Physics 12 Notes

Lesson 1: Momentum & Impulse
How does a karate expert chop through cement blocks with a bare hand?
Why does a fall onto a trampoline hurt less than onto a cement floor?
Why do people in larger vehicles usually end up with fewer injuries in accidents?
Its easy to come up with answers like

The karate guy is strong!
Trampolines are softer!
Bigger is better!
...but have you ever stopped to consider the why? Thats when physics comes walking in, waving
explanations in everyones face.
Spend a couple minutes right now to come up with explanations of the three situations using physics
principles you have learned so far. Keep these situations and your explanations in mind as you cover
this section on momentum and impulse. See if you need to modify or change your explanations based
on what you learn.
Momentum
Momentum is an idea that combines mass and velocity into one package. It is an idea that is similar to
inertia and kinetic energy.
Inertia is the property of an object to stay at rest or in motion.
Kinetic energy is the amount of energy that an object has due to its motion. (Ek = mv2)
Momentum is not truly either of these, but ends up like a mix of the two.
If you compare and contrast momentum and kinetic energy, youll notice a couple things
First, they both have mass and velocity in their formulas.
Second, kinetic energy has to do with ability to do work, momentum doesnt.
Although they are similar, they are not the same.
We havent given you any way to calculate inertia yet, so is momentum the same as inertia?
Not really. Inertia is a concept, not something that is directly measured.
Momentum is calculated by multiplying the mass and velocity of an object.
p=mv
p = momentum (kg m/s)
m = mass (kg)
v = velocity (m/s)
Notice that momentum does not have a nice derived unit, although I would appreciate it if you
lobbied physicists to name it the Clintberg in my honor. Youll just need to use the units
kg m/s until we can change this ;)
1/21/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 5 / Section 9.1 & 9.2

Example 1: A 1000 kg car is moving at 10km/h. Determine the momentum of the car.
p = mv
p = 1000kg (2.777777m/s)
p = 2777.77777 = 2.8e3 kg m/s
Example 2: A meteor moving through the Earth's atmosphere has a momentum of 1.15e4 kgm/s. As it
falls, friction with the atmosphere slows it to 1/4 its original speed, as its mass shrinks to 2/9 of its
original mass. Determine its new momentum.
To solve questions like this, always think of the classic if I do it to one side, I have to do it to
the other in math. We are doing some stuff to the variables on the right side, so lets do the
same to the left...
p=m v

1 2
4 9
p=
1
4
m
2
9
v
2 2
p= mv
36 36
1 1
p= mv
18 18
All together, we have really just multiplied both sides by 1/18. Take the original amount of
momentum given in the question and divide it by 18...
1
1.15e4=639 kgm/ s
18
Note that we have kept the sig digs based on the original value that was given.
Impulse
The simple definition for impulse is that it is a change in momentum.
Since impulse means the momentum has changed, the object must be moving at a different
velocity (like in the last example)
We will assume that the mass of the object usually stays the same.
As a formula this means we would change the formula for momentum to the one shown here...
p = m v
p = impulse (change in momentum) (kgm/s)
m = mass (kg)
v = change in velocity (vf vi) (m/s)
Example 3: A box of tic tacs (15g) is sliding along the table at 5.0m/s. I try to stop it, but only slow it
down to 1.6 m/s. Determine the impulse I impart to the box.
p = m v
p = m (vf vi)
= 0.015kg (1.6m/s 5.0m/s)
p = -0.051 kg m/s

The negative sign just identifies that my impulse was acting in the negative direction.
Momentum was taken away from the object.
But wait a second, if an impulse changes the velocity of the object, that means its accelerating.
Acceleration of an object can only occur if a force is acting on the object so force must be
related to impulse in some way.
This leads us to the link to Newton.
Newton's Second Law

When Newton came up with his Second Law of Motion, he didnt write it in the form we usually see it
today, F = ma.
Remember that he was playing around with some new ideas, and didnt necessarily look for the
easiest way to state his theories.
Instead, he kept talking about the quantity of motion of an object, what we today call
momentum.
When he stated his Second Law he said the force is proportional to the rate of change in the
momentum.
p
F=
t
Notice that you can solve this formula to get what we now consider the standard form of the Second
Law
p but we know that p = m v

F=
t
m v and we also know that v

F= a=
t t
F = ma
We can also come up with a different (and more versatile) version of the impulse formula.
The formula you were first given was
p = m v
But we just saw that Newton used impulse in his formulas

p
F=
t
which becomes
p = F t
We can stick these two formulas together to get the formula as it is shown on your data sheet (in the
Dynamics section).
F t = m v
The great thing about this formula is that you can basically use it three ways.

Use the whole formula if you have three of the variables and are looking for the fourth.
Use just the left hand side as an impulse formula.
Use just the right hand side as an impulse formula.
Example 4:A rifle is firing a 9.00 g bullet so that it leaves the muzzle after 3.00e-2 s traveling at at
200 m/s. Determine the average force of the rifle acting on the bullet.
F t=m v
m v
F=
t AP Students...
0.00900(2000) Look at how you could solve this
F=
3.00e-2 without using a calculator...
F =60.0 N
You can see that a change in momentum (impulse) depends on two factors force and time interval.
To change an objects momentum, think of the following situations:
1. You could apply a medium force over a medium time interval.
F t = p
2. You could apply a big force over a small time interval and get the same impulse as in
(1).
F t = p
3. Or, you could apply a small force over a long time interval and still get the same
impulse.
F t = p
This explains why you would want to come to a stop by hitting a haystack instead of a brick wall with
your car.
In each case the impulse is the same (your mass stays the same, your v stays the same).
When you hit the brick wall
F t = p
Youch! All that force on your body is going to hurt! The impulse happened in a very short time
period.
When you hit the haystack

F t = p
Not much force at all, since the impulse is spread out over a long time period!
Its the force that hurts, so you want it to be as small as possible.
You can use the same argument to explain hitting an airbag instead of a steering wheel, using a
bungee cord instead of a rope, or falling onto a wooden floor instead of a cement one.
Example 5: A 75kg man is involved in a car accident. He was initially traveling at 65km/h when he hit
a large truck.
a) If he had no airbag in his car and he came to rest against the steering wheel in 0.050s,
determine how much force was exerted on his body.
First, change 65 km/h into 18.05555 m/s.
F t = m v v = vf -vi = 0 18.05555 = -18.05555m/s

F = (m v) / t
= (75kg)(-18.05555m/s) / (0.050s)
F = 27083.333333 = -2.7e4 N
b) If he did have an airbag that inflated and deflated correctly, bringing him to rest over a time
of 0.78s, determine how much force was exerted on his body.
F t = m v
F = (m v) / t
= (75kg)(-18.05555m/s) / (0.78s)
F = 1736.1111 = -1.7e3 N
Which is only about 6% of the force felt without an airbag a definite improvement!
Homework
p451 #1, 2
p452 #1*
p453 #2, 3, 5, 8, 11
p458 #1

Lesson 2: Impulse Graphs
So far we've implied some things about what is constant and what can change in the impulse formula
F t = m v.
We look at situations where we expect the mass of the object will stay constant.
The velocity will change, and that's why we put a delta in front of it.
Time is changing (sort of) as we measure it over a period of time.
Force must be a constant. We assume that the force being exerted on the object was always the
same, causing a constant acceleration.
If we are looking at a simple impulse question (where the force is constant), we can figure out exactly
what we can interpret from a graph.
Later this may help us to figure out a more complicated question, like if the force changes.
The following graph is an example of one of those simple situations where the force remains constant
during the entire time.
If we look at what the slope might
represent, we get...
rise
slope=
run
F
slope=
t
Since nothing in the impulse

formula can be rearranged to give
us force over time, the slope Illustration 1: Graph of Force as a function of Time
doesn't mean anything to us in this
situation.
If we look at the area under the line, we get something a bit better...
Area=l w=F t= p
Since the area under the line is really just multiplying force and time, the area must be
equal to the impulse acting on the object.
Example 1: For the graph shown above, assume that it shows a constant force of 25 N acting over a
10 s period of time. Determine the impulse.
Since area under the line is equal to impulse...
Area=l w
Area=2510
Area=2.5e2
p=2.5e2 Ns
2/15/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 3 / Section 9.2

If we really wanted to, we could have simply use p = Ft to figure out the impulse. We could do this
in this situation because the force is constant.
If we need to do a question where the force is not constant, we can still use the area under the
line to get the impulse, even though the formula p = Ft can not be used.
Example 2: I am in a car that is accelerating from rest at a red light. I want to calculate the impulse that
is acting on the car during the first 5.78s. If I know that the force on the car steadily increases from 0 N
to 3012 N over this time, determine the impulse. If the mass of the car is 1500 kg, also determine the
final velocity of the car.
Lets start by graphing the information we were given. We will get a nice linear graph, since it
said that the force steadily increases.
If we calculate the area under the

graph (a triangle) we will know
what the impulse is.
A = bh
= (5.78 s)(3012 N)
= 8704.68
A = 8.70e3 kgm/s
Illustration 2: Graph for Example 2 (Force as a function of Time)
To calculate the final velocity, we can use the value for the impulse we just got with the right
hand side of the impulse formula. Remember that the initial velocity (sitting at the light) is
zero...
p=m v
p=m( v f v i )
p=m v f
p
vf=
m
8704.68
vf=
1500
v f =5.80312
v f =5.80 m/s
The graph that we make does not have to be a pretty right angle triangle either. We can also do some
crazy stuff with what we are looking for in the question, as the next example shows.

Example 3: This graph shows the result of
applying 500 kgm/s of impulse to an object as it
moved across the floor for 10.0 s. Determine the Fmax
maximum force that was exerted.
Even though it is not a right angle triangle,
this graph still shows a triangle that we can Force(N)
use the regular area formula with. In this
case, we already know the area (the impulse
is 500 kgm/s) and we know the base (10.0
s). All we want is the height of the triangle,
since that is the magnitude of the maximum Time (s) 10.0
force. Illustration 3: Pushing object across the floor.
bh
Area=
2
Ft
p=
2
2 p 2500
F= =
t 10.0
F =100 N
Even if the graph is a curved line, you can still at least estimate the area under the graph.
Although this will only be an approximate area, without getting into calculus it's as good as
you'll get and as good as you need.
On the graph shown below we have an s-curve that would be difficult to calculate the exact
area of.
Instead, we just look at the triangle drawn in red. For the little bit extra it has near the
beginning, it misses a bit later on. These two parts should more or less make up for each
other, so that the area of the triangle will be about the same as the area under the curve.
Force Force
(N) (N)
Time (s) 10.0 Time (s) 10.0
Illustration 4: Instead of trying to figure out the area of the curve exactly, we just use the area of
the triangle as an approximation.
Homework
P462 #1

Lesson 3: 1-D Collisions
A collision is when two or more objects strike each other, and exert a relatively large force during a
relatively short period of time.
This force acting during a time period results in impulse.
We can look at what is happening based on Newton's Third Law, just like we looked at
Newton's Second Law for impulse.
Imagine that two balls ram into each other in a head on collision, as shown below
vr vb
Fr Fb
Illustration 1: Collision of a red and blue ball, showing initial

velocities, and then forces during collision.
Notice that during the collision, according to Newton's Third Law, the balls exert equal, but
opposite forces on each other.
If the two forces are equal but opposite, they must add up to zero.
0=F r + F b
At first we just show that the two forces add up to zero.
0=F r t + F b t
Then we multiply everything by t (note that zero times anything
0= p r + p b is still zero).
0=( pr ' p r )+( pb ' pb ) Remember that Ft is impulse, p, so replace it.
0=( mr v r ' mr v r )+(mb v b ' mb v b ) p = p' p , where the ' symbol is prime and just means final.
p = mv, so we replace that too.
0=mr v r 'mr v r + mb v b 'mb v b
After dropping the brackets, we move everything around.
m r v r + mb v b=mr v r ' +mb v b '
The Law of Conservation of Momentum remains a fundamental law of physics. Like all conservation
laws, it essentially means whatever you started with you still have at the end.
The formula manipulation shown here will work for problems with two objects in a head-on
collision, called either 1 dimensional or linear collision.
The objects must move in a straight line... they can not move off at any sort of angle.
Conservation of Momentum is true if the objects are acting Isolated: No matter or energy is allowed to
enter or leave the system.
in an isolated system, where no matter is entering or Closed: No matter is allowed to enter or
leaving, and the energy remains constant. This means that leave the system. Energy can enter or leave.
there are no external forces acting on the objects. Open: Energy and matter can enter or
leave.
Warning
It is critical that you understand that you can only use the conservation of
momentum in isolated systems. Non-conservative forces such as fricition can NOT
be acting on any of the objects.

You do have to be careful with how you solve these collision problems using conservation of
momentum.
After the collision the two objects might bounce apart (Example 1)...
...or the objects might stick together (Example 2).
Example 1: Objects bounce apart

A 0.15kg blue ball moving at 8.0m/s to the right hits a 0.10 kg red billiard ball at rest. If the blue ball
continues to move to the right at 2.5m/s, determine the velocity of the red ball.
ptotal = ptotal'
pb + pr = pb' + pr'
mbvb + mrvr = mbvb' + mrvr'
0.15 (8.0) + 0.10 (0) = 0.15 (2.5) + 0.10 (vr')
vr' = 8.25 = 8.3 m/s [right]
Example 2: Objects stick together

Two balls of clay, a blue one being 2.3kg and the second red one being 5.6kg, hit each other and stick
together. If the blue one was moving to the right at 12m/s, and the red was moving at 8.1m/s to the left,
determine their final velocity.
Since the two lumps are stuck together,
you add the masses together after the
ptotal = ptotal' collision. Also, since they are one big
pb + pr = pb' + pr' lump now, they must have the same
mbvb + mrvr = mbvb' + mrvr' velocity, so you only have v'.
mbvb + mrvr = v' (mb + mr)
2.3 (+12) + 5.6 (-8.1) = v` (2.3 + 5.6)
v' = -2.2481 = - 2.2 m/s [left]
Example 2 (sticking together) showed a situation where the two objects stick together after hitting each
other.
This is a very common sort of question, since it could involve objects like two train cars
colliding and then locking together afterwards.
It is also possible for two objects to be stuck together at the start, and then go apart afterwards.
If this happens you'd just have to reverse the left and right hand sides of the formula.
Homework
p476 #2
p477 #2
p478 #1
p479 #2

Lesson 4: 2-D Collisions
We now need to turn our attention towards questions involving objects that collide in two dimensions
(2D).
In the previous section we were looking at only linear collisions (1D), which were quite a bit
simpler (mathematically) to handle.
Now we need to figure out some ways to handle calculations in more than 1D.
You actually learned about this in Physics 20 in the vectors section.
First, lets look at drawing some diagrams of some common collisions, then well worry about the
calculations
Example 1: Sketch a diagram that represents the collision between two moving pool balls (of equal
mass) that strike each other with an angle of 30 between them. They do not stick together.
30o
Before After
Illustration 1: Collision between two moving balls
We need to show what happens before and after the collision.

