6.6 Wave-particle duality  (Page 6/12)

Solar wind (radiation) that is incident on the top of Earth’s atmosphere has an average intensity of $1.3\text{kW}\text{/}{\text{m}}^2.$ Suppose that you are building a solar sail that is to propel a small toy spaceship with a mass of 0.1 kg in the space between the International Space Station and the moon. The sail is made from a very light material, which perfectly reflects the incident radiation. To assess whether such a project is feasible, answer the following questions, assuming that radiation photons are incident only in normal direction to the sail reflecting surface. (a) What is the radiation pressure (force per ${\text{m}}^2$ ) of the radiation falling on the mirror-like sail? (b) Given the radiation pressure computed in (a), what will be the acceleration of the spaceship when the sail has of an area of $10.0{\text{m}}^2$ ? (c) Given the acceleration estimate in (b), how fast will the spaceship be moving after 24 hours when it starts from rest?

Treat the human body as a blackbody and determine the percentage increase in the total power of its radiation when its temperature increases from 98.6 $\text{°}$ F to 103 $\text{°}$ F.

Show that Wien’s displacement law results from Planck’s radiation law. ( Hint: substitute $x=hc\text{/}\lambda kT$ and write Planck’s law in the form $I(x,T)=A{x}^5\text{/}(e^x-1),$ where $A=2\pi {(kT)}^5\text{/}(h^4{c}^3).$ Now, for fixed T , find the position of the maximum in I ( x , T ) by solving for x in the equation $dI(x,T)\text{/}dx=0.$ )

Show that Stefan’s law results from Planck’s radiation law. Hint: To compute the total power of blackbody radiation emitted across the entire spectrum of wavelengths at a given temperature, integrate Planck’s law over the entire spectrum $P(T)={\displaystyle {\int }_0^{\infty }I(\lambda ,T)d\lambda }.$ Use the substitution $x=hc\text{/}\lambda kT$ and the tabulated value of the integral ${\displaystyle {\int }_0^{\infty }dx{x}^3\text{/}(e^x-1)}={\pi }^4\text{/}15.$

Determine the power intensity of radiation per unit wavelength emitted at a wavelength of 500.0 nm by a blackbody at a temperature of 10,000 K.

The HCl molecule oscillates at a frequency of 87.0 THz. What is the difference (in eV) between its adjacent energy levels?

A quantum mechanical oscillator vibrates at a frequency of 250.0 THz. What is the minimum energy of radiation it can emit?

In about 5 billion years, the sun will evolve to a red giant. Assume that its surface temperature will decrease to about half its present value of 6000 K, while its present radius of $7.0\times {10}^8\text{m}$ will increase to $1.5\times {10}^{11}\text{m}$ (which is the current Earth-sun distance). Calculate the ratio of the total power emitted by the sun in its red giant stage to its present power.

A sodium lamp emits 2.0 W of radiant energy, most of which has a wavelength of about 589 nm. Estimate the number of photons emitted per second by the lamp.

Photoelectrons are ejected from a photoelectrode and are detected at a distance of 2.50 cm away from the photoelectrode. The work function of the photoelectrode is 2.71 eV and the incident radiation has a wavelength of 420 nm. How long does it take a photoelectron to travel to the detector?

If the work function of a metal is 3.2 eV, what is the maximum wavelength that a photon can have to eject a photoelectron from this metal surface?