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Paper)
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PY 201 PHYSICS II Mid Term examination April 2009
Attempt all questions Time allowed: 1 hour Max. marks: 30
1. A piece of wood from an Egyptian Tomb of the old kingdom contains 1g of carbon whose
measured activity is 3.9 x 10
12
Ci. Samples of fresh carbon from trees have an abundance
of 1.3 x 10
10
% of
14
C having a half-life of 5730 years. How old is the wood?
6
2. Energy released per proton in fusion is 6.6 MeV. The Sun contains about 1.5 x 10
30
kg of
hydrogen and it radiates heat and light at the rate of 3.9 x 10
26
W. How long will it take for
the Sun to burn whole of its hydrogen?
4
3. What fraction of molecules, in an ideal gas in equilibrium, has the speed within 1% of the
most probable speed v
p
? Find the best possible value without getting involved into any
integration.
6
4. At which temperature will the average molecular kinetic energy in gaseous hydrogen equal
the binding energy of a hydrogen atom? 4
5. A system consists of three identical particles with a total energy of 4. The energies of
states available to each particle are given by n (n = 0, 1, 2, 3, .). Enumerate
diagrammatically the possible distributions of the three particles among various energy
states assuming the particles to be (a) Fermions, (b) Bosons, and (c) Classical Particles.
10
For Honours Students Only (Additional Time Allowed : 15 minutes)
(To be attempted on a separate sheet provided after the expiry of normal allowed time)
H. (a) Is it possible for another nucleus to fuse with a
56
Fe nucleus? Give reasons. How did
nuclei with A > 56 originate?
(b) What is Dulong-Petit law? What are its failures?
(c) How did Einstein approach the problem of specific heat of solids? What is his formula
for the specific heat? How does it stand upto the experimental results?
3
3
4
Solution Hints PY 201 PHYSICS II Mid Term examination April 2009
1. Total no. of atoms in 1g of carbon =
22
23
10 02 . 5
12
10 023 . 6
=

atoms
No. of
14
C atoms in 1g of a sample of fresh carbon, N
0
=
10 22
10
10 53 . 6 10 02 . 5
100
10 3 . 1
=

atoms
Decay constant of
14
C,
12
2 / 1
10 835 . 3
sec 3600 24 365 5730
693 . 0
5730
693 . 0 693 . 0

=

= = =
yr T
s
1
Activity of 1g of fresh carbon sample due to
14
C, 25 . 0 10 53 . 6 10 835 . 3
10 12
0 0
= = =

N A s
1
Activity of 1g of old wood sample,
10 12 12
10 7 . 3 10 9 . 3 10 9 . 3 = =

Ci A s
1 2
10 43 . 14

= s
1
We know that
11 10 835 . 3 2
0
10 433 . 1 25 . 0 10 43 . 14 ,
12
= = =


t e e A A
t t
s = 4544 yr
2. Total no. of atoms in
30
10 5 . 1 kg of hydrogen =
56 30
26
10 03 . 9 10 5 . 1
1
10 02 . 6
=

atoms
OR the number of protons in the sun =
56
10 03 . 9 protons
Energy released per proton in fusion = 6.6 MeV =
13
10 6 . 1 6 . 6

J
12
10 056 . 1

= J
Total energy content of the sun in regard to fusion of protons =
56
10 03 . 9
44 12
10 54 . 9 10 056 . 1 =

J
Rate at which energy is radiated by the sun = 3.9 x 10
26
W = 3.9 x 10
26
J/s
Time it will take the sun to burn whole of its hydrogen =
18
26
44
10 45 . 2
/ 10 9 . 3
10 54 . 9
=

s J
J
s = 7.77
10
10 yr
3. The most probable speed of a molecule is given by
m
T k
v
p
2
=
The M-B law of distribution of molecular speeds is
dv e v
kT
m
N dv v n
kT mv 2 / 2
2 3
2
2
4 ) (

|
|
.
|

\
|
=

(N = Total no. of molecules)

the fraction of molecules having speeds in the range v to v + dv is given by
dv e v
kT
m
N
dv v n
dv v f
kT mv 2 / 2
2 3
2
2
4
) (
) (

|
|
.
|

\
|
= =

We wish to find the fraction of molecules having speeds within 1% of v

p
. The exact way to do this
would be to integrate the above expression within appropriate limits. However, an approximate value can
be found by calculating f(v) with v = v
p
and multiplying it with the total spread of speeds.
1
2 / 3
2
2
4 ) (

|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
= e
m
T k
T k
m
v f
p

Spread of speeds
m
T k
m
T k
v v v
p p
2
50
1 2
100
2
100
1
1
100
1
1 = =
|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
+ = A
the required fraction of molecules =
m
T k
e
m
T k
T k
m
v v f
p
2
50
1 2
2
4 ) (
1
2 / 3
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
= A

