frequency of the photons. Using this equation, you can
properly work things out.

Modern Physics

A. Atomic Physics and Quantum Effects

1. You should know the properties of photons and understand the photoelectric effect so
you can:
582
a. Relate the energy of a photon in joules or electron-volts to its wavelength or frequency.
Just use the E hf pc equation. Actually you want the E hf part of it. To get the
wavelength thing in there, use the v f so c f equation. Solve for f
hc
and plug that into the first equation. You get E .

b. Relate the linear momentum of a photon to its energy or wavelength, and apply linear
momentum conservation to simple processes involving the emission, absorption, or
reflection of photons.

Use the E hf pc equation. Mainly though, you use the E pc part of it.

c. Calculate the number of photons per second emitted by a monochromatic source of

specific wavelength and power.

Power is work divided by time, which means that it is also energy divided by time. Use the
E hf equation to calculate the energy for one photon. You know the total amount of
energy in one second (its just the power) so you can divide it by the energy of a photon to
get the number of photons per second.

d. Describe a typical photoelectric effect experiment, and explain what experimental

observations provide evidence for the photon nature of light.

This would require you to describe a typical photoelectric tube. You would want to talk
about the emitter and the collector. Also talk about the stopping potential that is applied
to the collector and how it affects the photoelectrons. The key thing for the photon nature
of light (by this they mean the particle nature of light) is that the photons are having
collisions with electrons and knocking them out of the metal, giving them (the electrons)
kinetic energy. The photoelectric equation allows you to calculate the maximum kinetic
energy one of these photoelectrons can have.

e. Describe qualitatively how the number of photoelectrons and their maximum kinetic
energy depend on the wavelength and intensity of the light striking the surface, and
account for this dependence in terms of a photon model of light.

The wavelength of the light determines the amount of energy each photon has. If the
energy is too small (the wavelength is not short enough or the frequency is too small) then
no photoelectrons are emitted. The photons dont have enough energy to break the
electrons loose. The work function can be thought of as the energy that binds the
electrons to the metal. If the photon has more energy than the work function, electrons
will be knocked out of the metal. If the photons energy is less than the work function no
photoelectrons are produced.

The energy of the photon is a function of its wavelength. The shorter the wavelength the
greater the energy. It is also a function of its frequency. The bigger the frequency the
bigger the energy of the photon.

583
 The intensity of the light is a measure of the number of photons per second that are
incident on the metal surface. If the wavelength is too large to produce photoelectrons,
the intensity of the light will have no effect. No photoelectrons will be produced.

If the wavelength is suitable to produce photoelectrons, the intensity will determine the
number that are released. The intensity will have no effect on the energy of the
photoelectrons however, just their number.

f. When given the maximum kinetic energy of photoelectrons ejected by photons of one
energy or wavelength, determine the maximum kinetic energy of photoelectrons for a
different photon energy or wavelength.
Use the K max hf equation. You are given the maximum kinetic energy and the energy of
the photons (or wavelength) so you can calculate the work function, . Then using the work
function and the new photon energy you can work out the maximum kinetic energy of the
photoelectrons for the new wavelength.

g. Sketch or identify a graph of stopping potential versus frequency for a photoelectric-

effect experiment, determine from such a graph the threshold frequency and work
function, and calculate an approximate value of h/e.

Here is a typical graph. The fC term is the threshold frequency. It is

simply where the curve hits the old x axis. Photons that have a higher
Vs
frequency than the cutoff frequency will produce photoelectrons that
have enough energy to reach the collector, overcoming the electric f
field establish on the thing. Photons at the threshold frequency will fc
have a maximum kinetic energy that is equal to the potential energy of the field.

To find the work function, okay. Lets see. At the threshold frequency the maximum
kinetic energy of the photoelectrons is equal to the potential energy in the field so:

K max hf and U qV so qV hf at the threshold frequency, the

stopping potential is zero, so 0 hf and hfC . So the work function is
simply the threshold frequency times Planks constant.

The energy of a photon is E hf and the potential energy of the field is U qV . Set
them equal and you get hf qV q is the charge of an electron, so we can plug in e for
h
the electrons charge and write the equation as: hf eV solving for like they want us
e
h V
to do we get: Thus, h/e is simply the slope of the graph.
e f
2. You should understand the concept of energy levels for atoms so you can:

a. Calculate the energy or wavelength of the photon emitted or absorbed in a transition

between specified levels, or the energy or wavelength required to ionize an atom.

