MSE/ChBE/Chem 6751

Spring 2016
Homework #5
Instructions:
Because this is the last homework, please work with your team to devise a single team answer. I
urge you to see me for help if you need it; one of these problems is tricky. I will view the results in
two stages:
1. By Tuesday, April 26 each team should show me what you have got. It must be clear who did
what!
2. By Thursday, April 28, the revised team homework is due. Again, it must be clear who did what.

Problem: Speaker driver sizes

As a rule of thumb, a loudspeaker driver (cone type) intended for stereo (two-channel) reproduction should not exceed in physical size the wavelength it
is required to produce.
a. Why not?
b. How big can a tweeter be, if it must produce 14KHz (the upper limit of a middle-aged professor who always took good care of his earsor the
upper limit of a 25-year-old who is into very loud music).
c. How big can a woofer be, if it crosses over to the tweeter at 1400 Hz? (In the diagram below, the woofers natural inductance accomplishes the
crossover; sometimes people run an inductor in series with the woofer.)
d. At what particle size must an experimenter cross over from scattering of visible light to small-angle X-ray or small-angle neutron scattering?

a. If the speaker driver is bigger than the wavelength it is supposed to reproduce, the
probability of destructive interference increases. This happens because in this type of
speakers the sound is emitted in a radial direction, which as explained increases the
probability of waves cancellation due to destructive interference. Therefore, the speaker
must be at least equal in size as the wavelength it is reproducing.
b. Assuming a sound speed equal to 343.2 m/s:

Grading Rubric:
a to c: 2 points each
d: 4 points

Two-way speaker.
-

Problem: Speaker driver sizes

c.
d.

How big can a woofer be, if it crosses over to the tweeter at 1400 Hz? (In the diagram below, the woofers natural inductance accomplishes the
crossover; sometimes people run an inductor in series with the woofer.)
At what particle size must an experimenter cross over from scattering of visible light to small-angle X-ray or small-angle neutron scattering?

c. Assuming a sound speed equal to 343.2 m/s:

d. Assuming a sound speed equal to 343.2 m/s and the following limits between visible light, Xrays and Gamma rays:

P(q) = 1 q2R2/3
For reliable measurement, the maximum P(q) is ~ 0.9, which means q 2R2/3 > 0.1 and q =
For visible

light, max is approximate 400 nm

Grading Rubric:
a to c: 2 points each
d: 4 points

Particle size = ~20 nm

Problem: P( ) for a hexagon

teta=[5*pi/180:5*pi/180:180*pi/180];
n=1.5;
lambda=5145;
q=((4*pi*n*sin(teta/2))/lambda);
r=[0,400,400,565,565,800
R11: 0 A R21: 0 A R31: 0 A
0,400,400,565,565,800 R12: 400 AR22: 400 A R32: 400 A
0,400,400,565,565,800 R13: 565 AR23: 565 A R33: 565 A
0,400,400,565,565,800 R14: 800 AR24: 800 A R4: 800 A
565 A R25: 565 A R35: 565 A
0,400,400,565,565,800 R15:
R16: 400 A R26: 400 A R36: 400 A
0,400,400,565,565,800];
for i=1:length(teta)
for j=1:length(r)
qr(i,j)=q(i)*r(j);
Pi(i,j)=(sin(qr(i,:)))/(qr(i,:));
end
P(i)=(1/36)*sum(Pi(i,:));
end
plot(q,P,'r--*')
xlabel('q(A^-^1)')
ylabel('P(q)')

R41:
R42:
R43:
R44:
R45:
R46:

1
P(q) 2
6

565
A
400
A

800
A

565
A
400
A

Grading Rubric:
Explanation of approach: 2 points
Correct plot of P(q) with no plotting issues:
8 points

0A
400
565
800
565
400

A
A
A
A
A

R51:
R52:
R53:
R54:
R55:
R56:

0A
400
565
800
565
400

A
A
A
A
A

R61:
R62:
R63:
R64:
R65:
R66:

0A
400
565
800
565
400

A
A
A
A
A

sin(qrij )

qrij

Problem: Number density virial coefficient, A2

The
physics/theory community tends to prefer number density , rather than the concentration as grams/ml, which is c. With
concentration units c, we write the osmotic pressure relationship as: = cRT(M-1 + A2c + ...). Using a symbol A2, for the 2nd virial
coefficient when the concentration units are we have
= kT(1 + A2, + ...).
Obtain the relationship between A2 and A2,.

What are the units of each quantity?

Which provides the clearer insight?

Clearer insight should be better with the equation that has the number density because it is more clear to see the effect of
volume with the osmotic pressure, in other words, as long as volume changes the osmotic pressure changes.

Grading Rubric:
a and b: 4 points
each
c: 2 points each

roblem: Terminal velocity (after Van Holde, Physical Biochemistry 2 nd Ed.)

Suppose at time t = 0 a force F (e.g., electrophoretic, magnetic or gravitational) is applied to a spherical particle of mass m, which is initially at rest. The equation of
motion, balancing friction and acceleration is: F = fv + m(dv/dt), where f is the friction coefficient.
a)

If the particle behaves as a solid sphere with radius 100 and density of 1.5 gmL-1, solve this equation in to obtain v(t) in terms of the particle parameters and vmax
= F/f.

b)

If the solvent is water at 20C, find the time required for the particle to achieve 99% of its terminal velocity.

Grading Rubric:
a) Correct and detailed solution of
equation
b) Correct answer in seconds.

Problem: DLS spectral broadening

The translational diffusion coefficient of rodlike polymers is given by
D

k BT ln( L / d )
3o L

where L is the length, d is the diameter, kBT is the thermal energy and o is the solvent viscosity.
a)
Compute the spectral linewidth in seconds-1 of light scattered from a rod with L=3000 and d=16 in dimethylformamide, a solvent with
viscosity 0.92 centipoise at T=20oC. Assume homodyne DLS conditions, o=488 nm, , n=1.43.
b)
Express the spectral linewidth as a fraction of the light frequency.
c)
Name three instruments for measurement of the spectral linewidth, and comment on their utility for this rodlike polymer.
d)
When the measurement is made, the spectral linewidth is found to be somewhat broader than expected. GPC measurements confirm that
the polymer is effectively monodisperse. Explain.

Grading Rubric:
a) c) 3 points each
d) 1 point

Problem: Compute Flory-Huggins Phase Diagram

Starting from the Flory-Huggins expressions for a binary mixture (e.g., solvent plus polymer) compute and plot the
phase diagram (i.e., the binodal locus) for a random flight polymer with s = 70. Compute the diagram for values
ranging from the critical point to = 1. Flory did this type of problem with a slide rule; you may find it convenient to
use a computer program (choose any language). Plenty of strategy goes into thisdont be shy about asking for
hints. Start early! Enjoy! You can find a program (several, actually) on the website that does the calculation, but
the key is knowing how it works! Once you have the strategy, try writing your own program (or solving the needed
equations in MathCad or Excel, but be carefulstandard issue MathCad proves no equal for Florys slide rule).

The idea behind the solution of this

problem consist on finding 2 values (a
and b) of the polymer volume fraction
that have the same chemical potential.
To do so, Xa must be equal to Xb:

Eq. 1
Grading Rubric:
a) Logical development of strategy: 4
points
b) Execution using canned program:

Problem: Compute Flory-Huggins Phase Diagram

Solving Eq. 1 iteratively by fixing a value of
and finding the corresponding
that satisfies the equation can be used to
solve the problem.
The code used is shown bellow. However,
the fsolve() function did not solve the
problem aproppriatelly.