So far this is just a rough sketch, since we werent told anything about their velocities or
the angle that they traveled away at.
All that were doing at this point is showing that we know that the balls should move off
in directions similar to the ones shown here.
Example 2: Sketch a diagram that represents the collision between a moving pool ball that strikes a
stationary pool ball. They move off with an angle of 60 between them.
60o
Before After
Illustration 2: Collision between one moving and one stationary
ball

In examples like this you will often see that the question refers to the collision as glancing.
This simply means that the objects do not hit head on. If they did hit head on then the collision
would be 1D, not 2D.
Now we need to start looking at some questions with calculations.

Some people are more comfortable doing these questions using components, others like using
cosine and sine laws.
Since not everyone knows cosine and sine laws, we'll only use components in the following
examples.
Example 3: A 1.20 kg red ball moving to the right at 17.1m/s strikes a stationary 2.31 kg blue ball. If
the final velocity of the red ball is 13.5m/s at 23.0 above the horizontal, determine the final velocity
of the blue ball.
A sketch is always a good idea, even if you're not asked for one...
1.20 @ 13.5
1.20 @ 17.1
23.0O
?
Before After
Illustration 3: Sketch of collision for example 3
The total momentum before has to equal the total momentum after. So, we need to calculate all
the momentum before the collision as vectors and make it equal to the momentum after the
collision.
First, well just figure out the momentum of the balls on the paths theyre on. You MUST do
this; you can not do anything with just the velocities.
Before After
pr = mrvr = (1.20)(17.1) = 20.52 kgm/s pr' = mrvr = (1.20)(13.5) = 16.2 kgm/s
pb = mbvb = (2.31kg)(0m/s) = 0 kgm/s pb' = mbvb = ?
Now, we can start breaking these values into x and y components, and then figure out the totals
for both sides.
Before
Since the red ball is going in a straight, horizontal line, we can very easily break it up
into x and y components... it's all x component.
prx = 20.52 kgm/s
pry = 0 kgm/s

Since the blue ball isn't even moving, both of its components are zero.
pbx = 0 kgm/s
pby = 0 kgm/s
We can use these values to figure out the total x component before, and the total y
component before the collision...
x total = prx + pbx = 20.52 kgm/s + 0 kgm/s = 20.52 kgm/s
y total = pry + pby = 0 kgm/s + 0 kgm/s = 0 kgm/s
These x and y totals will be constant, both before and after the collision...
Before After
x total = 20.52 kgm/s x total = 20.52 kgm/s
y total = 0 kgm/s y total = 0 kgm/s
...they are the same before and after the collision. We can use these totals, along with
what we do know about after the collision, to be able to figure out what is missing.
After
We know that after the collision the red ball has 16.2 kgm/s of momentum at an angle of
23O above the horizontal.
16.2kgm/s
pry
23.0O
prx
Illustration 4: Red ball after
Break this vector for the red ball into its x and y components by using regular trig.
adj opp
cos = sin =
hyp hyp
x y
cos 23.0 o= o
sin 23.0 =
16.2 16.2
p rx =14.912 kgm/ s p ry =6.3298 kgm/ s
We know that there is an x total of 20.52, but so far we only know where 14.912 of it
can be found. The rest of it must be in the blue ball...
pbx = px total prx
= 20.52 14.912
pbx = 5.608 kgm/s
We can do the same for the y component of the blue ball...

pby = py total pry
= 0 6.3298
pby = -6.3298 kgm/s
The minus sign just means that the y component of the blue ball is pointing down. It
makes sense since the two y components after must cancel each other to be equal to the
y component total from before the collision.

We can use the components to figure out the total momentum of the blue ball and the
angle it is traveling at...
pbx
?O pby c2 = a2 + b2
= 5.6082 + -6.32982
? kgm/s
c = 8.457 kgm/s
Illustration 5: Blue ball after
We want the velocity, not the momentum, of the blue ball...
p = mv
v = p/m = 8.457 / 2.31 = 3.661038961
v = 3.66 m/s
opp
tan =
adj
6.3298
tan =
5.608
=48.5O
It is important that you make a statement of your FINAL answer at the end of a problem like
this, as youve probably been writing numbers all over the place.
The blue ball is traveling at 3.66m/s at an angle of 48.5O below the horizontal.
Example 4: A 1.20 kg red ball moving at 10.0m/s strikes a 2.31 kg blue ball moving at 15.0m/s. If the
final velocity of the red ball is 13.5m/s, determine the final velocity of the blue ball. Make use of the
angles drawn in the following diagram.
30o 25o
40o ?o
Before After
Illustration 6: Sketch of collision for example 4
Since the total momentum of the balls before the collision is equal to the total momentum of
the balls after the collision, we still do this question the same basic way as the last example.
We will calculate the total momentum of the red and blue balls before the collision by
adding their components.
This resultant is also the resultant of after the collision.
We will use this, along with the components of the red ball after the collision to figure
out the motion of the blue ball.

Before
Do the red ball before the collision
pr = mv = (1.20kg)(10.0m/s)
pr = 12.0 kgm/s
12.0 kgm/s Figure out the x and y components you should get
pry x = 10.39230485 kgm/s and y = - 6.00 kgm/s.
30O
prx
Illustration 7: Red ball
before
Do the blue ball before the collision

pb = mv = (2.31kg)(15.0m/s)
pb = 34.65 kgm/s
pbx
40O Figure out the x and y components you should
pby get x = 26.54343995 kgm/s and
34.7 kgm/s y = 22.27259068 kgm/s.
Illustration 8: Blue ball
before
We will now add the x and y components to get a new resultant.

The blue ball has a positive y component, but the red ball is negative, so we need to be
careful.
We can just go ahead and add the x components because they point in the same
direction.
After adding the x and y components you should have a new triangle like this.
36.9357448 kgm/s
16.27259068
kgm/s
Illustration 9: X and Y totals from before the collision
After
After the collision, all of the momentums have to add up to the same as the triangle drawn
above.
For this question I would suggest you start by calculating the components of the red
balls momentum after the collision.
Then you can figure out how much x and y component are missing.
This must come from the blue ball!
The red ball after the collision

pr = mv = (1.20kg)(13.5m/s)
pr = 16.2kgm/s
16.2 kgm/s When you calculate the x and y

Pry' components you should get
25O x = 14.68218615kgm/s and
Prx' y = 6.84641584kgm/s.
Illustration 10: Red ball after
This means that there is a certain amount of x-component unaccounted for

36.9357448 kgm/s 14.68218615 kgm/s = 22.25355865kgm/s to the right
We also have some y-component unaccounted for

Although we originally assumed the blue ball would be moving down in our diagram,
we now know that isnt the case.
The red ball had only about 6.84kgm/s pointing up.
According to our y-component from before the collision, we need about16.3kgm/s
pointing up.
So the blue ball must have an upward component of 9.42617484kgm/s upward.
Our blue ball has a diagram after the collision that looks like this
9.42617484
kgm/s
22.25355865 kgm/s
Illustration 11: Blue ball after
We calculate the hypotenuse as 24.16761562kgm/s.

Since the blue ball has a mass of 2.31kg, we can calculate the velocity of the ball as
10.4621 m/s by using p = mv.
We use trig to find that the angle is 22.9567 above the horizontal.
Our final answer is that the blue ball is moving at 10m/s at an angle of 23 above the horizontal
after the collision.
Homework
p492 #2
p494 #1
p499 #6

Lesson 5: Elastic and Inelastic Collisions
If we are dealing with a collision involving really small objects (like atoms or molecules, things that are
microscopic) youll often find that kinetic energy is conserved.
The total kinetic energy of all particles before the collision equals the total kinetic energy of all
particles after the collision.
This is a special case of conservation of energy. Notice that rather than just saying energy is
conserved (which would imply that we need to take into account all kinds of energy), we have
to focus on only kinetic energy.
These types of collisions are elastic collisions; they usually only happen at an atomic level.
In regular collisions involving regular sized objects (like people, watermelons, and asteroids,
things that are macroscopic), kinetic energy is not conserved.
In these cases youd probably measure that the kinetic energy after the collision is less than the
kinetic energy before. These are inelastic collisions.
The kinetic energy might have been lost in one of several ways
1. Friction between the objects could cause some of it to be converted to heat (thermal
energy).
2. If the object was permanently changed (broken, bent, snapped, twisted, etc.) from its
original shape. This includes if the objects are stuck together after the collision.
3. Some energy might have been converted into the energy of a sound or light that was
released.
Energy would have to be used up to do any of these.
If the change is very small (like two pool balls bouncing off of each other) than the lost
energy is very small.
If the change is big (a rock shatters when hit by a bullet) the energy lost is great.
Make sure that you keep these two types of collisions straight, based on whether or not kinetic energy
is conserved.
Elastic collisions [Usually microscopic] Total kinetic energy before the collision equals total
kinetic energy after. You can use conservation of kinetic energy with conservation of
momentum .
Inelastic collisions [Day-to-day stuff, usually macroscopic] The kinetic energy changes. If
the objects stick together after the collision, we say that the collision is completely inelastic.
Conservation of momentum still works in these collisions
There is always the possibility that you might be asked to evaluate if a particular collision is elastic or
inelastic.
This actually involves some very simple calculations. Do not make it more complicated than it
needs to be. It doesn't matter if the collision is 1D or 2D, since kinetic energy is scalar.
Start off by calculating, individually, the kinetic energy of each object before the collision.
Add them together to get the total initial kinetic energy.
Then calculate, individually, the kinetic energy of each object after the collision. Add them
together to get the total final kinetic energy.
If the collision is elastic, the two totals will be the same. If the collision is inelastic, the
initial total will be bigger than the final total.

Let's figure out a question and then see if it is elastic or inelastic collision.
Example 1: One way to test the speed of a bullet shot from a gun is to use a device called a ballistic
pendulum. Because it is based on well understood physics, it can give very accurate results even though
the equipment is quite simple. A block of material such as wood is hung from supporting wires as
shown below. When the bullet is shot at the pendulum, it hits and becomes embedded in the pendulum.
Together, the pendulum and the bullet swing upwards. By measuring the maximum height that the
pendulum and bullet swing to, the speed of the bullet just before impact can be calculated. For this
problem, a 0.0200 kg bullet collides with a 5.7500 kg pendulum. After the collision, the pair swings up
to a maximum height of 0.386 m . Determine the velocity of the bullet just before impact.
velocity = ?
bullet Maximum Height

block
Illustration 1: A Ballistic Pendulum
Part 1: Conservation of Energy
We can't use conservation of energy to examine what happened before and after the collision.
We can only do that with conservation of momentum. For now, let's just look at what happened
after the bullet hit the block, making it swing upwards.
We know that the kinetic energy of pendulum-bullet just after the collision is turned into
gravitational potential energy as it swings upwards, so...
Ek = Ep
mv2 = mgh
v2 = gh
v= 2gh
v = 29.810.386
v=2.75 m/s
This is the velocity of the pendulum-bullet just after the collision has happened.
Part 2: Conservation of Momentum

Now we have enough information to use conservation of momentum to examine before and
after the collision, which will allow us to calculate the velocity of the bullet just before it hit the
pendulum. This is what conservation of momentum is good at... looking at both the before and
after parts of a collision.

ptotal = ptotal '
mpvp + mbvb = mpvp' + mbvb'
0 + mbvb = v'(mp+ mb)
0.0200 vb = 2.75 (5.7500 + 0.0200)
0.0200 vb = 2.75 (5.7700)
0.0200 vb = 15.9
vb = 794 m/s
The bullet was traveling at 794 m/s just before it hit the pendulum.
Example 2: In Example 1 we can assume that the collision was inelastic (since we know it's
macroscopic). But let's be careful and check it out mathematically... that's the only way to be certain.
Using the information from Example 1, determine if the collision was elastic or inelastic.
Initially, only the bullet was moving. We only need to calculate its kinetic energy and use that
value as the total initial kinetic energy.
1 2 1 2
E k = mv = 0.0200794 =6304.36 J =6.30e3 J
2 2
Just after the collision, the bullet and the block move together as one mass at the same velocity.
We'll only need to do one calculation for the total final kinetic energy.
1 1
E k = mv2 = 5.77002.752=21.8178125 J =21.8 J
2 2
It's obvious that after the collision there is considerably less kinetic energy than at the start. This
is an inelastic collision. In fact, only about 0.346% of the kinetic energy remained after the
collision. To get the percentage, just divide the final by the initial.
Homework
p482 #1, 2
p484 #2

Lesson 6: History & Theories of Static Electricity
Ancient Times
If you ask people who discovered electricity, theyll probably tell you names like Benjamin Franklin
(flying his kite during a lightning storm), Thomas Edison (invents the light bulb), or Alessandro Volta
(makes the first batteries). did.
These are NOT the people who discovered electricity!
Electricity was first mentioned in the works of a Greek scientist
named Thales of Miletus in about 600BC!
Thales noticed that if amber (hardened tree sap) was
rubbed, it had the ability to pick up dust and leaves
What he was seeing is what we now call static
electricity
Another Greek named Theophrastus noticed in 300BC that
other substances had static electricity if rubbed.
Unfortunately neither Thales nor Theophrastus had any Illustration 1: Amber pendants
scientific explanation for it they just thought it was (photographed by Adrian
Ringstone)
interesting.
What they did realize was that sometimes two objects would attract each other, sometimes they would
repel.
This developed into the idea that there are two kinds of charge (we call them positive and
negative today, which will be discussed shortly).
Like charges repel
Opposite charges attract.
This is usually called the Law of Charges.
Middle Ages
In 1600AD an Englishman named William Gilbert started studying Did You Know?
these phenomena. William Gilbert was the Court
He wanted to come up with a good scientific explanation for Physician to both Queen
these ancient discoveries. Elizabeth I and King James I.
This meant that he acted as an
He was actually the first person to use the word electric,
adviser in scientific matters
which is a variation of the Greek name for amber.
Although he had only some success in describing electricity, he was able to show that there
were differences between magnetism and electricity that seemed to indicate that they were
completely different things.
For example, an amber rod had to be rubbed to have electric effects; a magnet was always a
magnet (didn't need to be rubbed).
Up until that point most scientists had believed electricity and magnetism were just different
versions of the same thing.

The Franklin Era
Benjamin Franklins Experiments
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) started his investigations after Gilbert.
Yes, he did fly a kite on an overcast day (no actual lightning), but he wasnt the first person to
do it!
Several people had tried to do it before him to prove that lightning was electrical, but theyd
all been killed.
Most people thought he was a nut to do it. In fact, he had his son set up most of the
equipment while he stood back.
Franklin was able to prove that lightning was a discharge of static electricity (this does
NOT mean he discovered electricity!!!)
Most of Franklins research actually focused on amber rods

It had been found that if a rubbed amber rod was dangling from a string, and another rubbed
amber rod was brought near, the dangling one would move away.
If a dangling rubbed glass rod is brought near another rubbed glass rod, the dangling one would
move away.
If a rubbed glass rod and amber rod were brought near to each other, they were attracted.
Therefore, the charge on the glass must be different from the charge on the amber!
Franklin decided to say that

the glass rod had a positive charge
the amber rod (or the plastic ebonite used today) had a negative charge
Illustration 2: Ebonite is
Why did he choose to call glass positive and amber negative? a type of plastic often
No reason! He knew they were different and opposite to each other, used in physics because
so he just picked one to be positive and the other negative. it can easily build up a
static charge.
Franklins Single Fluid Theory
Franklin developed what he called a single-fluid theory to explain the results he was getting.
According to this theory, all matter contains an electric fluid, a substance that Franklin
thought all matter in the universe had. His electric fluid had a positive charge.
An object with a positive charge has an excess (too much) of this positive electric fluid.
An object with a negative charge has a deficiency (too little) of of this positive electric fluid.
Franklin backed up his theory with the observation that if a certain amount of charge is produced in one
object, an equal amount of opposite charge is produced on another object.
For example, lets say you rub a balloon on your head. The balloon will gain just as much
negative charge as your hair will gain positive charge.
According to this model, the electric fluid flows from one object to the other.
Franklin used the idea of negative and positive to figure out algebra problems, since if you
charged anything, the two objects charges would add up to zero.
This would be like if you rub a plastic ruler with a paper towel. The ruler has a negative
charge, and the paper towel and equal positive charge. The charges are separate from each
other, but add up to zero.