Okay. This is the one where you have the energy diagrams. They look like this:
584
 Ionized Atom Ionized Atom
0 eV 0 eV
(continuous (continuous
energy levels) energy levels)
-1.0 eV

-3.0 eV

-5.0 eV Initial State -5.0 eV Initial State

The one on the left you would use to determine the energy needed to ionize an atom. The
one the right gives you the specified energy levels that are available for the electrons to
make their quantum leap things to. (The Physics Kahuna recognizes that that was a
really wretched sentence but, he doesnt care.) Electrons absorb photons that have
energy that is equal to the energy differences between the energy levels. The wavelength
or the frequency of the photons can be calculated because you know the energy that is
needed to make the quantum leaps. We did several of these problems and the whole
thing was wonderfully explained in the handout. What a lucky AP student you are to
have such a splendiferous resource!

b. Explain qualitatively the origin of emission or absorption spectra of gases.

The qualitatively thing is nice. It means that you dont have to calculate anything, just
explain it On second thought, maybe thats not so good. It is always easier to calculate
something than to explain it. Gas atoms that are excited will give off an emission
spectrum. These are photons of specific wavelengths that represent the energy levels
within the atom. The excited electrons jump up to higher energy levels, are not stable,
and fall back down to lower energy levels. The energy difference between the energy
levels is given off as a photon by the electron. SO the only colors given off correspond to
the energy level differences in the atom. The spectrum given off appears as different
colored lines. You will recall having viewed just such a thing.

The absorption spectra has to do with white light (all colors) shining through a gas
sample. The photons of light that have wavelengths that correspond to the energy levels
in the atoms of the gas are absorbed. The spectrum is continuous goes from red to
violet, but the absorbed wavelengths show up as dark lines where there is no light.

c. Given the wavelengths or energies of photons emitted or absorbed in a two-step

transition between levels, calculate the wavelength or energy for a single-step transition
between two levels.

This is pretty simple - just calculate the energy of the photon from its wavelength and
then convert it into eV. You can then translate that into the energy levels in the atom. We
did a bunch of problems like that. Check em out.

3. You should understand the concept of DeBroglie wavelength so you can:

585
 a. Calculate the wavelength of a particle as a function of its momentum.

The DeBroglie wavelength is the flip side of the coin for matter. The idea is that moving
particles such as electrons have wave characteristics frequency, wavelength, etc. Also
that the particles can undergo wave interactions such as constructive and destructive
interference, producing interference patterns.

h
Just use the equation. It gives you the wavelength as a function of momentum. The
p
equation is for a wave, but it also works for particles as well. Of course the momentum of a
particle is simply p mv .

b. Describe the Davisson-Germer experiment, and explain how it provides evidence for the
wave nature of electrons.

Okay, this is a classic experiment that took place in 1927. Two guys, Davisson and
Germer, measured the wavelength of electrons that were scattered off a nickel target
in a vacuum. The crystal structure of the nickel acted like a diffraction grating. The
scattered electrons exhibited interference patterns you know the whole minima and
maxima deal at specific angles. This was confirmation of DeBroglies theory of
particle wave behavior.

4. You should understand the nature and production of x-rays so you can calculate the shortest
wavelength of x-rays that may be produced by electrons accelerated through a specified
voltage.

x-rays are produced when high velocity electrons are incident on a dense metal such as
tungsten. If we assume that the energy of the electron is converted into the energy of the
x-ray photon produced, then we get:

hc hc
U qV E hf vf c so qV so
qV

Where q is the charge of the electron and V is the potential difference that the electron
was accelerated through.

5. You should understand Compton scattering so you can:

a. Describe Comptons experiment, and state what results were observed and by what sort
of analysis these results may be explained.

The Compton thing is that a beam of x-rays are flashed onto a graphite crystal. The x-ray
beam is made up of a stream of photons. The photons, acting like particles, collide with
electrons in the carbon atoms in the graphite. The photons give some of their energy to
the electrons. Now, having less energy than before, the photons end up with a longer

586
 wavelength. For a photon less energy means longer wavelength. This was good evidence
for the particle nature of electromagnetic waves.

b. Account qualitatively for the increase of photon wavelength that is observed, and explain
the significance of the Compton wavelength.

Oops. The Physics Kahuna already did this in the deal up above. Oh well. The important
thing is that increase in photon wavelength is due to the loss of photon energy in the
collision between the photons and electrons.
B. Nuclear Physics

1. You should understand the significance of the mass number and charge of nuclei so you can:
mass number
a. Interpret symbols for nuclei that indicate these quantities.

Its just like the thing over here to the right. Mass number, C symbol
atomic number, and the elements chemical symbol. atomic
number
b. Use conservation of mass number and charge to complete nuclear reactions.

