P301

Study questions for Physics P301

Note: Some of these questions may not apply, depending on what we get to in class. I will also make some adjustments as we go along. Please check this page immediately before the quiz.
Last Modified: 9/1/04

For relativity:

Study questions:

Is there anything which moves faster than the speed of light? Explain.
What does the Michelson Morley experiment show and how does it show this?
Explain what is meant by the relativity of simultaneity?
What are the Lorentz transformations used for?
What is a spacetime diagram?
Discuss the muon problem. What does this experiment show?
How does the Doppler effect work for light?
What is the evidence that the universe is belived to be expanding?
What is paradoxical about the twin paradox? (Hint: the answer is NOT that the twins end up at different ages.)
Explain the experimental evidence for special relativity.
Is energy conserved for objects moving at relativistic speeds? Explain.
What is binding energy?
Explain how matter can be created from nothing.
What is the difference between Special and General relativity?
What are the experimental tests of General Relativity?
What is the difference between conservation and invariance?

For quanta:

Study questions:

What is the ultraviolet catastrophe?
What is the significance of Einstein?s interpretation of the photo-electric effect?
Explain the greenhouse effect in terms of blackbody radiation.
What is a photon?
What does the Compton effect show or prove? (Why is it important?)
What is meant by the wave/particle nature of light? (Aren't these two ways of viewing something incompatible?)
What evidence do we have that light is a wave?
What evidence do we have that light is a particle?
How do you make x-rays?
What is the criteria for observing electron diffraction?

For atomic stucture:

Study questions:

If Planck's constant were smaller would quantum effects be more or less noticable? Give some examples of differences you would expect to be able to measure.
For water waves it is the water that is "waving". What waves in an electromagnetic wave? What waves in an electron wave?
If Planck's constant were larger would quantum effects be more or less noticable? Give some examples of differences you would expect to be able to measure.
What did the Rutherford experiment establish about the structure of the atom?
Explain why a simple planetary model of the atom fails?
If most of an atom is empty space, why don't things like tables and people collapse?
What is the difference between emission spectra and absorption spectra?
Describe the Bohr model of the electron?
Under what conditions do you expect to get the same answers using quantum physics as you do using classical physics?
Why do you want to use the reduced mass in calculations of atomic spectra?
What does it mean to excite an atom? (No off color jokes here, please!)
What does the Franck-Hertz experiment show?
What is the fine structure constant?
In the derivation of the Rutherford Scattering Formula, what is meant by "cross section"?

For wavecles:

Study questions:

What is the criteria for observing electron diffraction?
If Planck's constant were larger would quantum effects be more or less noticable? Give some examples of differences you would expect to be able to measure.
What evidence do we have that lelectrons are waves?
What evidence do we have that electrons are particles?
What is the difference between the probability density and the wave function for an electron wave?
What is the wave number, k?
What is the difference between the group velocity and the phase velocity? Why do we need both?
What is dispersion (in relation to the discussion of particle waves in this chapter)?
What accident occured in the Davisson and Germer experiment that lead to the discovery of electron diffration? Why was this important?
What is zero-point energy and why does this mean that absolute zero Kelvin cannot be reached?
Why does the energy of a trapped particle in a box become quantized? Does the energy of a basketball become quantized if it is put in a box?
What is the difference between the classical uncertainty principle and Hiesenberg's uncertainty principle?
Explain how the uncertianty principle works in terms of the width of deBroglie wave packets? Why does making the wavepacket smaller increase the uncertianty in momentum?
What is a Gaussian distribution and what is it good for?
How do you make a wavepacket? (and what is this good for?)
Why is there a section on probability in this chapter (and how does it relate to the wavelike properties of electrons)?
What is the physical meaning of normalizing a wavefunction?
Explain the three mathematical properties that wavefunctions must have if they are to accurately describe real objects. What physical aspects of the real world do these mathematical properties represent?

For Schrodinger's equation:

Study questions:

What is Schodinger's equation used for?
What is an expectation value and how to you find one?
What is the difference between the time dependent and time independent Schodinger's equation? Under what circumstances would you use each?
Why does putting a particle in a box cause it to be quantized?
What are the boundary conditions for a wave in a box and how does this affect the answer?
What does it mean to have quantized energies?
Explain quantum tunneling (physically and mathmatically).
Describe how the STM works.
Why does your book spend so much time on the quantization of the harmonic oscillator?

For atomic structure redux:

Study questions:

How is Schodinger's equation for the hydrogen atom similar to Schodinger's equation for a particle in a box? How are they different?
What property of wavefunctions is used to determine the magnetic quantum number?
What physical property is conected with each of the following quantum numbers and why? Principle quantum mumber, magnetic quantum number, orbital quantum number. Where do they come from?
Why do we have to use separation of variables when solving Schodinger's equation for a hydrogen atom? What is separation of variables anyway?
Why do we have to use spherical polar coordinates when solving Schodinger's equation for a hydrogen atom?
What is meant by space quantization?
Why is only the z-component of angular momentum quantized, why not the x and y components?
Chemistry books used to talk about "electron clouds". Give a criticisim of this terminology based on what you have learned about electron probability density in this chapter.
What are selection rules? Where do they come from?
What did the Stern-Gerlach experiment show?
Which of the four quantum numbers is NOT predicted by Schrodinger's equation? Why not?
What physical property is conected with the electron spin?
What is spin-orbit coupling?
What is the origin of the Pauli exclusion principle?
Explain the periodic table of the elements in terms of the quantum numbers.
What is the spin magnetic moment?