Modern Theories
Although Franklins single fluid theory is not exactly right, it did lead him to a law that we still use
today in physics
Law of Conservation of Charge
The net amount of electric charge produced in any process is zero
This just means that even though you can move around charges, you cant create or destroy them.
Example 1: You have two similar objects; one of them has a charge of +7, and the other has a charge
of -3. They touch, share their charges, and then are moved apart. Determine the final charge of each of
the objects.
When the two objects touch, their charges will redistribute. We need to add them algebraically,
and then figure out what the charge on each is.
+7 + -3 = +4 <<< This is the total net charge between the two objects.
+4 / 2 = +2 <<< Since the charge is shared between the two objects, each is +2.
The net charge at the start was +4, and the net charge afterwards was still +4.
In the past 100 years it has become clear that these charges depend on the makeup of the atom itself,
not on some fluid
The nucleus is made up of protons (positive) and neutrons (neutral), surrounded by electrons
(negative) in orbit.
In a normal state the electrons and protons balance out, so the charge is neutral.
Sometimes the atom may lose or gain electrons.

Nothing happens to the stable nucleus made up of protons and neutrons.
It is the electrons that are being stripped off or added on because they are on the far outside
edge of the atom.
If the atom loses electrons it will have a positive charge if it gains electrons it has a negative
charge.
Either way, it is now called an ion.
Usually when an object is charged by rubbing, the charge only lasts a little while where does the
charge go?
Most of the charge leaks off to water molecules in the air
Remember, water is a polar molecule, which means one end is more negative and the other
is more positive.
The positive end can temporarily pick up electrons.
This is why there is more static electricity in the winter.
The air is more dry, so the electrons arent picked up as often.
Homework
p.523 #2, 3

Lesson 7: Insulators, Conductors, and the Others
There are four categories of materials based on their conductivity (ability to allow charges to move
freely).
Conductivity is just a way of describing how easily charges can move through a material.
Insulators Semiconductors Conductors Superconductors

Increasing conductivity
Illustration 1: Comparison of Conductivity
Insulators & Conductors

Imagine you have two metal spheres, one charged and the other neutral.
If you place an iron nail between the two so it touches both spheres, the uncharged sphere is
now charged (the other one is also still charged, just not as much as it was originally).
If you had used a piece of rubber instead, the uncharged sphere would not have gained any
noticeable charge.
We say that the iron is a conductor, while the rubber is an insulator.
As a rule
most metals are pretty good conductors, since they allow charges to move around quite easily.
most other materials are insulators , since they resist the movement of electrical charges. Keep
in mind that even insulators will conduct a little charge.
Semiconductors
There are a few materials (silicon, germanium, carbon) that are semiconductors.
Even though you would not normally think that these non-metals can conduct electricity, they
can. It just depends on the conditions.
For some semiconductors, temperature is the key. At low temperatures they act like
insulators, while at room temperatures and above they act as conductors.
Selenium (which is used on the drums of some photocopiers) depends on the amount of
light it is exposed to. It is an insulator in the dark, but becomes a conductor when exposed
to light.
This is one of the reasons that chemists refer to these elements as metalloids (sort-of-metals)
A significant amount of research is done with semiconductors, specifically in the field of
computer electronics.
Superconductors
There is one other group, the superconductors, which are such fantastic Absolute zero is the
conductors that they lose practically no energy at all as they transfer electricity. temperature at which
Unfortunately, superconductors usually only work at very cold atoms have no kinetic
energy and stop
temperatures near absolute zero. moving. This happens
Some ceramic based superconductors have been created that work at at -273.15OC which is
around the same temperatures as liquid nitrogen (about -200oC) which is 0OK.
very easy and cheap to make.

Reasons for Different Conductivity
The reason for the different properties of these types, especially for conductors and insulators, is found
on an atomic level
In conductors, the electrons furthest away from the nucleus in the outer levels (valence
electrons) are not attracted as strongly by the nucleus of the atom.
For this reason the electrons in conductors can move around somewhat freely.
In insulators the electrons are tightly bound to the nucleus and dont move as freely.
When a charged object is brought close to a conductor, the free electrons in the conductor will move
either away or towards the object depending on the charge of the other object.
Remember that like charges repel, unlike attract.
In this example, a positively charged object is brought near a neutral conductor.
+++++++
+++++++
--- +++
--- +++
Illustration 2: Separation of charge caused by a positively charged object.
The electrons in the neutral object have shifted to the left since they are attracted towards the
positive object.
Always remember that in any situation, only electrons can move! The protons are trapped in
the nucleus and can't move around. That means the protons remain on the right.
This is referred to as a separation of charge. There are still equal numbers of negative and
positive charges that cancel each other out, but they are separate from each other.
If a negatively charged object is brought close to a conductor
+ +
+ +
+ +
Illustration 3: Separation of charge caused by a negative

object
The negative charges in the conductor will pile up as far away from the object as possible.
The positive charges remaining on the left side make it positive.
Again, this is a separation of charge.
In a semiconductor, there are only a few electrons that can freely move around, and in an insulator
almost none.
If you bring a charged object near one of these, you wont see this separation of charge
happen.
Homework p.523 #4

Lesson 8: Charging by Friction, Induction, & Conduction
Charging by Friction
Up to this point we have really only discussed the oldest way to give an object a charge.
Rubbing two different materials together, a process known as charging by friction (AKA
charging by rubbing), is the simplest way to give something a charge.
This is what you do every time you drag your feet along a carpet so you can reach out and
zap someone's ear.
Your feet in socks and the carpet are doing charging by friction.
Since the two objects are made of different materials, their atoms will hold onto their electrons
with different strengths.
As they pass over each other the electrons with weaker bonds are ripped off one material and
collect on the other material.
Example 1: Rub a piece of ebonite (very hard, black rubber) across a piece of animal fur. Explain
what happens.
The fur does not hold on to its electrons as strongly as the ebonite. At least some of the
electrons will be ripped off of the fur and stay on the ebonite. Now the fur has a slightly
positive charge (it lost some electrons) and the ebonite is slightly negative (it gained some
electrons).The net charge is still zero between the two remember the conservation of charge.
No charges have been created or destroyed, just moved around.
Example 2: Rub a glass rod with a piece of silk. Explain what

You are expected to remember
happens. the combinations of ebonite-fur
This is the same sort of situation as the one above. In this case and glass-silk. They are often
the silk holds onto the electrons more strongly than the glass. used as examples in questions.
Electrons are ripped off of the glass and go on to the silk. The
glass is now positive and the silk is negative.
You may be wondering how you could

ever keep track of this, since the sulphur
combinations of different materials brass
being rubbed on each other is infinite. copper
Rather than try to keep track of Increasing ebonite Increasing
all the combinations, we arrange tendency to paraffin wax tendency to hold
common materials in a chart lose electrons silk on to electrons
called an Electrostatic Series. lead
To use the electrostatic series, fur
you first need to find the two wool
different materials that are being
glass
rubbed.
Whichever material is closer Illustration 1: Electrostatic Series
to the top is holding
electrons tightly so it will have a negative charge.
The material closer to the bottom has a greater chance of losing electrons, so it will be
positively charged.

Example 3: Determine the charge on a piece of copper if you rub it with a piece of silk.
Looking at the electrostatic series, copper is closer to the top with silk beneath it. This means
that the copper is negative and the silk is positive.
Charging by Conduction If the two objects are brought

close enough that an arc of
Conduction just means that the two objects will come into actual electricity jumps between them, it
physical contact with each other (this is why it is sometimes called counts as conduction.
charging by contact).
Let's assume we have a negatively charged metal object and an uncharged metal object
(Illustration 2a). They are similar objects, and each is on an insulating stand so that we can
move them around without them interacting with anything else.
We bring the two objects close together. We will see a separation of charge happen in the
neutral object as negative electrons are repelled to the right hand side (Illustration 2b).
At this time, they are not touching and no charges have been transferred.
We allow the two objects to touch (Illustration 2c).
Some of the negative charge will transfer over to the uncharged metal object. This happens
since the negative charges on the first object are repelling each other... by moving onto the
second object they spread away from each other.
When the negative object is removed, it will not be as negative as it was (Illustration 2d).
Both of the objects have some of the negative charge this depends on the size of the
objects and the materials they are made of. Since they are similar in this example they have
the same magnitude charge.
- - -
- - - _
- - - +
_
- - - +
_
+
Illustration 2a: Illustration 2b:
Charged and Neutral Objects Separation of Charge
e- - -
- - - -
- - -
-
Illustration 2c: Illustration 2d:
Conduction! Afterwards
- -
Overall the total negative charge remains constant.

We started with six negative charges, and we ended up with a total of six negative.
Notice that this also means a negative object causes a negative charge on the other object.
What would happen if you used a positive rod at the start to touch the metal sphere?
The same sort of thing, except that the neutral object will transfer electrons to the positively
charged object.

In any of these cases, the results depend on the materials being conductors or insulators.
In the examples I've given so far, all the materials have been conductors, so the charges move
easily from one to the other and spread out.
If the materials used were insulators, only the specific areas that actually touched would show
any change in charge. That's because the charges can't move through the insulators easily.
Charging by Induction
It is possible to charge a conductor without touching it. You do have to follow some special procedures.
Most important is the use of a grounding wire.
A grounding wire is simply a conductor that connects the object to the ground.
Think of the earth as a huge reservoir of charge it can both gain or donate electrons as
needed. Depending on what the situation is, either electrons will travel up the grounding
wire to the object being charged, or travel down to the ground.
Charging by induction is a more complex process than conduction, as the example below shows
- - -
- - -
- - - + e-
+
- - - +
Illustration 3a: Illustration 3b:

Neutral Object Grounded Electrons escape down wire
- - -
- - -
- - - + + +
+
- - - + +
cut
Illustration 3c: Illustration 3d:
Snip the Wire! Afterwards
Figure 3a: The neutral object is on an insulating stand. It also has a ground wire attached to it.
Figure 3b: We bring a negative object nearby. This will cause the electrons to be pushed as far
away as possible, and since they are free to move, they do just that. They will travel down the
ground wire.
Figure 3c: This step is VERY important. Keeping the negative object nearby we snip the
ground wire. Now there is no way for the electrons to travel back up they wire to the originally
neutral object. If we had skipped this step and just moved the negative object away without
snipping the ground wire, the negative charges would have just gone back up the wire and it
would be neutral again.
Figure 3d: We remove the negative object now the the original object has a net positive
charge.

The same sort of thing happens if you bring a positively charged object near to a grounded object.
In that case, electrons would come up the grounding wire to be closer to the object. This would
leave the other object with a negative charge.
Notice that when you charge by induction you get the opposite charge on the metal object.
Electroscopes
How can you tell if an object has a charge, especially if youre doing research in
the 1700s?
Very early on physicists started using electroscopes to measure very small charges
on objects.
An electroscope is made up of a couple of very thin metal leaves that hang
down near to each other. They are connected to a metal rod that extends
upwards, and ends in a knob on the end.
The whole apparatus is usually insulated from outside effects by being in a
metal container with a mica window to look in at the leaves. A rubber
stopper insulates the rod from touching the metal container.
You can only do things to the metal ball at the top, since everything else is insulated inside the metal
can.
If you bring a charged object near the top ball, electrons will either move out of it or in to it.
This will result in changes in the charges on the metal leaves inside the
Illustration 4: An
electroscope. electroscope
Imagine what happens to the metal leaves if a charged object is brought nearby
+ +
+ +
Illustration 5a: In this situation a negative Illustration 5b: Bring a positive Illustration 5c: Touch the
object is brought nearby the electroscope. object nearby and the free electroscope with any charged
This causes free moving electrons in the electrons in the electroscope all object and youll give it an overall
electroscope to move down into the leaves, start moving up towards the charge by conduction. The leaves
leaving the top positive. Since the leaves top. This means the bottom has will stay spread apart even if you
both have negative charge they repel each a net positive charge. The remove the object.
other and move apart. leaves will spread apart again.
Homework
p.523 #5-10

Lesson 9: Coulomb's Law
Charles Augustin de Coulomb
Before getting into all the hardcore physics that surrounds him, its a good idea to
understand a little about Coulomb.
He was born in 1736 in Angoulme, France.
He received the majority of his higher education at the Ecole du Genie at
Mezieres (a french military university with a very high reputation, similar to
universities like Oxford, Harvard, etc.) from which he graduated in 1761.
He then spent some time serving as a military engineer in the West Indies
and other French outposts, until 1781 when he was permanently stationed in
Illustration 1: Paris and was able to devote more time to scientific research.
Charles Coulomb
Between 1785-91 he published seven memoirs (papers) on physics.