Okay, this is simple. The basic idea is that the atomic number and mass numbers are
conserved in a nuclear reaction. This means that the total atomic number on one side
of the equation must equal the total atomic number on the other side. Same deal for the
mass number.

c. Determine the mass number and charge of a nucleus after it has undergone specified
decay processes.

Three kinds of decay to worry about alpha decay, beta decay, and gamma decay. In
alpha decay, the nucleus loses an alpha particle, which is a He-4 nucleus. In Beta decay
the nucleus loses an electron. Gamma decay is usually a byproduct of either alpha or
beta decay.

In alpha decay, the mass number of the parent nuclei goes down by four and atomic
number goes down by two. In beta decay the mass number stays the same but the atomic
number increases by one. The gamma photon has no effect on either mass number or
atomic number.

c. Describe the process of , , decay and write a reaction to describe each.

Darn, the Physics Kahuna has already done that! (See above). But here are a couple of
example equations.

238
92U 234
90Th 4
2 He Alpha decay

234
90Th 234
91 Pa 0
1 e Beta decay

587
 e. Explain why the existence of the neutrino had to be postulated in order to reconcile
experimental data from decay with fundamental conservation laws.

A particle accelerator was used to bombard an atomic nucleus with a high-energy

particle. Energy and momentum would have to be conserved, but when the properties of
the particles were examined after the collision, the energy and momentum did not add up.
There had to be another particle that had the missing energy and momentum. A new
particle had to exist and was postulated. Later it was given the name neutrino by
Enrico Fermi. It wasnt until the mid 1950s that the neutrino was actually detected.

Heres an example of a reaction that produces a neutrino (this would be beta decay,
right?):

14
6C 14
7N 0
1 e v The symbol for the neutrino is v.

2. You should know the nature of the nuclear force so you can compare its strength and range
with those of the electromagnetic force.

The nuclear force binds the nucleons together within the nucleus. It is many orders of
magnitude stronger than the electromagnetic force. Its effective range, however, is very
small essentially the particles have to be really close together, like almost touching,
before the strong nuclear force is greater than the electromagnetic force.

So its strength is much greater than the electromagnetic force but it is a much shorter
range deal.

3. You should understand nuclear fission so you can:

a. Describe a typical neutron-induced fission and explain why a chain reaction is possible.

By using the phrase describe, the College Board folks are telling you that you dont
need to write out an actual fission equation, but simply to state what happens in one. This
is pretty simple. Okay heres what happens: a heavy nucleus, like your basic U-235,
absorbs a neutron. This makes it unstable, and it splits apart. This is the fission part of
the deal. It becomes two new nuclei. Stuff like barium and krypton.

Now why is a chain reaction possible? The Physics Kahuna leaves you with this one to
research on your own.

b. Relate the energy released in fission to the decrease in rest mass.

Just use the E m c equation. The energy released (the E deal) is equal to the
2

change in the rest mass (the m deal) times the speed of light squared. You just use the
equation.

588
From 2001:

Consider the following nuclear fusion reaction that uses deuterium as fuel.

3 21 H 4
2 He + 1
1H + 1
0n

(a) Determine the mass defect of a single reaction, given the following information.

2
1H 2.0141 u 2 He
4
4.0026 u 1
1H 1.0078 u 1
0n 1.0087 u

Okay, this is simple, just add up all the masses and then compare it to the mass of a helium
nuclei plus a proton and a neutron. We will subtract the individual parts from the mass of the
three deuterium nuclei.

3 2.0141 u 4.0026 u 1.0078 u 1.0087 u 0.0232 u

(b) Determine the energy in joules released during a single fusion reaction.

1.66 x 1027 kg 27
0.0232 u 0.0385 x 10 kg 3.85 x 1029 kg
1u
2
m
E m c 2
3.85 x 10 29
kg 3.0 x 108 34.65 x 1013 J 3.46 x 1012 J
s

(c) The United States requires about 1020 J per year to meet its energy needs. How many
deuterium atoms would be necessary to provide this magnitude of energy?

1 nuclei
1020 J 0.289 x 10 nuclei
32
12
2.89 x 1031 nuclei
3.46 x 10 J

(d) Assume that 0.015% of the hydrogen atoms in seawater (H2O) are deuterium. The atomic mass
number of oxygen is 16. About how many kilograms of seawater would be needed per year to
provide the hydrogen fuel for fusion reactors to meet the energy needs of the United States?

1 molecule 1 mol 18 g 1 kg
2.89 x 1031 nuclei 4.3 x 10 kg
5
23 3
2 nuclie 6.02 x 10 molecule 1 mol 10 g

1
4.3 x 105 kg 3 x 109 kg
0.00015

589
From 1997:

A monatomic gas is illuminated with visible light of wavelength 400 nm. The gas is observed to
absorb some of the light and subsequently to emit visible light at both 400 nm and 600 nm.