For statistical physics:

Study questions:

What is a distribution function and what do you do with it?
What is the difference between bosons and ferminons, aside from the fact that one obeys the exclusion principle and the other does not?
Why do we need statistics in physics (don't we want exact answers)?
What is meant by the word 'microstate' in statistical mechanics?
How does the number of microstates determine the entropy of a system?
Why is entropy not defined for a system with only a few particles?
If you only have 10 gas molecules in a room and you wait for a brief period of time you find all 10 on one side of the room at some point in time. This never happens with a mole of particles. Explain.
Give a definition of Fermi energy and tell why it is a useful concept in solid state physics.
Explain the difference between Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein and Maxwell Boltzman statistics.
Why do we need three different kinds of statistics (Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein and Maxwell Boltzman)?

Solid State Physics:

Study questions:

Why do elements of the same group on the periodic table (for example He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe and Rn) have similar chemical properties?
How is an ionic bond different from a covalent bond?
Why does chemical bonding involve only the outermost (valence) electrons? What physical evidence do we have that this is true?
Describe the differences and similarities between the four types of bonding we discussed in class (ionic, covalent, polar, metallic).
What is a hydrogen bond?
What physical property of a crystal does the Madelung constant represent?
Explain the property of atoms and molecules that gives rise to Van der Waals forces?
The average position of a harmonic oscillator doesn't change when the oscillator has more energy. So why do solids expand?
What does the term "electron gas" mean for a conductor?
Where is the classical (Drude) model of electron conduction in a metal successful and where does it fail?
What is drift velocity? If this is so low, why do the lights come one as soon as you flip the switch?
Give a definition of Fermi energy and tell why it is a useful concept in solid state physics.
Explain how bands and band gaps arise in crystalline solids.
Explain how band and band gaps account for some solids being conductors while others are insulators and still others are semiconductors.
Explain how a p-n photocell works.
Explain how an LED works.
Explain the difference between an intrinsic semiconductor and a doped semiconductor.
Explain how the concept of a Fermi energy accounts for the difference between a conductor, and insulator and a semiconductor.
What is a cooper pair and what does it do?

Nuclear Physics:

Study questions:

Describe the types of radioactive decay listed in your book in this chapter.
Why are some combinations of neutrons and protons more stable than others?
What is the most stable element and why is the most stable?
What does it mean to say the nuclear force is a saturated force?
Describe the liquid drop model. How does it explain the binding-energy curve?
Describe the nuclear shell model. What is a magic number?
What does the Q of a reaction tell you?
Why is a cross section different for the same incident particle and target particle colliding at different energies?
What is measured in barns?
What is the proton dripline? Neutron dripline?
When do you use the liquid drop model and when would you use the shell model?
Explain how an exchange of particles (mesons for example) can lead to both an attractive or a repulsive interaction.
What is a virtual photon?
Virtual photons (which transmit the electromagnetic force) are massless but virtual mesons (which transmit the nuclear force)are massive. What difference does this make for the two forces?
Explain how radiometric dating works (no jokes about blind dates here please).
How is it that a random event like nuclear decay results in an exact decay law?
What is a stable daughter and when do they occur?
How was the neutrino discovered?
Why was the nuclear angular momentum more difficult to detect? How was it detected?
Why are some combinations of neutrons and protons more stable than others?
What is the most stable element and why is the most stable?
What is the von Weizsacker semiempirical mass formula?
Why are alpha particles so much more often the result of a decay process (compared to, say, Lithium)?
What does tunneling have to do with nuclear decay?
What is a decay series?
Explain how a fission reactor works.
Explain what is going on in a breeder reactor?
Why is the term 'critical mass' a misnomer?
Explain why some elements will undergo fusion while others will only undergo fission.

Particle Physics:

Study questions:

Give a definition and some examples of an anti-particle.
How do physicists measure the existence and lifetime of extreamly short lived partilces?
Why are protons more stable than neutrons which have almost the same mass?
Explain the origin of the new quantum numbers introduced in this chapter (isospin, baryon number, strangeness, etc.)
What do physicists mean by a "symmetry in nature" and how are they connected to conservation laws?
Why were quarks first postulated?
What are color and flavor in regard to quarks? Why were they postulated?
What is meant by confinement?
Physicists have never seen a free quark. What evidence is there that they exist?
What does in mean to unify two forces?
Describe the various types of charge carriers.
What are Feynman diagrams?
What is quantum electrodynamics?
What is quantum chromodynamics?
What is the electro-weak theory?
Describe the standard model. Be sure to include the strengths and weaknesses of the various parts of the model.
What is a GUT?
What is a virtual particle?
Virtual photons (which transmit the electromagnetic force) are massless but virtual mesons (which transmit the nuclear force) are massive. What difference does this make for the two forces?
Why is the Buddha mentioned in this chapter?

Astrophysics:

Study questions:

What is meant by stellar evolution?
Explain how the elements lighter than iron came into existence in the universe.
The end state of a star can be a white dwarf, a black hole or a neutron star. What are each and under what circumstances does each occur?
Why is the Fermi distribution found in this chapter?
What is an event horizon?
What is a gravitational lens?
What is the significance of the microwave background?
What is the cosmic red shift and what does it tell us?
What is the connection between abundance of helium and the structure of the universe?
What is the Hubble constant?
What does the Herztsrung Russell diagram tell us about stars?
Explain the missing (or "dark") matter problem in astrophysics.
Describe in detail the first three minuites of the universe according to the Big Bang cosmology
What problem does the inflationary universe model solve?

Physics at IUS: http://physics.ius.edu/
Contact Dr. K. Forinash, for comments/suggestions/corrections.