NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT

Department of Physics
End Semester Examination (Winter 2020-21), PH1001D – PHYSICS (Online)
Date: 14/06/2021, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Duration: 2 hours Total marks: 20

Some useful data: ℎ = 6.626 × 10−34 𝐽. 𝑠, 𝑒 = 1.6 × 10−19 𝐶, 𝑚𝑒 = 9.1 × 10−31 𝑘𝑔, 𝑘𝐵 = 1.38 × 10−23 𝐽/𝐾

Answer all questions (Each question carries 4 marks)

1) Consider a particle of mass 𝑚 moving in a one dimensional harmonic potential well.

a) Find out the classically allowed range of position (x) values for the nth state of the
particle. b) Calculate the approximate probability of finding the particle outside the
classical limits in its ground state.
𝑚𝜔 𝑥2
(Hints: For quantum harmonic oscillator, 𝜓0 (𝑥) = (𝑚𝜔 1 4 Τ
𝜋ℏ
) 𝑒 −ቀ ℏ ቁ2 , Approximate
2 3
𝑒𝑥 ≈ 1 + 𝑥 + 𝑥2! + 𝑥3! )
2) a) Consider a 1D infinite potential well of width 𝐿, which has two identical electrons
and a proton. The proton is in the 4th excited state, while one electron is in the 2nd excited
state and the other is in the 3rd excited state. Write down the wave function of the
system.
b) What is the energy of the system, if the width of the well is 1 𝑛𝑚, and the mass of
the proton is 1.67 × 10−27 𝑘𝑔 ? (Express your answer in eV)
(Hint: For an infinite 1D potential well, single particle wave function is given by
2 𝑛𝜋𝑥 𝑛 2𝜋2 ħ2
𝛹𝑛 (𝑥 ) = ට𝐿 sin ቀ ቁ, 𝑛 = 1, 2, 3 … 𝑒𝑡𝑐., and 𝐸𝑛 = )
𝐿 2𝑚𝐿2
3) a) From the absorption spectrum, it is determined that about one in 106 hydrogen atoms
in a certain star is in the first excited state (other excited states can be neglected). What
is the temperature of the star? [Hint: Assume Hydrogen atoms obey Maxwell
−13.6 𝑒𝑉
Boltzmann statistics , 𝐸𝑛 = and degeneracy of nth level is 𝑔(𝑛) = 2𝑛2 ]
𝑛2

b) Consider a particle with 4 energy levels E = 0, 1, 2, 3. Each of the energy levels are
non-degenerate. Consider a collection of 4 such particles with total energy 3. Draw all
the macro states of the system using an energy level diagram and write down the
number of micro state corresponding to each macro state if
(i) the particles are distinguishable.
(ii) the particles are bosons.
(iii) the particles are fermions.
 4) a) The density of Au is 19.32 g/cm3, and its molar weight is 197 g/mol. Assuming each
gold atom contributes one free electron to the Fermi gas, calculate the average electron
energy in gold at 0 K.
b) Estimate what temperature is necessary for the average molecular energy in an ideal
gas to have this value of average electron energy at 0 K. Also find the speed of an
electron with this energy.
5) a) Using Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular energy in an ideal gas given by,
2𝜋𝑁 −𝐸⁄
𝑛(𝐸 )𝑑𝐸 = (𝜋𝑘𝑇)3Τ2
√𝐸 𝑒 𝑘𝑇 𝑑𝐸, obtain the expressions for

∞ 3 𝜋
i) Average energy (Hint: ∫0 𝑥 3Τ2 𝑒 −𝑎𝑥 𝑑𝑥 = 4𝑎2 ට𝑎 )

ii) Most probable energy

b) For an ideal gas, the molar specific heat at constant pressure 𝐶𝑝 is related to that at
constant volume 𝐶𝑣 by 𝐶𝑝 = 𝐶𝑣 + 𝑅. A quantity, that is often measured is the ratio
𝛾 = 𝐶𝑝 /𝐶𝑣 . Find 𝐶𝑝 and 𝛾 for an ideal gas in three dimensions, which consists of
i) Spherical atoms that do not rotate.
ii) Rigid dumbbell shaped molecules.

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