Ionized Atom Ionized Atom

0 eV 0 eV
(continuous (continuous
energy levels) energy levels)

400 nm
600 nm

-5.0 eV Initial State -5.0 eV Initial State

a. In the box, (above) complete an energy level diagram that would be consistent with these
observations. Indicate and label the observed absorption and emissions.
b. If the initial state of the atoms has energy - 5.0 eV, what is the energy of the state to
which the atoms were excited by the 400 nm light?

c hc
E hf f E

E
hc

1.24 x 10 eV nm
3
3.1 eV
400 nm

Ee 5.0 eV 3.1 eV 1.9 eV

c. At which other wavelength(s) outside the visible range do these atoms emit radiation
after you are excited by the 400 nm light?

E
hc

1.24 x 10 eV nm
3
2.1 eV
600 nm

Ee 3.1 eV 2.1 eV 1.0 eV

hc hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm
E 1240 nm
E 1.0 eV

From 1996:
590
 An unstable nucleus that is initially at rest decays into a nucleus of fermium-252 containing 100
protons and 152 neutrons and an alpha particle that has a kinetic energy of 8.42 MeV. The
atomic masses of helium-4 and fermium-252 are 4.00260 u and 252.08249 u, respectively.
e. What is the atomic number of the original unstable nucleus?
Z 102
f. What is the velocity of the alpha particle? (Neglect relativistic effects for this
calculation.)
1.6 x 1019 J

K 8.42 x 10 eV 6

1 eV
12
1.35 x 10 J

1.67 x 1027 kg 27
m 4.0 u 6.68 x 10 kg
1u
12 kg m
2
2 1.35 x 10
s 2
1
K mv 2 v
2K

27
2 m 6.68 x 10 kg

m2 m2 m
v 0.4042 x 1015 4.042 x 1014 2.01 x 107
s2 s2 s

g. Where does the kinetic energy of the alpha particle come from? Explain briefly.Where
does the kinetic energy of the alpha particle come from? Explain briefly.

Mass Equivalence: The original nucleus decays into the product particles and energy. The
energy shows up primarily as the kinetic energy of the daughter nucleus and the particles
that are emitted. Energy Conservation is also involved the potential or binding energy of
the nucleus was converted into kinetic energy of the products of the reaction.

h. Suppose that the fermium-252 nucleus could undergo a decay in which a - particle was
produced. How would this affect the atomic number of the nucleus? Explain briefly.

Atomic number increases by one. A neutron converts into a proton and an electron.

252
100 Fm 252
101 X 0
1 e

Note you would not have access to a periodic table, so you probably wouldnt know what
element had an atomic number of 101.

From 1995:
591
 A free electron with negligible kinetic energy is captured by a stationary proton to form an
excited state of the hydrogen atom. During this process a photon of energy Ea is emitted,
followed shortly by another photon of energy 10.2 electron volts. No further photons are
emitted. The ionization energy of hydrogen is 13.6 electron volts.
a. Determine the wavelength of the 10.2 eV photon.
c hc
E hf c f f E

hc
4.14 x 10 15

m
eV s 3 x 108
s
1.22 x 107 m
E 10.2eV
b. Determine the following for the first photon emitted.
i. The energy Ec of the photon
Ec 13.6 eV 10.2 eV 3.4 eV
ii. The frequency that corresponds to this energy
E 3.4 eV
E hf f 8.2 x 1014 Hz
h 4.14 x 1015 eV s
c. The following diagram shows some of the energy levels of the hydrogen atom, including
those that are involved in the processes
described above. Draw arrows on the
diagram showing only the transitions Ionized atom
involved in these processes. (Continuous Energy Levels)

d. The atom is in its ground state when a 15

eV photon interacts with it. All the -1.5
photon's energy is transferred to the
electron, freeing it from the atom. -3.4
Energy (eV0

Determine the following.

i. The kinetic energy of the ejected -5
electron.

E EPhoton Eelectron 15 eV 13.6 eV

-10
E 1.4 eV

Ground State
-13.6

ii. The de Broglie wavelength of the electron.