One of them, published in 1785, discussed the inverse square law of forces between two
charged particles. This just means that as you move charges apart, the force between them starts
to decrease faster and faster (exponentially).
In a later memoir he showed that the force is also proportional to the product of the charges, a
relationship now called Coulombs Law.
For his work, the unit of electrical charge is named after him. This is interesting in that
Coulomb was one of the first people to help create the metric system.
He died in 1806.
The Torsion Balance

When Coulomb was doing his original experiments he decided to use a torsion balance to measure the
forces between charges.
You already learned about a torsion balance in Physics 20 when you discussed Henry
Cavendishs experiment to measure the value of G , the universal gravitational constant.
Review Cavendishs work in the Physics 20 notes (Chapter 4 Lesson 29: Newton's Law of
Universal Law of Gravitation) if you need to.
Coulomb was actually doing his experiments about 10 years before Cavendish.
He set up his apparatus as shown in Illustration 2 with all spheres charged to have the same
sign.
He charged one of the free moving
spheres by touching it to an already
charged object (charging by
conduction).
He then touched that one sphere to the
other free moving sphere (charging it
by conduction).
Each of the free moving spheres was
then touched to one of the spheres on
the rod (guess what... charging by
conduction!). Illustration 2: The Torsion Balance

Although he didn't know the actual charge on any particular sphere, Coulomb did know that
each sphere had an equal charge to all the rest.
Coulomb also altered the experiment by using spheres of different sizes so he could get
the amounts of charge in different ratios, and by touching spheres to other objects to get
other ratios of charges.
Because like charges repel, the spheres on the rod twist away from the other spheres.
By knowing the distance between the spheres, the force needed to twist them (the torque in the
string holding up the rod, from which the torsion balance gets it name), and the charges on the
spheres, he could figure out a formula.
In the end, the formula Coulomb finally came up with could be used to calculate the force between any
two charges separated by a distance
k q1 q 2
F e= 2
r
Fe = Force (N)
q = Charge (C)
r = distance between the charges (m)
k = 8.99e9 Nm2/C2
We will calculate the absolute value of Fe to get just the magnitude of the force.
Then, we can use information about the charge on the objects to figure out if they are attracting
or repelling, and from that we can figure out which direction the force is acting.
For example, if both the charges are positive, then we know that they will repel each other
by pushing away in opposites directions.
The reason we need to be so careful with this is that you are used to forces having positive and
negative values because force is a vector with directions like negative meaning to the left.
We are now dealing with a formula where the positive and negative signs come from the
charges, which are scalar.
Special AP Physics Note

In Coulomb's law k is sometimes shown as being equal to another set of variables...
1
k=
4 o
The symbol o (epsilon) is a constant known as the vacuum permittivity (aka the permittivity of free
space), where o = 8.85e-12 C2/Nm2
Example 1: A comb with -2.0 C of charge is 0.15m to the left from a hair with 3.0 C of charge.
Determine the force the hair exerts on the comb.
kq q
F e= 12 2
r
8.99e9 x 2.0e-6 x 3.0e-6
F e=
0.152
F e =2.397333=2.4 N

That's enough force to probably make the hair jump towards the comb. Notice that I did not put
in the negative sign on the charge of the hair. Now that we know the magnitude of the force, we
can decide how that force is acting on the comb.
comb hair
Since the comb is negative and the hair is positive, they will attract each other.
That just means the comb and hair are pulling each other closer together.
If they are pulling closer together, then the comb is being pulled to the right, and the hair
is being pulled to the left (in the diagram shown above).
We only care about the comb, so we can just say that the force is 2.4 N [right].
Notice that if you had put the negative sign in the formula, your answer would have
been negative, and you may have incorrectly said the force was to the left.
You might have noticed the charges used in the last example were micro Coulombs.
In most lab work you would do at school, or even just in everyday life, charges are usually in
this range of about 10-6C (1 C).
Only really special cases have charge of 1 C or 2 C... things like a lightning bolt!
Common subatomic particles can have a charge, as shown in the following table.
Particle Charge
Electron (e -) - 1.60e-19 C
Proton (p+) +1.60e-19 C
0
Neutron (n ) 0C
A charge of 1.60e-19 is so important, that it is called an elementary charge, and its symbol is
just the letter e.
This is not e for electron, since there is no negative sign on the symbol.
If it was written as e- with the little minus sign on it, then it would refer to an electron.
You will find the value of the elementary charge on your data sheet.
That means that if something has a charge of -1 C, it has a LOT of electrons...
1 electron
1C x =6.25e18 electrons
1.60e-19 C
Although day to day objects can have this (or more!) electrons, keep in mind that they will often
have an equal number of protons to cancel out the charges, for a net charge of zero.
Comparing Electrostatic Force to Gravitational Force

You might have noticed that Coulomb's Law looks almost identical to the formula for Universal
Gravitation
G m1 m2
F g=
r2

Both formulas calculate a force by multiplying a constant Both of these formulas are
by a measured value of the two objects, divided by the examples of inverse square laws,
square of the distance separating them. formulas where as the distance (r)
There is one significant difference between the two forces. increases, the measured value
The gravitational constant G is very small. exponentially decreases.
The electrostatic constant k is huge.
Because of this difference, gravitational forces are very weak, while electrostatic forces are
very strong.
You might disagree with this, thinking about how gravity seems so strong while keeping
you stuck to the Earth right now.
Think of it this way. When you use a rubbed ebonite rod to attract some bits of paper and
lift them up, you are using a whimpy little charged rod's electrostatic force to beat the entire
gravitational force of the whole planet Earth pulling down.
Another important difference is that gravitational force can only cause attraction, but
electrostatic force can cause attraction or repulsion.
Multiple Charges in One Dimension (Linear)

Things get a bit more interesting when you start to consider questions that have more than two charges.
You will almost always deal with three charges in these linear problems.
In the following example you have three charges lined up and are asked to calculate the net
force acting on one of them.
Do one step at a time, and then combine the answers at the end.
Example 2: The following three charges are arranged as shown. Determine the net force acting on the
charge on the far right (q3).
Illustration 3: Arrangement of charges in Example 2
Calculate the force between one pair of charges, then the next pair of charges, and so on until
you have calculated all the possible combinations for that particular question. Remember, if
you've calculated the force of q1 on q2, then you also know the force of q2 on q1 ... they're the
same!
Step 1: Calculate the force that charge 1 exerts on charge 3...

It does NOT matter that there is another charge in between these two ignore it! It will not
effect the calculations that we are doing for these two. Notice that the total distance between q1
and q3 is 3.1 m , since we need to add 1.4 m and 1.7 m .
k q1 q3 8.99e9(1.5e-7)(3.5e-4 )
F e= 2
= =0.049112903 N
r 3.12

Since q1 is positive and q3 is negative, there will be a force of attraction between them. We
know that q1 is pulling charge q3 left, while charge q3 is pulling q1 to the right. Since all we
care about is what is happening to q3 , all I really need to know from this is that q3 feels a pull
towards the left of 0.049112903 N.
Step 2: Calculate the force that charge 2 exerts on charge 3...

Same thing as above, only now we are dealing with two negative charges, so the force will be
repulsive.
k q2 q 3 8.99e9( 2.3e-7)(3.5e-4 )
F e= 2
= =0.250413495 N
r 1.72
Since we know that the force is repulsive between these two charges, q2 is pushing q3 to the
right with a force of 0.250413495 N. Again, we only care about what is happening to q3.
Step 3: Add you values to find the net force.

We now need to add the two values from above, being careful about directions.
Everything has to be based on the directions of the forces acting on q3... we don't care
about the other charges anymore.
The 4.9e-2 N force is pulling q3 to the left, which is the direction we usually call
negative, so well put the negative sign on it. Fe = - 0.049112903 N.
We also have a 2.5e-1 N force pushing to the right. We usually call a vector pointing
right positive, so we'll do that here also. Fe = + 0.250413495 N
FNET = - 0.049112903 N + +0.250413495 N = 0.201300592 = 0.20 N
Since the answer is positive, we know that the net force acting on q3 is 0.20 N [right].
Multiple Charges in 2 Dimensions

Doing questions with charges in multiple dimensions are the same as the question you did above. You
just need to be careful about directions and use vectors to figure out the problem.
Figure out all the individual forces between pairs of charges (just like in the 1-D problem).
Then pay attention to the directions of the forces and calculate the net force as you would any
vector problem.
This will usually (but not necessarily always) involve a triangle diagram.

Example 3: Three charges are arranged in a right angle triangle as the following diagram shows.
Determine the force on q2 .
q1 = 2.0 C
3.0 m
q3 = 4.0 C
q2 = 1.0 C 4.0 m
Illustration 4: Arrangement of charges for Example 3
We need to start by calculating the individual forces on q2 by each of the other charges. These
must be calculated individually.
k q1 q 2 8.99e9 x 2.0 x 1.0

1 F 2= 2
= =1 997 777777 N
r 3.02
k q2 q 3 8.99e9 x 1.0 x 4.0

2 F 3= 2
= =2 247 500 000 N
r 4.0 2
All of the charges are positive, so all of the forces are repulsive. That means that 1F2 is a force
that is pushing q2 down, and 2F3 is a force pushing q2 to the left.

FNET F = 1 997 777 777
1 2
F = 2 247 500 000

2 3
Illustration 5: Resultant triangle from forces
acting on the charge.
It's easy enough to calculate FNET using Pythagoras, and figure out the angle using trig.
c2 = a2 + b2 opp
2 2 tan =
= (1 997 777 777) + (2 247 500 000) adj
c = 3 007 053 757 = 3.0e9 N 2247500000
tan =
1997777777
=48.36646=48O

The final answer is that q2 feels a net force of 3.0e9 N at an angle 480 clockwise from a vertical
line pointing down. Including a diagram with your answer is a great way to show what your
direction means.
Homework
1D Questions
p530 #1
p531 #1
p532 #1
p533 #1
2D Question
p534 #2
p535 #1
Review
p540 #5, 6, 12, 17, 23, 25, 26

Lesson 10: Electric Fields
Just like the force due to gravity, the force due to electric charges can act over great distances.
Keep in mind that most forces we deal with in everyday life are not like this.
We mostly deal with contact forces objects touch each other directly in order to exert a
force on each other.
For example, a tennis racket hits a tennis ball
The idea of even considering forces that could happen without anything touching (action at a
distance) was very difficult for early scientists to accept, from Aristotle to Newton.
It is necessary though, if you are going to be able to explain a falling ball, or two positive
charges pushing away from each other.
The British scientist Michael Faraday came up with the idea of a field and
applied it to the study of electrostatics.
A field is sometimes defined as a sphere of influence. An object within
the field will be affected by it.
Think of how you talk about countries in social studies... large,
powerful nations can have an influence on nearby countries. Usually
as you get further away from the powerful nation, the influence they
have on other countries decreases.
Or think about being near your gym bag after playing a soccer game.
Sitting right next to it the stink is pretty intense (yuck!), but as you
move away the smell isn't quite so bad. Illustration 1: Michael
Faraday
There are two kinds of fields...
1. Scalar Fields: magnitude but no direction
Example 1: Heat field from a fire: If you stand by a campfire, you can measure the
magnitude (temperature) of the field with a thermometer; if you are close to the fire you
will measure a stronger field (higher temperature), but if you move away the field
strength decreases (lower temperature). You would not be saying anything about a
direction, like 25oC South.
2. Vector Fields: magnitude and direction

Example 2: A gravity field is a measure of the Newtons exerted per kilogram of mass
towards the centre of another mass.
Electric fields are vector fields that exist around any charge (positive or negative).
If one charge is placed near a second charge, the two fields will touch and exert a force on
each other.
Note: the field is NOT a force, but it does exert a force! It's just like if you watch a person
pushing a box; we dont say the person is a force, just that he is exerting a force.
This meant that physicists had a mathematical way of showing how a force could be transferred
over a distance without anything actually touching.
This model is not considered to be complete, but it is good enough for the way we need to
look at things for the time being.

How can we detect and measure the electric field around a charge?
The easiest way is to place another known charge near by and see how it reacts.
We do need to be careful since both the charges have their own fields that will interact with
each other, so that would affect your results.
Physicists have defined something called a test charge as the mathematically perfect charge
that could be brought near another charge (the source charge) to measure the source
charge's electric field.
The test charge is an infinitely small, positive charge. It is a mathematical creation
they dont really exist.
Since it is infinitely small, it has a super small electrical field of its own, so we will treat
it as having no electric field. This is good, since we don't have to be concerned with its
electric field affecting the results.
It is usually given the symbol q, just like any other charge.
Since a test charge is always positive...

if we see the test charge move towards the source charge, we know that the source charge
must be negative
if the test charge moves away from the source charge, then the source charge must be
positive.
Example 1: You have a steel ball that has an unknown charge on it (this is your source charge). When
you place a test charge to the right of the source charge, you see the test charge move away, to the
right. Determine if the steel ball is positive or negative.
Since the test charge is positive (like always), it would only be repelled by another positive
object. The source charge (the steel ball) must therefore be positive.
Measuring Electric Fields

According to Coulombs Law, the force exerted on the test charge must be directly proportional to its
own charge and the source charge...
Fe q1 q2
where we assume that q2 is the test charge, which we will rename to simply q...
Fe q1 q
If you divide the force by the charge on the test charge, you get a new formula.
E= F e
q
E= electric field (N/C)
F = force (N)
q = charge on test charge (C)
Warning!
There are two very important things to notice about this formula as it appears on the data sheet.
First, the arrow above E in the formula shows this is the vector measurement of field;
Without the arrow it is the scalar energy. You must write the arrow above E in this formula, since you are otherwise
showing it as energy.
Second, the data sheet does not show q as being anything special (like a test charge).
You need to remember that this formula uses the charge of the object testing the field, not making it. More on this idea after
the following example.

Example 2: I place a 3.7 C test charge 2.7m to the right of a -7.94C source charge. If there is an
attractive force of 3.62e10 N acting on the test charge, determine the field strength of the source
charge at that location.
We dont need the distance to figure this question out. It is important to know that the test
charge is to the right of the other charge, since we need to give a direction.
Fe 3.62e10

E= = =9 783783 784=9.8e9 N/ C [left]
q 3.7
The field points left because thats the direction the test charge is being pulled. By definition,
the direction of an electric field is the direction a positive test charge is pushed or pulled.
E
Illustration 2: Direction of electric field near positive and negative

charges.
Super Important Note!

One of the most important things to remember when using this formula is which charge is
used. Do you use the source charge that is creating the field, or the test charge that is placed
nearby to measure the field. The answer, as shown in Example 4, is the test charge. But this
is often something that students forget or mix up. There is a way to remember.
Let's keep in mind that you've already studied fields when you learned about gravity in
Physics 20. We can look at the parallels between the following two formulas to remember
things about each of them.
Fg E= F e
g=
m q
g = measurement of the E = measurement of the
gravitational field strength electric field strength
Fg = the force acting on the small object Fe = the force acting on the test charge
m = mass of the small object (like a person), q = the charge of the test charge,
not the large object (like the earth) not the source charge making
the electric field
This formula measures the amount of force This formula measures the amount of force
per unit mass. per unit charge.
When you use the formula Fg = mg you (usually) use a small mass that is sitting on or near a
planet that is creating the gravitational field, not the mass of the planet. The charge in the
F
formula E = e is the small test charge sitting near the bigger sourcecharge that is making
q'
the electric field.

The electric field around a source charge will be different at different locations around the charge.
Further away from the charge, the magnitude of the force will decrease. We know this from
Coulomb's law...
1
Fe 2
r
The direction will also be different...
Illustration 3: Different directions and

magnitudes of electric field strength at
different positions around a charge.
Example 3: A force of 2.1 N is exerted on a 9.2e-4 C test Notice that the direction of the field is to
charge when it is placed in an electric field created by a 7.5 C the West. Since the positive test charge
charge. If the force is pushing it West, determine the electric is being pushed to the West, the field
field at that point. must point in th same direction.
Fe 2.1

E= = =2282.608=2.3e3 N/ C[ West]
q 9.2e-4
Example 4: If a positive test charge of 3.7e-6 C is put in the same place in the electric field as the
original test charge in the last example, determine the force that will be exerted on it.
F
E= e

q
Fe =
E q=2.3e3 (3.7e-6)=0.00844565=8.4e-3 N[ West]
Example 5: You now place a -4.81e-2 C charge at This time we put a negative charge in the electric
that spot in the electric field. Determine the force field. We just calculate the absolute value to find
acting on this charge. the magnitude of the force, then reason out that if
a positive charge is being pushed to the West, a
negative charge will be pushed to the East.
Fe

E=
q

Fe = E q=2.3e3 (4.81e-2)=109.793=1.1e2 N[East ]

There is another way to measure electric field strength based on a combination of the formula we've
already got and Coulombs Law...
k q1 q 2
E= F e Fe =
q r2
In the formula we will assume that q1 is the source charge that is making the field, and q is the
test charge.
Coulomb's Law can now be substituted into the field formula to get

k q1q
r2
F
E= e =
q q
=
r2 q
k q 1 q 1 kq 1
= 2
r
This gives us our new electric field formula:
kq 1
E=
r2
E
= electric field (N/C)
k = Coulomb's Constant
q1 = source charge making the electric field (C)
r = distance from the charge (m)
So you will use the source charge that is actually producing the field as q1.
This is great! Now you dont have to rely on some imaginary thing like a test charge to
calculate the field around a source charge!
We also need to be careful about calculating the absolute value, since we need to make a
decision on the direction of the field based on the info in the particular question we are working
on.
Super Important Note!

