Biological Physics: Instructor: Dr.

Rumi De
Assignment I: Due Date 30.08.2016
1. (a) Show that the interaction energy of an ideal dipole, p, in an electric filed, E is U= - p.E.
(b) Show that the interaction energy of two dipoles, separated by a distance, r, scales as ~1/r3.

2. In molecular dynamics simulation, generally, an interaction pair potential is described by the

12
6.
Lennard-Jones potential, V(r)=a/r - b/r Using the typical bond energy (~150 KBT) as the
depth of the potential and the typical bond length (1.5 A0) as its equilibrium position, find the
parameters a and b. Do a Taylor expansion around this equilibrium position to determine the
effective spring constant and the resulting typical frequency of vibration.

3. (a) Show that the depletion interaction energy per unit area of two planar surfaces at a
distance, D, in presence of large number of small spheres is given by, W(D) = cKBTR (1 - D/R),
where c is the concentration (number density) of small spheres and R is the radius of the small
spheres.
(b) Calculate the depletion force between two large spheres mediated by the small ones as shown
in the following figure (R is the radius of the large spheres and r is the radius of the small
spheres),

4. 0.500g hemoglobin was dissolved in enough water to make 100.0mL of solution. At 250 C, the
osmotic pressure was found to be 1.78 x 10-3 atm. Calculate the molecular mass of the
hemoglobin.

5. Suppose that the potential energy V(r) between two molecules separated by a distance r has
the power law form

; where the constant Cvdw is the (Van der Waals)

interaction parameter.
(a) Show that the interaction energy of a vesicle (assume it as a sphere of radius R) near a cell
membrane [assume the membrane as a flat surface, as shown in fig. (a)] at distance D is
; where A is the interaction constant.
(b) Also, find out the interaction energy per unit area between two flat surfaces separated by a
distance D [as shown in fig. (b)].

Fig. (a)

Fig. (b)