PHYS1650 assignment 1

Time taken for light travel across the atoms

< Time taken for the Earth orbiting once around the Sun
< Human Life
< The time of dinosaur extinction from now
< The time of galaxy formation from now
< The time of the creation of Universe from now

Size of atom: 10−10 m

Size of nucleus: 10−14 m
So the ratio of atom size to nucleus size is 1 : 10−4
Size of Sun-Earth distance: 1011 m, which is 1AU
Size of Sun: 109 m

However, to compare the size of the Sun to the solar system, it is better to consider the size
of solar system instead of Sun-Earth distance.

Size of solar system: 1013 m

Ratio of solar system size to Sun size is also 1 : 10−4
Hence, nucleus in an atom is approximately as large as the Sun in solar system.

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It is because the rotation axis of the Earth is tilted against the plane of Earth rotation around
the Sun (define it as the horizontal plane for convenience).

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 Since one day is much shorter than one year, we can take the approximation that the Earth
position against the Sun does not change over one day and the only motion is the spin of the
Earth. Note that the difference between a solar day and a sidereal day is too small, thus there
is no need to consider them case by case.

Consider the position of a certain place A on Earth (not the poles as they are stationary if
there is only the spin motion). The locus of A is a circle CA on the sphere (the Earth) and centred
at some points on the spin axis of the Earth. This circle is also tilted against the horizontal plane,
because the spin axis is tilted.

Only the half of the Earth facing the Sun can see the Sun (i.e. daytime). Thus, the portion
of circumference of CA determines the portion of daytime in one day. From the figure we can
see the potion changes throughout the year. So the duration of daytime changes also.

Figure 1

(a) Morning Star.

(b) Mars is moving NE against the background stars. Thus, we can see its position (relative
to the Earth and the Sun) is as in fig. 2. Hence, the Earth is an evening star to Mars.

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 Figure 2

Angular displacement of the planet in one sidereal day be 36◦ . Denote the angular displacement
to be θ in general, and duration of one sidereal day be t s. At t = 0s, place A on the planet sees
the sun directly above.

After one sidereal day, we can see from fig. 3 that A now sees the Sun 36◦ East from the
centre of the sky. Thus, we need to wait for the planet to spin 36◦ more, which takes t/10 s.
However, after t/10s, θ increases by 36/10◦ during this time, so the Sun is 36 ∗ 1/10 = 3.6◦ East
to the centre of the sky. It takes t/100 to rotate such angle, and the planet further move forward
in the circular trajectory around the Sun. We see from our argument that for the Sun to move
to the centre of the sky again it takes time = t + t/10 + t/100 + t/100 + · · · = (10/9)t. Thus, one
solar day is 10/9 sidereal days.

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 Figure 3

(a) 88

(b) It is located in two different regions. The head in third quadrant of the northern hemi-
sphere, the tail in third quadrant of southern hemisphere.

(a) Earlier.

See fig. 4. The star that was in the centre of the sky at 10 pm on early June is now at the
west side of the sky at 10pm on late June. Since stars are seen to be moving to west on Earth,
that star is at the centre of the sky earlier than 10pm.

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 Figure 4

−67.6◦ . See fig. 5. The invisible region is 22.4◦ counting from south, hence −67.6◦ .

Figure 5

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Suppose to the contrary that there is a modified version of Ptolemaic model that the centers of
the epicycles of Mercury and Venus do not lie on the line joining the Earth and the Sun. Since
the planets move on these epicycles, when the centres of the epicycles are far away from the line
joining the Earth and the Sun, when see from Earth, the planets are also far away from the sun.

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This contradicts to the fact that Mercury and Venus always appear near the Sun. Hence, to
build a theory with epicycles without contradicting the reality (and requiring that the centre of
epicycle does circular motion), the centres of epicycles of Mercury and Venus must be on the line
joining the Sun and the Earth