Just as we were able to find a connection between electrostatics and gravity a couple pages
back, we can do the same thing with our new formula.
GM E= kq1
g=
r2 r2
g = measurement of the E = measurement of the
gravitational field strength electric field strength
G = gravitational constant k = Coulomb's constant
M = mass of body producing gravitational field q1 = charge of source charge producing electic
field
r = distance from centre of body r = distance from centre of body

Example 6: A tiny metal ball has a charge of 3.0e-6 C. Determine the Warning!
magnitude and direction of the electric field it produces at a point, P, Get used to names for a particular
30cm away. spot like P, since sometimes we may
kq 1 8.99e9 (3.0e-6) want to relate what youre doing in a

E= 2 = =299 666.667=3.0e5 N/C question to several spots, like P, D,
r 0.30 2 and A.
Remember the electric field is always defined as being in the direction that a positive test
charge would move.
Since the source charge producing this field is negative, a positive charge would be
attracted towards it.
This field points towards the metal ball. Thats the direction you would state.
Multiple Source Charges Creating Electric Fields

You will run in to problems where several source charges are interfering with each other to make one
electric field.
Simply calculate the individual electric fields, and then add them as vectors, taking into account
directions and angles as necessary.
Handle these questions like a vector problem from Physics 20. All you want to calculate by the
end is a resultant.
Example 7: Two negatively charged spheres are arranged as shown in the diagram below. Determine
the electric field strength at a point exactly half ways in between.
-1.2 C -3.9 C
0.58 m
Illustration 4: Charge arrangement for Example 8.
First we figure out the electric field caused by each charge individually at the point half ways in
between.
kq 1 8.99e9(1.2) kq1 8.99e9(3.9)

E b= 2
= 2
=1.2827586e11 E r= 2
= 2
=4.1689655e11
r 0.29 r 0.29
Now we will take into account the directions and add them as vectors. In both cases the source
charge is negative, so the electric field created by both source charges point towards themselves.
So, the electric field of the blue source charge points to the left (we'll say it's negative), while
the red source charge has a field pointing to the right (so it will be positive).

E total =
E b+
Er

E total=1.2827586e11+ 4.1689655e11=2.8862069e11=2.9e11 N/C
The electric field is 2.9e11 N/C [right].

Homework
p548 #1, 2
p549 #1, 2
p550 #1, 2
p551 #1
p569 #4, 6, 7

Lesson 11: Field Lines
An electric field is a vector, so we can represent it using vector diagrams.
The electric field will show up as arrows drawn at various points around charged objects.
These electric field lines (sometimes also called lines of force) are drawn below for two simple
examples.
Illustration 1: Field Illustration 2: Field

lines around a lines around a
negative source positive source
charge. charge.
Notice that the lines are drawn to show the direction of the force, due to the electric field, as it would
act on a positive test charge.
Also, the closer you get to the charge, the closer the lines are to each other. This symbolizes
how the electric field gets stronger as you go closer to the source.
If you pick a spot further out, youll see that the lines arent as dense there so the field is
weaker.
If a positive and negative charge are close enough, their field lines can interact.
Illustration 3: Two opposite charges showing the

interaction of their field lines.
The arrows go from the positive charge to the negative charge (in exactly the same direction we
would expect a positive test charge to move).
The direction of the field at any point is the tangent drawn to the field line at that point.
Faraday used this model to explain why these two opposite charges would attract each other.
Field lines try to be straight, not curved. If the two charges come closer together, it can be
shown mathematically that the field lines overall become straighter on average.

If you have two charges with the same sign, you get a different looking diagram.
We still follow the rule that the field lines show the direction a positive test charge would move.
For this example we will assume that we are looking at the field created by two positive source
charges near each other.
At first, the test charge overwhelmingly just wants to get away from the charge it's closest
to.
By the time it gets a little distance away, the field of the other object starts to affect it as
well, so it begins to curve away from there also.
Faraday used this to explain why two like charges repel... again, the field lines are trying to
straighten out.
Another important example of field lines comes from the need to sometimes
have a constant, uniform electric field.
As you can see in the previous examples, the fields have very different
field strengths at different points they're irregular.
Thats because they are made up of only two charges, so the field
lines wrap around a lot.
If we could get a whole bunch of charges lined up evenly then we could
get a more uniform electric field.
It is possible to set this up using two plates that are parallel to each
other with opposite charges built up on them, as shown in
Illustration 4.
This is how physicists set up their lab equipment when a uniform Illustration 4: Parallel
field is needed. Plates with a uniform
The field lines are very uniform all the way, except for a slight electric field.
curvature near the ends.
We often ignore this slight curvature, since it is very small as long as the plates have a big
surface area and are close together. We just make certain not to do any experiments near the
ends.
The other thing we must be careful about when using parallel plates is that they can arc.
Since we can have quite a bit of charge on these two plates, electrical sparks can jump
between them, screwing up any experiment that we might be doing.
Homework
p.569 #1, 2

Lesson 12: Electric Potential Energy & Voltage
To better understand electric potential energy it is a good idea to first review gravitational potential
energy and figure out similarities between them.
Understanding the parallels between (seemingly) unrelated things in physics is actually one of
the best ways to learn physics.
Gravitational Potential Energy

Imagine holding a ball up in the air as high as you possibly can.
At the top, we can say that the object has maximum gravitational
potential energy.
The ball doesn't want to be up there, so if you let go it will start to
move down towards the ground on its own. It will accelerate all the
way down.
While it is falling we know that the gravitational potential
energy is being converted to kinetic energy. Illustration 1: Gravitational
When it reaches the ground (its reference point) it has no potential energy
gravitational potential energy remaining. It's all changed to kinetic energy.
Basically, the ball has gone through a change in energy from one form to another (E).
If you want to get the ball back up in the air, you've got to do some work.
As you do your work (W = E), you are giving back gravitational potential energy to the ball,
until at the top it is back to having maximum gravitational potential energy.
This change in gravitational potential energy depends
on So, for example, if you needed to lift
1. Mass of the object (Ep m) an object with twice the mass, you
would need to do twice the work.
2. Gravitational field strength (Ep g)
3. Height to which the object is moved (Ep h)
Electric Potential Energy

If we follow the same ideas that we did above, you might see that there are similarities between the
gravitational potential energy described above and electric potential energy.
Lets say you place a positive charge near the positive plate in
an electric field between two parallel plates.
At the top, we can say that the charge has maximum
electric potential energy.
The charge doesn't want to be up there, so if you let it
start to move it will be repelled away from the positve
plate and attracted towards the negative plate. It will
accelerate all the way down.
While it is falling we know that the electric
potential energy is being converted to kinetic Illustration 2: Electric potential energy
energy.
When it reaches the negative plate (its reference point) it has no electric potential energy
remaining. It's all changed to kinetic energy.

Just like the ball, the charge has gone through the same kind of change in energy from one
form to another (E).
If you want to get the charge back up against the positive plate, you've got to do some work.
As you do your work (W = E), you are giving back
electric potential energy to the ball, until at the top it is So, for example, if you needed to
back to having maximum electric potential energy. move a charge with twice the charge,
you would need to do twice the work.
This change in electric potential energy depends on...
1. Charge of the object (Ep q)
2. Electric field strength (Ep E )
3. Distance the object is moved parallel to the field lines (Ep d)
Voltage
I know that sometimes I might seem a little fixated on the history side of physics, but I have a good
reason. One is that the names that were given to ideas when they first came out might be different from
the ones used today, and those older names might still have a meaning that helps us.
A great example is what we are looking at in this section... voltage. It is sometimes still referred
to by different names like electric potential difference, electric potential, or potential
difference.
But this still doesn't explain what voltage is about.

Voltage is the change in electric potential energy per unit charge.
When we were talking about gravitational potential energy, it would sort of be like saying
How much work do I have to do to lift up something against gravity per kilogram.
Something that has more mass would need more work to be done to it.
Now we are measuring the voltage... how much work is needed per Coulomb of charge. If
something has more charge, it needs more work to move it.
The unit for voltage could be given in J/C, but instead it is a derived unit called the Volt (V) in honor
of Alessandro Volta.
This means that we have a formula for voltage that looks like this...
E
V=
q
V = voltage (V)
E = electric potential energy (J)
q = charge (C)
Example 1: A 3.4 C charged object gains 2.6e3J as it moves on its own through an electric field.
Determine the electric potential difference. Explain if this is an increase in potential or kinetic energy.
Keep in mind that electric potential difference is the same as voltage...
E
V=
q
2.6e3 J
V=
3.4 C
V=764.70588=7.6e2 V

This is a charged particle moving on its own through an electric field, so it must be moving
from an area of high to low potential energy. This means it is an increase in the kinetic energy
of the charge.
Electron Volts
Sometimes it is not convenient to measure energy in Joules.
This is quite often the case when we are dealing with charges like electrons moving through
potential differences.
Instead, we can use a different unit, that although it is not part of the metric system, is still
useful... the electron volt.
If we look at the formula for voltage and solve it for energy, we get...
E=q V
Typically we would just put in the value for the charge in Coulombs and the Voltage in Volts.
Instead, we will define one electron volt as the energy needed to move one electron through
one volt of potential difference.
E =q V
1 eV =1 electron1 Volt
1 eV =1.60e-19 C 1V
1 eV =1.60e-19 J
If you need to do a calculation of energy in electron volts, you just figure out how many elementary
charges you have multiplied by the voltage they moved through.
Example 2: Remember the parallel plates from example 1? Warning!

Determine how may electron volts are needed to move an alpha When you do this, remember two things.
particle through the 7.6e2V of potential difference from the First, +2e does not mean 2 electrons, it
negative to the positive plate. mean 2 elementary charges. Second,
As shown on your data sheet, an alpha particle has a +2e the answer in electron volts is not a
charge.
metric unit and can not be used in any
E=q V
other formulas.
E=2 e (7.6e2V)
E=1520=1.5e3 eV
If you want to, you can use the conversion shown above (it's also on your data sheet) to show
that 1.5e3 eV = 2.4e-16 J.
1.60e-19 J xJ
=
1 eV 1520 eV
x=2.4e-16 J
Homework
p.561 #1, 2
p.563 #1
p.565 #1, 2
p.566 #1, 2

Lesson 13: Voltage in a Uniform Field
Most of the time if we are doing experiments with electric fields, we use parallel plates to ensure that
the field is uniform (the same everywhere).
This carries over to our study of voltage. If we use parallel plates, then we also get a uniform
change in potential difference.
If a charged particle is released between the plates, it will move on its own from an area of
high potential, to an area of low potential.
If the charge is moved a distance, d, the change in electric potential energy can be found
with
W = Fd => which is the same as => Ep = Fd
E
Combine that with V = to get...
q
E Fd F
V= = = d
q q q
Fe
...and we know that
E= so...
q
V =
Ed
Although you can certainly use the formula this way, we see it on the data sheet as...
= V
E
d

E = electric field (N/C)
V = voltage (V)
d = distance between locations (m)
This formula is typically applied to situations where parallel plates are being used, since this is the
easiest way to have a uniform electric field.
The direction for the field is still determined by the direction a positive test charge would move.
Also, notice that because of this formula, we can show that the electric field can also be
measured in V/m, not just N/C.
Try to prove that the units for V/m are equivalent to N/C ... my hint is that you should try to
break all the derived units down to base units.
Example 1: We have two parallel plates that are 16.0mm apart.

a) If we want a uniform field of 800 N/C between these plates, determine the voltage we must
apply to the plates.
V

E=
d

V =E d
V =8000.0160
V =12.8 V

b) Determine how much work is done if an alpha particle (info on your data sheet) moves from
the positive plate to the negative plate.
E
V=
q
E=Vq
E =12.8(3.20e-19)
E=4.096e-18=4.10e-18 J
c) Explain if this energy is kinetic or potential.

Since the positive alpha particle would naturally be repelled by the positive plate and
attracted to the negative plate, it will move on its own. This means that electric
potential energy is turning into kinetic energy. The work (E) you just calculated can
be thought of as a decrease in electric potential energy , or an increase in kinetic
energy.
All these formulas we've learned in this chapter come together to allow us to do a great variety of
questions.
You might think that the individual formulas are easy, but be careful. Theres lots of formulas
to keep straight.
Example 2: An alpha particle moves between two parallel plates 2.7e-2 m apart with a potential
difference of 130 V between them. Determine the force that acts on the particle.
First we need to know how strong the electric field
is... Remember that the unit for electric
V 130 field can be N/C or V/m.

E= = =4814.814815 N /C
d 2.7e-2
Then we can figure out the force that is needed...

F
E= e
q

F e = E q=4814.814815(3.20e-19 )=1.540740741e-15=1.5e-15 N
Note that we only round off at the end of the question for sig digs.
Work-Energy Theorem in a Uniform Field

We can do a lot of questions if we keep in mind the work-energy theorem.
If a charged particle is doing all this moving around, we can use the information we have to
figure out how the forces acting on the particle can become kinetic energy as it moves.
The majority of these questions will involve electrons, so keep in mind that they have a
charge of 1.60e-19 C and a mass of 9.11e-31 kg (both of which are shown on your data
sheet)
It is also possible that a question could involve protons, alpha particles, or even some other
charged particle that you are given information about.
For example, they might tell you that the question deals with a Calcium ion with a mass
of 6.65e-26 kg and a +2e charge (+3.20e-19 C).

