Problems & Exercises
and , so
As the mass of particle approaches zero, its velocity will approach , so that the ratio of energy to momentum in this limit is
which is consistent with the equation for photon energy.
(a)
(b) This is thousands of times the speed of light (an impossibility).
(c) The assumption that the electron is non-relativistic is unreasonable at this wavelength.
(a) 57.9 m/s
(b)
(c) From Table 29.1, we see that typical molecular binding energies range from about 1eV to 10 eV, therefore the result in part (b) is approximately 9 orders of magnitude smaller than typical molecular binding energies.
(a)
(b) for photon, for electron, photon energy is times greater
(c) The light is easier to make because 450-nm light is blue light and therefore easy to make. Creating electrons with of energy would not be difficult, but would require a vacuum.
(a)
(b)
(c) Yes, conservation of momentum applies.
(d) The photon with the longer wavelength has less momentum than the one with the shorter wavelength.