592
 -19 kg m
2
1 2K 2 1.4 eV 1.60 x 10 s2

K mv 2 v
2 m 9.11 x 1031 kg 1 eV


m2 m m
v 0.4618 x 10 12
0.6796 x 106 6.796 x 105
s2 s s

34 kg m 2
6.63 x 10 s

h
p mv so
h
s2
p mv m
9.11 x 1031 kg 6.796 x 105
s

0.107 x 108 m 1.07 x 109 m

From 1994:

A series of measurements were taken of the maximum kinetic energy of photoelectrons

emitted from a metallic surface when light of various frequencies is incident on the surface.

a. The table below lists the measurements that were taken. On the axes, plot the kinetic
energy versus light frequency for the five data points given. Draw on the graph the line
that is your estimate of the best straight-line fit to the data points.

b. From this experiment, determine a value of Planck's constant h in units of electron volt-
seconds. Briefly explain how you did this.

593
 Plot the data points and obtain a curve. Then determine the slope of the curve.

K max hf Equation for a line. h is the slope of the line.

K 2 K1 1.9 eV 0 eV
h 3.6 x 1015 eV s
f 2 f1 1
10 4.6 x 1014
s

From 1985:

An energy-level diagram for a hypothetical atom is shown to the right.

a. Determine the frequency of the lowest energy photon that could ionize the atom, initially
in its ground state. Energy eV
b. Assume the atom has been excited to the
0
state at -1.0 electron volt.
Second Excited State - 1.0
i. Determine the wavelength of the
photon for each possible - 3.0
First Excited State
spontaneous transition.
ii. Which, if any, of these
wavelengths are in the visible
range? Ground State - 5.0
c. Assume the atom is initially in the ground state. Show on the following diagram the
possible transitions from the ground state when the atom is irradiated with
electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths ranging continuously from 2.5 x 10-7 meter to
10.0 x 10-7 meter.
(a) The lowest energy photon that could ionize the atom would be one that kicks the electron to
the 0 eV energy state. This would be an energy of 5.0 eV.

594
 E 5.0 eV
E hf f 1.21 x 1015 Hz
h 4.14 x 1015 eV s
(b) i. Here is the diagram showing all possible transitions for the electron that has reached the
second excited state:
Energy eV
0
Second Excited State - 1.0

First Excited State - 3.0

Ground State - 5.0

The possible energy transitions are:

1.0 eV 5.0 eV 4.0 eV
1.0 eV 3.0 eV 2.0 eV
3.0 eV 5.0 eV 2.0 eV
Now we can find the wavelength of the photons that have this energy:
v v hv
E hf and v f f plug in for f E h

hv hv hc
E v c, right ?
E E

First transition:

hc 1 1 eV
1.99 x 1025 J m 19
6
0.31 x 10 m
E 4.0 eV 1.60 x 10 J

6 109 nm 3
0.31 x 10 m 0.31 x 10 nm 310 nm
1m

Second (and third) transition:

hc 1 1 eV
1.99 x 1025 J m 19
6
0.622 x 10 m
E 2.0 eV 1.60 x 10 J

595
 109 nm
0.622 x 106 m 3
0.622 x 10 nm 622 nm
1m

ii. Which, if any, of these wavelengths are in the visible range?

The second and third transitions; from 1.0 eV to 3.0 eV and from 3.0 eV to 5.0 eV.

c. Assume the atom is initially in the ground state. Show on the following diagram the possible
transitions from the ground state when the atom is irradiated with electromagnetic radiation of
wavelengths ranging continuously from 2.5 x 10-7 meter to 10.0 x 10-7 meter.

The light incident on the atom would have a wavelength of 250 nm to 1000 nm. Wavelengths
that would cause a transition would be at 622 nm and at 310 nm. The light needed to
ionize the atom has a wavelength of 249
nm, the incident light is longer than Energy eV
that. So only the three transitions are 0
possible.
Second Excited State - 1.0

622 nm
First Excited State - 3.0

310 nm 622 nm
Ground State - 5.0
From 1992:

The ground-state energy of a hypothetical atom is at - 10.0 eV. When these atoms, in the
ground state, are illuminated with light, only the wavelengths of 207 nanometers and 146
nanometers are absorbed by the atoms. (1 nanometer = 10 - 9 meter).

596
a. Calculate the energies of the photons of light of the two absorption-spectrum
wavelengths.

hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm
E 5.99 eV
207 nm

hc1.24 x 103 eV nm
E 8.49 eV
146 nm
b. Complete the energy-level diagram shown above for these atoms by showing all the
excited energy states.
c. Show by arrows on the energy-level diagram all of the possible transitions that would
produce emission spectrum lines.
d. What would be the wavelength of the emission line corresponding to the transition from
the second excited state to the first excited state?

E 8.49 eV 5.99 eV 2.5 eV

hc hc 1.24 x 103 eV nm
E 496 nm
E 2.5 eV

e. Would the emission line in (d) be visible? Briefly justify your answer.

Yes. The visible spectrum extends from 400 to 700 nm.

597