Example 3: An electron is accelerated from rest between two parallel plates, 4.0 cm apart from each
other. The voltage between the plates has been set at 20V.
a) Determine the velocity of the electron when it reaches the positive plate.
Method 1
Let's go to basics, and just ask ourselves what we can calculate, without worrying about
the final answer. We can start with electric field between the plates, since we know the
voltage between them and their separation...
V
E=
d
20
E=
0.040

E =500 V /m
We are dealing with a uniform electric field, so the force will be constant anywhere in
the field. We should probably calculate that force...
Fe

E=
q

F e= E q
F e =500(1.60e-19)
F e =8e-17 N
Once we have the force (and we'll treat it as net force since we don't have any other
forces to keep track of), we can go back to Physics 20!
F
a= NET
m
8e-17
a=
9.11e-31
a=8.7815587e13 m/ s 2
Finally, we calculate the final Notice that this is about 1% the speed of light. If we
velocity of the electron as it reaches were in a university level course, we would
the positive plate... probably have to redo our calculations, taking into
account Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity. At
these sorts of speeds, lots of weird stuff starts to
v 2f =v 2i +2ad happen. You dont need to worry about it in this
v 2f =02 +2(8.7815587e13)(0.040) course.
v f =2.65052e6=2.7e6 m/ s

Method 2
We know that the electron is going to be picking up a lot of kinetic energy as it is
attracted to the positive plate and repulsed by the negative plate. We can calculate this
change in energy (the work done on the electron) this way
E
V=
q
E=Vq
E=201.60e-19
E =3.2e-18 J
Since the electron started from rest, any energy it gained must be in the form of kinetic
energy. We can figure out the velocity of the electron this way
E k =1 /2 mv 2
v=
2 Ek
m
v=
23.2e-18
9.11e-31
v=2.7e6m/ s
b) You have calculated the maximum velocity for the situation where the electron has
accelerated all the way from the negative to the positive plate, going through the entire potential
difference. Determine the electron's velocity when it has only moved 1.0 cm away from the
negative plate.
Method 1
If we did method 1 for the first question, we can reuse a bunch of our numbers. The
electric field, electrostatic force, and acceleration of the electron are all the same! The
only difference is that the electron only moves 1.0 cm through the field, instead of all
4.0 cm.
v 2f =vi2+ 2ad
v 2f =02+ 2(8.78e13)(0.010)
v f =1.325142e6=1.3e6 m/s
Method 2
Start with the electric field we calculated originally, 500 V/m. This really mean that for
every metre the charge moves through the field it would go through 500 V. Our electron
is only going through a fraction of that...
V

E=
d

V = E d

V =5000.010
V =5.0V

Knowing the voltage (potential difference) the electron has passed through and its
charge, we can figure out the change in energy
E
V=
q
E=Vq
E=5(1.60e-19)
E =8e-19 J
This change in energy is electric potential lost and kinetic energy gained! (Work-energy
theorem)
E k =1/ 2 mv 2
v=

2 Ek
m
v=
2(8e-19)
9.11e-31
v=1.32526e6=1.3e6 m/ s
Method 3
We know that the electric potential (voltage) is spread out evenly over the whole space
between the plates. So, we could set up a ratio based on the fact that the electric field is
also a constant all the way in between the plates.
V

E=
d
V1 V2
=
d1 d2
20 V 2
=
0.040 0.010
V 2 =5V
Now that we have the voltage, we can do the rest of the question the same as method 2.
Homework
p568 #1, 2
p571 #1
p573 #2
p574 Example 11.12

Lesson 14: Magnetism History
The history of magnetism begins with the ancient Greeks in an area known as Magnesia.
According to legend, a shepherd (some say he was named Magnes) noticed that the nails of his shoes
and metal tip of his staff were stuck to a black rock he was standing on.
The rock had magnetite in it, a naturally occurring iron ore with magnetic properties.
For a long time magnets were thought to be somehow magical, and were treated as a novelty (they
werent used for anything serious).
Eventually it was discovered that a tiny sliver of this magnetic rock floating on the surface of water will spin on
its own until one pole (end) of the magnet is pointing toward the north. The same pole always ended up pointing
north.
The pole which points north is called the north pole; the other pole that points south is called the south
pole.
All magnets have a north and a south pole, no matter what shape they might have been bent into, or
even if you break it apart into pieces.
The magnetic field is the strongest at these poles.
It is not known for sure when this was discovered, but the Chinese were making use of simple
compasses by the eleventh century.
As magnets are brought near one another, they exert a force on each other.
The force can be either attractive or repulsive and can be felt even when the magnets don't touch (force
at a distance).
This leads us to the Law of Magnetism which says Like poles repel and unlike poles attract.
This is like the force between electric charges., but not exactly the same. Electrical charges and
magnetic poles are different.
Many people (wrongly) assume that magnets can stick to any metal.
In fact only a few elements on the periodic table actually
Did You Know?
have any magnetic properties strong enough to be worth Cows, not the brightest of creatures, will
mentioning. accidentally eat things like nails and
These elements are known as a group as ferromagnetic staples while grazing. To prevent these
elements. The name comes from the Latin name for iron... nasty objects from passing all the way
ferrum. The ferromagnetic elements are: through the cow (especially causing
damage near the, ahem, end of the
1. Iron
cow), farmers will feed a cow magnet to
2. Cobalt
a calf to trap the metal. By catching the
3. Nickel iron, it is stopped from moving on to
4. Gadolinium areas where it could get lodged and
hurt the cow.
As time passed, more and more people tried to explain magnetism.
William Gilbert (see Lesson 6), wrote a book called De Magnete on the subject.
He was able to disprove some old superstitions about magnets, while at the same time presenting his
own scientific ideas.
He even proposed the idea of an orb of virtue surrounding every magnet... basically he was
describing a magnetic field.
Homework
p.592 #1-3, 7

Lesson 15: Magnetic Fields
We can imagine a magnetic field surrounding a magnet in much the
Did You Know?
same way that we did for electrical charges.
There are some theories in
One of the biggest differences is that electrical charges can be modern physics that indicate
isolated from each other (a negative charge can be sitting all that it should be possible (even
alone), while magnetic poles must come in pairs (north and though it's never been done) to
south). isolate a north pole from a
So when you draw diagrams of magnetic fields, they will south pole. The dipoles would
more closely resemble the kinds of diagrams we did with become monopoles.
multiple electric charges and parallel plates.
We will continue to use the concept of field to explain how one magnet can exert a force on
another magnet by an interaction between magnetic fields.
This is action at a distance, like gravity and electric charges.
At this point it would be valuable to compare the three kinds of fields we have examined in Physics 20
and 30.
Since they are all fields they all share similarities, but they are not the same.
You should be able to discuss these similarities and differences.
Magnetic Fields Gravitational Fields Electric Fields
Strong field. Weakest of all fields. Strong field.
Calculated in relation to Calculated using various Calculated using various
forces acting on something Gm kq
methods (e.g. g= 2 ). methods (e.g. E= 2 ).
(e.g. Fm =qvB ). r r
Cause attraction or repulsion. Cause only attraction. Cause attraction or repulsion.
Directly related to the magnet. Directly related to the Directly related to the
masses. charges.
Individual poles can never be Individual masses are Individual charges are
separate from each other. separate from each other. separate from each other.
Magnetic field strength uses the symbol B in formulas, and is measured in Teslas (T).
Some examples of magnetic field strength are...
Earths = 5 x 10-5 T Very strong lab magnet = 10 T
Small Fridge Magnet = 0.01 T Surface of Neutron Star = 108 T
Magnet in school lab = 2 T
The magnitude is defined in terms of the torque (twisting force) exerted on a compass needle
when it makes a certain angle with the magnetic field.
We will use this vague definition for now, but a more precise definition will develop when we
start looking at the math behind this stuff.
The terms magnetic flux density and magnetic induction are sometimes used for B,
rather than the term magnetic field.

To draw magnetic field lines, follow these rules:
1. We imagine that we have a compass where the north pole is an arrow head. The field lines point
in the direction the compass would point if placed in the field (we use it in a way similar to the
use of test charges for electric fields). This means that the magnetic field points away from
north and towards south.
2. The density of the field lines (how close we draw them to each other) is related to the strength
of the magnetic field.
3. At any point, the direction of the magnetic field is along a tangent line drawn on the magnetic
field line (if it is curved).
When you are drawing the magnetic field, you can label it as B , especially if there are other things
being shown in the diagram.
N S
Illustration 1: Magnetic field around a magnet.
N S N S
Illustration 2: Magnetic field between two magnets. Note: there
would be a slight curvature of the magnetic field near the top and
bottom.

William Gilbert was the first person to truly show that the Earth
behaved like a giant magnet.
Before this time, it was believed that there was something
like a magnet sitting up in space up near the north and
south poles of the Earth.
Gilbert's experiments with a magnetic sphere showed him
that the Earth itself must have a magnetic field of its own
to have the effect on compasses that he observed.
The earth's magnetic poles are shown in Illustration 3.
First, notice that the poles are reversed when you
compare geographic and magnetic poles.
At the north geographic pole where Santa lives
you will find the Earths south magnetic pole.
Remember how we defined the north end of a magnet... we
said it points towards geographic north on the earth.
But that must mean that there is a south magnetic pole
up there, since south attracts north.
Illustration 3: Earth's magnetic and
Also notice that the magnetic poles do not line up with the
geographic poles.
geographic poles.
The geographic poles are based on the axis that the earth spins around.
The magnetic poles are based on where the poles of earths magnet are found.
The magnetic south pole is in northern Canada, about 1500 km from the geographic north pole.
This must be taken into account when using a compass.
The angular difference between magnetic south and true geographical north is called the
magnetic declination. In Canada its about 0 to 20, depending on location.
When asked to draw the magnetic field of the Earth, imagine what a peeled mandarin orange looks like.
The vertical lines running up and down along the
orange are field lines.
Near the top and bottom of the orange are the holes
that you pull the pulp out of. This is where the north
and south poles are located.
The Earth has these magnetic holes which
allow charged particles from the Sun to enter our
atmosphere, causing the Aurora Borealis
(northern hemisphere) and Aurora Australis
(southern hemisphere).
Did You Know?

Earth's magnetic field is actually weakening and moving. Don't worry, though. Nothing like stuff in the
movie The Core is going to happen. Earth's magnetic field has weakened, disappeared, and reversed
hundreds of times in the history of the planet. Also, the movement of the poles is not so important
anymore, since the use of GPS is becoming much more common. If it's movement continues, the south
magnetic pole will be in northern Russia

Homework
p592 #10

Lesson 16: Domain Theory
As mentioned in the last lesson, there are theories that we This lesson is a bit iffy. Because the most
should be able to separate magnetic poles from each other, modern theories predict the existence of
although no one has ever been able to actually do it. monopoles, domain theory itself may
Instead, if a bar magnet is cut in half you get two eventually prove to be wrong. At present, it still
serves as a good model of the behavior of
new magnets, each with its own north and south
magnets, especially at a high school level. In
poles. this way it is sort of like using the Bohr model
This means that any current theory of magnetism of the atom in Chem; we know it isn't perfect,
should be able to explain the dipolar nature of but it serves its purpose in our studies.
magnets.
To do this, picture an atom as looking something like

Rutherford's Planetary model, the one where electrons orbit
the nucleus like little tiny planets around a sun.
You can imagine the electrons as spinning around the p+
nucleus, while at the same time spinning around on
their own axis (just like the Earth as it goes around the
Sun).
Illustration 1: Picture the electron as
For reasons that are not entirely understood, this
orbiting the nucleus, with the electron
induces a mini magnetic field all of its own.
spinning on its own axis.
Enough of these individual microscopic magnetic
fields add up to act as a domain.
Each domain acts as a miniature magnet, with its own north and south poles.
In most materials, these domains are random, pointing in all

sorts of directions.
Overall, randomly, these domains tend to cancel each
other out. Illustration 2: Random domains result
This explains why almost all materials are not magnets. in no overall magentic field.
The domains start off random, and can never be
aligned.
In ferromagnetic materials the domains can align.

This does not mean that all ferromagnetic materials
have to be magnetic. The domains might be random.
The difference for ferromagnetic materials is that
Illustration 3: Domains will mostly
they can align their domains.
line up in magnets.
This can be done by doing things like placing an
existing magnet on the ferromagnetic material you want to align.
Warning!
Always remember that all matter contains electrons, so all matter has domains. If this is true, then why can't
everything be a magnetic? The reason is that only ferromagnetic materials can rearrange their domains to line
up. The exact reason for this property of ferromagnetic materials is not entirely understood.

The question comes up as to whether or not doing something to a piece of iron will make it a
permanent or a temporary magnet.
This depends mostly on how the metal is forged. The terms hard and
soft iron only refer to
If the domains are pretty much locked in place, then a permanent its magnetic properties.
magnet will be formed. If this is done with iron, it is called hard iron. Neither of the two irons
If the domains can be moved around easily, then temporary magnets is actually physically
will be formed. This would be soft iron. harder or softer than
Soft iron is useful if you want to make something like an the other.
electromagnet to pick up cars. It allows the magnetic field to be switched off and on. We
will look at electromagnets in more detail later.
Domain theory also gives us an easy way to look at demagnetizing an existing magnet.
If you drop a magnet on the floor or strike it with a hammer, you are basically adding energy to
the atoms of magnet.
Some of this extra energy will cause the atoms (and the electrons) to jiggle around more
randomly.
This will screw up the alignment of the domains.
Heating a magnet has pretty much the same effect, since raising the
temperature will also increase the random motion of the electrons Remember that K stands
and domains. for degrees Kelvin. To
Above a certain temperature, known as the Curie temperature convert it to degrees Celsius,
just subtract about 273O.
(1043 K for iron), a magnet cannot be made at all.
Homework
p592 #11, 12

Lesson 17: Linking Electricity to Magnetism
As you just learned in the previous lesson, the magnetic field of a magnet basically comes from the
spinning of electrons in atoms.
This is a relatively recent theory, and certainly did not help scientists hundreds of years ago
when they were first trying to figure out why magnets were magnets.
One of the few hints they had was that electric and magnetic fields did seem to be quite similar.
The breakthrough came in 1820 when Hans Christian Oersted performed a series of public experiments
that showed how electric current could affect magnets.
At first, things didn't work too well in the demo since the wire was being held parallel to the
compass that was being used.
More by accident than anything, the wire was eventually held perpendicular to the wire.
This resulted in the compass spinning to point in a different
The term induced just
direction. emphasizes that the
The conclusion was that the current flowing through the wire current carrying wire is not
caused a magnetic field to be formed around the wire. a magnet itself, but that it
We will say that the current flowing through the wire induced a causes an effect that us
magnetic field. the same as a magnet.
To keep track of the direction of the magnetic field around the wire, we use a series of rules based on
holding your hand in certain positions.
In all of these rules we will be using different parts of your hand since they are perpendicular to
each other, just like the results Oersted had in his experiments.
No matter which rule you are using first make the choice of which hand you are supposed to be
using:
Electrons, electron current flow, or anything negative left hand
Protons, conventional current flow, or anything positive right hand
We will assume that the current flowing through the wire is electron flow unless we have a
good reason to think otherwise.
In this model, the flow of charges through the wire is made up of electrons.
When we draw diagrams for the following rules, we often do it using simple arrows as symbols of the
directions involved.
Since some of the directions will sometimes be in and out of the page, we will use two special
symbols.
The first is a circle with a dot. It is supposed to look like the tip of an arrow coming out
towards you. It shows a vector coming out of the page.
The second is a circle with an X. It is supposed to look like the feathers of an arrow going
away from you. It shows a vector going into the page.
Illustration 1: Examples of directions as used for numerical response questions.
7/8/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 5 /Sections 12.1 12.3

Warning!
Avoid the temptation to use words to describe directions in questions involving magnetic fields.
One person might say up to mean up to the top of the page, while another person means up
out of the page.
First Hand Rule In the textbook you will

sometimes see the
The first hand rule applies to situations involving a straight current carrying wire. first hand rule called
Imagine grabbing the wire with your left hand (assuming it is electron the wire grasp rule.
flow).
Your thumb must point in the direction the current is flowing in the wire.
Your fingers wrap around the wire in the direction of the magnetic field.
This means that the magnetic field around the wire forms an endless loop all the way around the wire.
Your fingers are pointing in the direction of the magnetic field, so if you were to place a
compass next to the wire it will point in a direction at a tangent to the circle you just drew.
Example 1: A current carrying wire is shown here. Draw a vector that shows the direction of the
magnetic field to the right of the wire.
X
This diagram is showing a wire with the electron flow current going into the page. To picture
the solution for this, grab something in your left hand like a pencil. Make sure the pencil is
pointing away from you and grab it so that your thumb is also pointing away from you (the
direction of the current). Notice how your fingers wrap around the pencil counter-clockwise.
Although it wraps all the way around the wire, we only care about what's happening on the right
side of the wire, so draw a vector there that is tangential to the circle... it points towards the top
of the page.
X B
Second Hand Rule
The second hand rule is used when a wire is coiled up, called a
solenoid.
In Illustration 2 I drew a green tube just to make it easier to
see it in 3-D... all you need are the loops of wire.
The magnetic field in a solenoid can be very strong, since each loop
strengthens the fields created by all the other loops in a row.
As a whole, the solenoid will act exactly like a magnet in
Illustration 2: A solenoid is a coil every way.
of wire.