=
e 50
4
= 0.0166
4. Binding energy of hydrogen atom = 13.6 eV =
19
10 6 . 1 6 . 13

J =
18
10 176 . 2

J
Average molecular kinetic energy = T k
2
3
Equating the two, T k
2
3
=
18
10 176 . 2

K J
J
T
/ 10 38 . 1 3
10 176 . 2 2
23
18

= =
5
10 05 . 1 K
5. The individual particle states have energies 0, , 2, 3, 4, .
Since the total energy of the system is 4, none of the states with energy > 4 can be populated. So we
restrict ourselves to the first five states upto energy 4 only.
For total energy of the particles to be 4, there are only four possible ways they can be distributed among
the various states:
(i) one particle in each of the states of energy 0, and 3
(ii) one particle in state of energy 0 and the remaining two particles in the state of energy 2
(iii) Two particles in the 0-energy state and the third one in state of energy 4
(iv) Two particles in state of energy and the third in state of energy 2
(a) When the particles are fermions, they are indistinguishable and only one particle can occupy one
state (Pauli exclusion principle). If we represent each particle by X, there is only one way the three
particles can be in separate states and have a total energy of 4. This is sketched below:
(b) Bosons are again indistinguishable but there is no restriction on the number that may occupy any
state. Therefore, there are four different distributions possible as shown below:
(c) Classical particles, like bosons, do not obey the Pauli exclusion principle but they are
distinguishable. Therefore, in addition to the number of particles in a state, it is imperative to specify
which particle is in which state, to uniquely define a distribution. Let us represent the three particles
as X
1
, X
2
and X
3
. There are, now, fifteen different distributions having the total energy 4. These can
be derived from the four distributions of bosons as given above by interchanging the particles among
themselves (keeping the number of particles in a state fixed):
Energy
state
Distribution of particles
0 X
X
2 --
3 X
4 --
Energy
state
Distributions of particles
1 2 3 4
0 X, X X X --
-- X -- X, X
2 -- -- X, X X
3 -- X -- --
4 X -- -- --
Energy
state
Distributions of particles
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
0
X
1
X
2
X
1
X
3
X
2
X
3
X
1
X
1
X
2
X
2
X
3
X
3
X
1
X
2
X
3
-- -- --
-- -- -- X
2
X
3
X
1
X
3
X
1
X
2
-- -- --
X
1
X
2
X
1
X
3
X
2
X
3
2 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
X
2
X
3
X
1
X
3
X
1
X
2
X
3
X
2
X
1
3 -- -- -- X
3
X
2
X
3
X
1
X
2
X
1
-- -- -- -- -- --
4 X
3
X
2
X
1
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Question for Honours students
H. (a)
56
Fe is the nucleus with the greatest B.E. per nucleon. Fusion of another nucleus with this will result
in a nucleus having lesser BE per nucleon, and hence is not energetically possible.
Nuclei with A > 56 are believed to have originated through successive capture of neutrons, followed
by beta decays to achieve appropriate neutron/proton ratios.
(b) The specific heat of a solid may be estimated classically assuming each atom (ion/molecule) to
behave as a 3-dimensional oscillator with average energy kT per dimension (independent of frequency
of the oscillator). This approach gives the molar specific heat of a solid at constant volume to be
C
v
= 3 R = 5.97 kcal/kmol-K
This is known as Dulong-Petit law as Dulong and Petit had discovered experimentally that C
v
3R
for most solids at normal temperatures.
o Dulong-Petit law fails for all solids at very low temperatures. It is found that C
v
0 for all solids
as T 0 K.
o It fails for light elements like boron, beryllium and diamond, even at normal temperatures.
(c) Einstein considered the classical law of equipartition of energy to be flawed. According to him, the
probability f() for an oscillator to have frequency is given by f() = 1 / (e
h/kT
1). The average
energy of an oscillator then comes out to be h/ (e
h/kT
1), and not kT. Accordingly, Einsteins
formula for specific heat of a solid is
,
2
2
1
3

|
.
|

\
|
=
kT h
kT h
v
e
e
kT
h
R C

It can be seen that it reduces to Dulong-Petit law at high temperatures.

However, the variation in C
v
as T 0, predicted by this formula, does not match the exact manner of
variation observed experimentally.