We use the second hand rule in situations involving a solenoid (coil of wire).
Starting at the end of the wire where the current begins, point your fingers in the direction of
the current flowing in the wire.
Follow the wire so that you are grasping the cylinder with your fingers wrapping around
it, still in the direction of the current.
Your thumb points in the direction of the north end of the solenoid.
If you place a piece of a ferromagnetic
material (like iron) in the solenoid where the
green cylinder is, the strength of the magnetic
field increases greatly.
In fact, this can easily make the
magnetic field hundreds or even
thousands of times stronger!
This is due to the domains in the
piece of iron aligning with the field
created by the current in the wire.
When a solenoid is enhanced using Illustration 3: The current flowing this direction
ferromagnetic cores this way it is through the wire induces the poles as shown.
commonly called an electromagnet.
The iron used in most electromagnets is soft iron so that it can be turned off and on
whenever needed.
Because there is a constant current going through the solenoid wire, a great deal of waste thermal
energy is given off.
In large solenoids and electromagnets there is often a system of cooling coils.
This drives the cost up very quickly.
This is why there is a lot of research into superconductors, materials that dont require electric
power flowing through them constantly to maintain the current.
Third Hand Rule

It makes sense that if a current carrying wire induces a magnetic
field around it, it should feel a force if it is brought near a
separate magnet field.
To keep the two different magnetic fields straight in our
heads, we will refer to the one created by the separate
magnets the external magnetic field... it's external to the
magnetic field of the wire itself.
Illustration 4 shows a current carrying wire running into
the page and the external magnetic field that is around it.
Don't worry, we haven't magically created Illustration 4: A current carrying wire
monopoles. We're just showing the parts of two in an external magnetic field.
magnets that will make a uniform external magnetic
field.
If we want, we can draw the diagram more simply as shown in Illustration 5.

The third hand rule has three parts: the external magnetic field,
the charge or wire in the field, and the force exerted on it. N X S
Your fingers point in the direction of the external
magnetic field, from North to South. Illustration 5: Simplified diagram of a
Your thumb points in the direction the current is wire in a magnetic field.
flowing through the wire.
Your palm pushes in the direction of the force acting on the wire.
In Illustration 5 this would mean that the arrow showing the direction of the force acting on the wire
would be pointing up to the top of the page.
The magnitude of the force acting on the wire can be calculated using the following formula...
F m= I l B sin
Fm = force of external magnetic field on wire (N)
I = current flowing through wire (A)
l = length of wire in magnetic field (m)
= angle between wire and magnetic field (degrees)
The force is a maximum when the wire and external magnetic field are The textbook calls the
perpendicular to each other. force of the external
If they are perpendicular you will be taking the sine of 90o, which magnetic field (Fm) the
equals one. motor effect force, since
For any angle less than 90o the force becomes less and less. it is the basis of why
electric motors work (more
If the wire and external magnetic field are parallel, the force is zero.
on this later).
Example 2: A piece of wire that is 3.45m long is placed in a 1.29T magnetic field at a 67o angle. If the
force on it is 1.884 N...
a) determine the current in the wire.
F m=I l B sin
Fm
I=
l B sin
1.884
I=
3.45 (1.29)sin 67
I =0.459881575=0.46 A
b) determine the amount of charge that flows through the wire in 7.10 s.
This is based on the formula for electric current...
q
I= where I = current (A) , q = charge (C) , and t = time (s)
t
q=I t
q=0.459881575(7.10)
q=3.265159185=3.3C
The same third hand rule can be applied if you are dealing with individual charges moving through an
external magnetic field.
Simply replace the direction of the current flowing through the wire with the direction of the
charge moving through the external magnetic field.
Remember, use your left hand for negative charges and your right hand for positive charges.

The formula looks a little different, since you have to adjust it for charges instead of wires...
F m=qvB sin
Fm = force of external magnetic field on charge (N)
q = charge (C)
v = velocity of charge (m/s)
= angle between charge and magnetic field (degrees)
Example 3: If an alpha particle moves at 1.22e4 m/s through a 23 T perpendicular magnetic field,
determine the force it will experience.
The particle enters at 90o , and sin90o = 1, so we can ignore that part of the formula.
F m =qvB
F m=3.20e-19(1.22e4)(23)
F m=8.9792e-14=9.0e-14 N
Homework
p599 #1,2
p600 #1,2
p601 #5,8,9
p603 #1
p605 #1

Lesson 18: Applying Concepts of Magnetic Fields
What we've been looking at lets us explain a lot of things, as well as come up with new ways of
studying the world and building new devices.
This lesson will look at some of the more advanced problems that can be solved by applying the
concepts of magnetic fields, moving charges, and current carrying wires.
Charges Trapped in Magnetic Fields

If you've ever watched the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) then you've seen the effect of capturing a
moving charged particle in a magnetic field.
The Sun is constantly shooting off charged particles whenever a solar flare erupts on its surface.
Some of these charged particles, moving at about 0.10c (10% the speed of light) come
flying right towards Earth.
As they get near, they begin to interact with the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth,
causing them to change their path.
If the conditions are just right, some of these particles are funneled in at either the North or
South poles and start to spiral in towards the ground.
As the particles bump into air particles they can transfer energy that causes electrons to
jump up energy levels. Since the electrons don't stay there long, they release energy as they
fall back down, which we see as light.
To see how this spiraling can happen, look at the following simplified diagram of an electron shot into
a magnetic field...
e- v X X X X B X X X X B
F
X X X X X X X X
e-
X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X
(i) The electron is initially moving to the right (ii) Using the third hand rule, we can see
as it approaches the magnetic field. that when the electron is traveling to the
right it will experience a force pushing it
down, so its path starts to curve down.
X X X X B
e -
F (iv) If we keep following the electron
X X X X
around, we will see that the direction of the
force changes so that it always points in
X X X X
towards the centre of the circular path it
ends up following.
X X X X
We know that this force is Fm , but we can
(iii) At each new position, the electron is also see that it is causing circular motion
traveling a different direction. This means that at which means it is Fc.
each new position we need to figure out a new
direction for the force acting on it. Fm = Fc
10/24/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 4 / Sections 12.2 & 12.3

Example 1: An electron is moving towards a 1.13e-5T magnetic field at a speed of 2.38e5m/s.
Determine the radius of the electron's path if it enters perpendicular to
the field. Did You Know?
Fm =F c The cyclotron, which
2
mv accelerates charged particles
qvB= while trapping them in a
r
magnetic field, was invented by
mv Ernest Lawrence. The first one
r=
qB he built was small enough to fit
9.11e-31(2.38e5) in the palm of your hand.
r=
1.60e-19 (1.13e-5)
r=0.11992146=0.120 m
Warning!
In questions involving particles spinning around inside a magnetic field, make sure you are answering the
question being asked. If it is quantitative, solve for the one variable you need. If it is qualitative, watch out for the
difference between the direction of the path (shown as the continuous RED vector in the diagrams above) and
the direction of the force acting on the particle (shown as individual GREEN arrows in the diagrams).
Magnetic Forces Balanced by Gravitational Forces

The magnetic force does not always have to be equal to a centripetal force. We often need to look at
questions involving gravitational forces.
This could still involve single charges (as shown in Example 2), but can also involve current
carrying wires (Example 3).
Example 2: An alpha particle is shot into a 4.9e-7 T magnetic field at 90 degrees. The magnetic force
on the alpha particle is acting upwards. Determine the speed at which it must be traveling so that the
magnetic force balances out the force of gravity pulling it down so that the particle travels in a straight
line.
F m=F g
qvB=mg
mg
v=
qB
6.65e-27(9.81)
v=
3.20e-19(4.9e-7)
v=0.416049107=0.42 m/s

Example 3: An electric balance (an electric scale) can be
made by having a length of current carrying wire sitting in Mass
a magnetic field. If no mass is on the scale, the wire will be
at an equilibrium position. When a mass is placed on the Fg
scale, the wire is pushed down. A certain amount of current Fm
is needed to force the wire back up to its equilibrium X X X X
position. A particular electric balance has a length of wire
0.298 m long placed perpendicular inside a 3.75e-3 T X X X X
B Wire
magnetic field. If a current of 7.81e-2 A is required to
balance the scale after an object is placed on it, determine Illustration 1: Electric Balance with a mass
the mass of the object. sitting on the platform pushing down, and
F m= F g the wire underneath with a force pushing
IlB=mg up.
IlB
m=
g
7.81e-2(0.298)(3.75e-3)
m=
9.81
m=8.896712538e-6=8.90e-6 kg
If you were asked, the electron flow current in the wire must be towards the left.
Magnetic Forces Between Two Wires

We can also look at situations involving the forces between two or more current carrying wires.
This is a very real concern when designing modern equipment, such as airplanes.
There are thousands of metres of current carrying wires bundled together running around
different parts of an airplane.
Sometimes the current in two wires might run in the same direction, sometimes opposite
directions.
Since each wire is inducing its own magnetic field around itself, it's natural to say that
sometimes wires will attract or repel each other.
Andre Ampere did research into the force between current carrying wires. He identified three factors
that influence the strength of the force between the wires:
1. the length of the wires that run beside each other
2. the distance between the wires
3. the current flowing in the wires
Although he came up with Ampere's Law to calculate the amount of force based on the strength of
the magnetic fields the wires created, you are only required to say if there is attraction or repulsion.

Currents Running in Same Direction
Results in Attraction
N S
Let's draw a simple diagram to figure out what the magnetic X X
S N
fields of the two wires will look like side by side.
Remember that the magnetic fields induced around
the wires act like any other magnetic field. Although
the loop endlessly around the wire, they still have a Illustration 2: Current flowing in same
magnetic North and South. direction, showing induced magnetic field
Use the first hand rule to figure out the direction around each wire.
of the magnetic field around each wire.
In the space between the two wires, the regular vector showing the direction of this
magnetic field has been replaced with a magnet representing the direction.
These magnets are arranged so that the north pole of one is near the south pole of the other.
Therefore they will attract.
Currents Running in Opposite Directions

Results in Repulsion
N N
We can draw a similar diagram when the wires have current X
running in opposite directions. S S
Again, use the first hand rule to identify the direction

the direction of the induced magnetic fields around
the wires. Illustration 3: Current flowing in
This time the magnetic fields between the wires opposite directions, showing induced
point in the same directions. magnetic field around each wire.
Since north repels north, and south repels south, the
two wire repel each other.

Lesson 19: Galvanometers & Electric Motors
Galvanometers and electric motors are both based on the same basic principle of an external
magnetic field exerting a force on a current carrying wire.
The difference is in how far the device is allowed to move.
Galvanometers are typically used inside meters (e.g. voltmeters), so the device is only
supposed to move a little bit, usually against a restraining spring.
Motors must be able to move freely and rotate through complete 360o turns.
Galvanometers
Without getting in to all the details of the connections to a meter, the basic parts of a galvanometer are
a coil of wire in a magnetic field.
Although this coil of wire will usually go around and around a bunch of times in a real
galvanometer, my diagrams will only show a single loop for simplicity.
The external magnetic field could be made by two separate magnets, a horseshoe magnet, or an
electromagnet; it doesn't really matter.
The electron flow current is flowing into and out of the loop as shown by the arrows.
Each section of the wire is labeled by letter so we can keep track of what is happening in each
section of wire.
c
N b d
S
a e
Illustration 1: Simple galvanometer.

Section a
This is the first section of wire truly in the magnetic field. Since it is parallel to the magnetic field
(North to South), there will be no magnetic force exerted on this section.
Section b
The current is traveling up towards the top of the page in this section of wire.
Using the third hand rule for this section, the magnetic force is acting out of the page.
Section c
Again, the wire is parallel to the magnetic field, so there is no magnetic force acting on it.
Section d
The current is now moving towards the bottom of the page in this section of wire.
Using the third hand rule the magnetic force is acting into the page.
Section e
This is the last section of wire before the current exits the magnetic field.
It is parallel, just like a, so there is not magnetic force.

So, if we look at the overall magnetic forces acting on the coil...
c
N b
Fm Fm X
d
S
a e
Illustration 2: Magnetic force acting on wires.
Now imagine looking at this edge on (like if you held this page flat in front of your eyes).
The whole thing is trying to twist itself around.
If we hooked this up to a spring that pushed back, calibrated with a specific spring constant, we
could measure things like the current flowing through the wire depending on how far it pusghed
the spring.
Example 1: A galvanometer has been built following the sketch shown in Illustration 2. The length of
wire at b and d are each 3.8 cm long. A spring (k = 87.6 N/m) that tries to hold back the motion of the
galvanometer is pushed 0.0055 m when current flows through the galvanometer. If the external
magnetic field is 1.25 T, determine the current flowing in the wire.
The restoring force of the spring (Hooke's Law) is balanced against the magnetic force twisting
the wires. Remember that since there are two sections of the wire, each 3.6 cm long, the entire
length of wire in the magnetic field is 7.6 cm, converted to 0.076 m.
F s= F m
kx=I l B
kx
I=
lB
87.6 (0.0055)
I=
0.076(1.25)
I =5.0715789=5.1 A
Electric Motors
The defining characteristic of an electric motor is that it must be able to rotate freely through a
complete circle and keep on turning.
To do this, we take the basic design of a galvanometer and modify it to allow it to turn.
We will use specific names to refer to the parts of a motor:
Stator: an electromagnet or permanent magnet that creates the external magnetic field.
Armature: the coil of wire that the current flows through. It will often have many coils
inside the external magnetic field before it exits. Armatures are sometimes called rotors.
Commutator: a ring of metal with a split down the middle that allows current to flow to the
armature while still letting it turn freely.

The only part that is really different from the galvanometers is that
an electric motor has a commutator.
Imagine looking edge on at the galvanometer again. There
are two wires that need to be connected to something.
The wires are each connected to one side of the spit ring
- a +
commutator (can't see them in the diagram).
There are wire brushes (shown in grey, they actually can
look like SOS scrubbing pads) connected to a the
terminals of a battery touching each side of the ring so that
on is negative and one is positive. The brushes do not
move (Illustration 3a).
As the armature spins, the spit ring rotates as well
(Illustration 3b).
- b +
When we hit a gap in the middle of the ring, no current is
flowing and the armature continues to spin because of its
inertia (Illustration 3c).
Then there is a connection again and the armature
continues to spin (Illustration 3d).
This arrangement guarantees that current will always flow
in on the left and out on the right. - c +
When we use this setup as an electric motor, we have electricity as
the input and we get mechanical energy (the rotating armature) as
an output.
In the next lesson we will look at how reversing this
changes a motor into a generator.
- d +
Homework
p613 #6,12 Illustration 3: A split ring
commutator spins as it touches the
brushes that allow current to flow.

Lesson 20: Electromagnetic Induction
Between 1820-1821 scientists discovered most of what we have been Did You Know?
looking at in recent lessons. Neither Henry nor Faraday ever
Because it was obvious that moving charges and magnetic disputed each others claims to
fields were able to interact with each other, scientists began to when they discovered
wonder if a magnetic field could be used to produce an electric induction. Henry was under
current. pressure to discover something
By 1831 the American Joseph Henry and the Englishman important to show off the
Michael Faraday had each showed it could happen. smarts of his new country, the
recently independent USA.
Henry discovered it first, but Faraday published his results
Henry discovered induction
first, so who gets the credit? first, but then started a series of
One of the rules in science is that it doesnt matter extra experiments to make sure
who actually discovered something first, it matters who he was right. This time allowed
got published in a scientific journal first. It sort of Faraday to get his work
counts as being registered as the creator of that idea. published.
So, Faraday gets the official credit and we call this effect Faraday's Law of
Electromagnetic Induction. It is also sometimes referred to as the generator effect.
The experimental design that Faraday and Henry used was basically the same...
iron ring
switch
battery
0.00
A
ammeter
Illustration 1: Faraday's induction apparatus.
If the switch on the left side is closed, current will flow through the loops on that side.
Since it is wrapped around an iron ring, it will act as an electromagnet.
Faraday (hoped) that the magnetic field in the iron ring would go all the way around to the other loops
of wire on the right side and create an electrical current that he could measure on his ammeter.
Faraday never saw the needle move on the ammeter when he ran a steady current from the
battery.
He did notice that when he first switched the battery on, a current would be measured for a
moment.
When the battery was shut off, the ammeter would show another small current, this time in
the opposite direction.
Faraday figured out that a changing magnetic field could produce a current on the other side.
Such a current is called an induced current.

It is possible to induce current to flow in a wire as long as there is Warning!
a changing magnetic field involved. Many people incorrectly use the
One way is push a length of wire through a magnetic field,
force part of the third hand rule as
so that the wire is moved perpendicular to the magnetic
the direction the person is pushing the
field.
wire. This is wrong. The force in the
The third hand rule can be used to figure out the direction
third hand rule is the magnetic force of
of the induced current in the wire.
the external magnetic field pushing on
Fingers point north to south in the direction of the
magnetic field as always. the charges... the direction they will be
Your thumb points in the direction of the wires
forced to move is the direction of the
motion, since that is the direction that the electrons that current.
are in the wire are moving all together.
Your palm points in direction of the force acting on those charges, which tells you which
way they are going to be pushed... the direction of the current flow!
Example 1: Using the following diagram, identify the direction of the induced electron flow current in
the wire.
direction X X X X
wire is
pushed X X X X
X X X X
The magnetic field is pointing into the page, so my fingers point into the page.
The wire is moving downwards, so my thumb points down.
My palm is facing left, so the electrons will experience a force pushing them to the left. The
induced electron flow current is to the left.
Homework
p613 #5

Lesson 21: Lenz's Law
Heinrich Lenz was a German physicist who started studying electromagnetism in the 1830's.
By using a bit of logic he was able to come up with a method to predict the direction of the
current in a coil if it was exposed to a changing magnetic field.
We will be drawing these coils as solenoids to make them easier to figure out, but they do
not have to be solenoids.
Lenz recognized that there were only two possibilities for the direction of the current in the coil, so he
figured out which one was impossible and which must be correct.
The Wrong Way

As the magnet is pushed into the coil of wire, we assume that the induced current is flowing as shown
by the arrow.
Illustration 1: Current induced in coil.

If the current flows this way in the coil, we can use the second hand rule to figure out the
direction of the magnetic field of the solenoid.
Illustration 2: Showing the magnetic poles induced on

the solenoid.
If this was what really happened, all you would need to do is just start start pushing on the
magnet for a moment.
The current induced in the coil will create the poles as shown.
Since the coil's magnetic field has its south pole near the magnet's north pole, it will start to

pull the magnet in for us.... we don't have to do anything.
The coil is pulling the magnet in for us, while also making electricity.
This would be like getting something for nothing, and the universe does not work that
way.
The Correct Way

For this one we just assume the direction of the induced current is flowing in the exact opposite
direction.
This will induce a magnetic field in the coil that will also be opposite.
Illustration 3: Induced current in coil is reversed, so the

magnetic poles are also reversed.
Now the north poles are facing each other, so they will repel.
This makes it difficult to push the magnet towards the coil.
We have to work at it now... we aren't getting something for nothing. The work we do
forcing the magnet towards the coil is converted to the electricity induced in the coil.
Example 1: Identify the direction the magnet is being moved to cause the direction of the current
shown.
This would be most difficult if the left side of the solenoid was a south pole, since that will try
to pull the magnet back to the right while we are trying to move it to the left.
We use the second hand rule to figure out the direction of the current in the wire that results in
the poles being aligned this way.

Basically, just always keep in mind that Lenz's Law says that the induced current in the coil creates a
magnetic field that makes moving the external magnet difficult to do.
Homework
Review
p622 #1, 4, 5, 7, 12, 15, 19-22, 26

Lesson 22: Electromagnetic Radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a way that energy can be transferred.
It is special in that it is made up of alternating, perpendicular electric and magnetic fields.
These alternating fields essentially act as transverse waves traveling outwards from their source.
That's where the radiation part comes from... they radiate outwards in all directions.
EMR (as electromagnetic radiation is often referred to) travels at an incredibly high velocity of
3.00e8m/s.
The form of EMR that most people easily recognize is visible light, so we often refer to this
velocity simply as the speed of light.
Always remember that this velocity refers to all forms of EMR, not just visible light.
Although all EMR has the same velocity, the different kinds all have their own distinct sources,
frequencies, and wavelengths.
The different sources all involve accelerating charges of some sort, which is the cause of the
electric and magnetic fields.
The EMR can be detected either...
Directly, if it travels directly from the source to the observer.
e.g. looking at a fire.
Indirectly, reflected from a surface or transmitted through a substance.
e.g. visible light from a lamp is reflected off a page of a book to your eyes.
e.g. sunlight is transmitted through a window,
When we start to look at EMR, we often look at it as a spectrum.

You are already used to looking at the spectrum of visible light, probably by remembering the
order of the colors of the rainbow using ROY G BIV.
Visible light is actually a very small part of the entire EMR spectrum.
EMR Spectrum
The EMR spectrum starts with very low frequencies, and goes up to higher and higher frequencies.
This means that the wavelengths are getting smaller and smaller.
This is based on the universal wave equation...
v=f Did You Know?
You've already seen the
symbol for the speed of
Since we will always be referring to EMR for these situations, we light... everyone has! It's in
can replace v with the symbol commonly used for the speed of the most famous physics
light c formula of all time: E = mc2
c=f
Low Frequency AC
Basically this was the first form of EMR that was created artificially, detected, and studied by Heinrich
Hertz based on the work of James Clerk Maxwell (Lesson 24).
This EMR is very weak and does not transfer much energy
It is created by low frequency alternating current (AC) running through modern electrical
devices.

This results in random static.
You might have noticed warning labels on electronics, especially things with electric
motors, about its emissions interfering with radio signals.
The government has regulations about how strong the interference of any one electronic
device can be.
Radio and Radar

Often it is assumed that radio waves can only be used for AM and FM
radio, but this isn't true. On some radios you might
notice that AM stations are
These frequencies are used by cell phones, cordless phones, and
shown as kHz, and FM stations
TV signals. as MHz. So a station like 630
Specific government regulations are in place to make sure CHED is 630 kHz = 630e3 Hz.
that signals from different devices don't conflict with each
other.
This EMR is created by electrons vibrating in antennas.
Microwaves
Yep, these are the ones you use to cook food.
The frequency of microwaves made in microwave ovens matches the natural resonant
frequency of water (about 2.4 GHz), which causes the food to heat up.
The microwaves are created by vibrating electrons is special tubes.
Theyre called microwaves because as we've been working our way up to higher frequencies the
wavelength has been going down.
Were actually going to deal with wavelengths much smaller than this as we continue, but this
is the name that was given to these waves.
Microwaves are also used to send signals over short distances without losing quality.
This is possible because microwaves can be more carefully aimed at their destination.
Microwaves are sometimes used to send signals like phone calls over distances too short for
satellite signals, but too far for wired connections.
Infrared Radiation
If you feel heat from the sun, or while under a heater in the LRT station, you're feeling IR (infrared)
radiation.
IR happens as electrons in the outer part of atoms jiggle around a bit, making jumps in the outer
energy levels.
We can use devices like IR goggles to see an object in the dark by detecting the IR it is giving
off.
IR is also used in devices like remote controls.
Visible Light
This is the classic form of light that can be detected by human eyes.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet ROY G BIV.
Visible light happens when electrons make big jumps around energy levels in atoms.

You need to remember that red is the lower frequency & big wavelength ( = 700nm), green in
the middle ( = 500nm), and violet at high frequency & small wavelength ( = 350nm).
Ultraviolet Radiation
UV (ultraviolet) is just past violet on the visible spectrum.
It is created when electrons make even bigger jumps through energy levels.
UV causes tanning in human skin.

Labels on suntan lotions refer to UVA, UVB, and UVC, the specific frequencies of UV that can
have increasingly stronger effects on human tissue.
The protection the lotion offers is against premature aging or even skin cancer.
You actually need some UV radiation to allow your body to make vitamin D.
Babies born in the winter are given vitamin D drops to make sure that they are able to grow and
develop normally during the shorter days.
X-Rays
X rays are able to pass through less dense materials (like flesh), but cant easily get through dense
material (like bones and teeth).
The x ray machines your doctor uses usually involve shooting electrons at very high speeds at
metal plates.
X rays are safe in low doses, but prolonged exposure over a long time can damage cells.
This is why a dentist steps out of the room when he takes an x-ray, otherwise hed be exposed
to x-rays hundreds of times a day for many years.
It is also why airline pilots and flight attendants need to take a break from flying every so often.
When youre in a plane with less atmosphere above you, you are exposed to x-rays from
space.
Gamma Rays
Gamma radiation is created during the radioactive decay of atoms
This is the dangerous radiation you always hear about when talking about nuclear reactors
and bombs.
It is also used as radiation therapy for some types of cancer.
Cosmic Rays
These are the highest frequency, highest energy EMR waves on the EM spectrum.
They are created when super high energy particles (mostly protons, alpha particles, and some
electrons) traveling through space at super high speeds hit Earths atmosphere.
In high doses it can be very dangerous to living things, but the common low doses that naturally
happen are not dangerous since the EMR can easily pass through matter.
Of all the EMR types, cosmic rays are the least understood.
This is because the energies of the particles hitting the upper atmosphere are sometimes as
high as 1020 eV. In comparison, even the Large Hadron Collider only gets particles up to
about 1012 eV.

Lesson 23: Models of Electromagnetic Radiation
Scientists spend a lot of time coming up with, refining, and sometimes disproving models of natural
phenomena.
Light is a great example of just how much competing models can divide the scientific
community, but also allow us to eventually understand the universe much better.
The models that are discussed here, and the people that came up with them, will be coming up
in later lessons when we need to look at the details of their work.
Historically, there were two competing models of light:

Particle (or corpuscular) model: light is made up of small particles of actual stuff.
Wave model: light is made up of some kind of wave.
Particle Model of Light

The particle model of light was the one that Sir Isaac Newton believed in.
Because Newton believed in it, his influence in the scientific community forced many people to
follow a particle model of light even when other evidence seemed to show it could be wrong.
Newton did have good reasons to believe that light was a particle... Diffraction is the property of waves
1. Light travels in straight lines. that allows them to go around an
If light is a particle then it will not be able to diffract after obstacle or through a small opening,
going through an opening or around an obstacle. Particles and then go back to looking like
normal. For example, if a water
always move in straight lines, and light seems to move in wave hits a pole sticking out of the
straight lines. When you shine a bright light on a person you water, the waves might leave a small
expect to see a shadow on the ground, not light bending gap directly behind the pole, but
around the person to fill in all the ground behind them with eventually fill in the gap like it was
light. never there.
2. Light can be reflected.
Light can reflect off of surfaces, just like a ball bouncing off. Kind of a lame reason, since
waves can reflect also.
3. Light can travel through a vacuum.
In Newton's time, the only waves that anybody knew about were mechanical waves, which
need a substance (a medium) to move through (e.g. sound travels through air). Since they had a
pretty good idea in Newton's time that the space between the Earth and the Sun was a vacuum,
how could light waves reach Earth? Light particles would have no trouble moving through a
vacuum.
Wave Model of Light

Eventually the work of some scientists seemed to point out that there were aspects of light that could be
explained more clearly using a wave model.
Each of these scientists did great work, but until Newton died it was difficult to get anyone to
even listen to evidence of light that disagreed with the particle model.

Christiaan Huygens Did You Know?
Christiaan Huygens was a Dutch physicist who believed that a wave Huygens was a strong believer
model was better at explaining the properties of light. He focused most in the existence of life on other
of his attack on Newton's particle model concerning the idea of light planets. Towards the end of his
life he wrote a book called
traveling in straight lines. Cosmostheoros in which he
If he could show that light would diffract when it passed described animal and plant life
through openings or around obstacles, it would prove that light on other planets in detail.
was behaving like a wave.
He looked at the work of Francesco Grimaldi, who had shown the edges of shadows are not
perfectly sharp.
If light was a particle they should be sharp. It would be like shooting spray paint at an
object in front of a sheet of paper; you get a sharp image from particles that get past.
We can explain the fuzziness that that does happen around the edges of shadows as the
diffraction of the waves partly around the object.
Huygens also used the observation of the Poisson Spot as evidence that light was
able to diffract around obstacles.
Simon Poisson had predicted that if the wave model was true, light should
sometimes be able to diffract around a disc and make a bright spot in the
centre of the shadow. He thought this was impossible to see, and used it as a
way to fight against the wave model. Illustration 1:
When Dominique Arago actually produced this effect, Poisson looked like an The Poisson
idiot and they named the spot they saw after him as a joke. Spot.
Huygens developed these idea further in order to explain the diffraction of light waves around obstacles
or through openings.
He said we should imagine the crest of a wave as being made up of an infinite number of tiny
waves, which he called wavelets.
As these wavelets pass through an opening or an obstacle they will begin to spread out again
this is what leads to diffraction of waves.
There was still resistance to Huygens theories, but he came up

with a separate argument that would seem to indicate that the
particle model was simply wrong. incident reflected
When incident light hits the boundary between two
media (like air and water) part of the light is
transmitted, while part of it is reflected (Illustration 2).
Using a wave model of light Huygens was able to show
that waves could do this. If you measure the amount of transmitted
light reflected and the amount that was transmitted, it
adds up to the incident wave.
When Newton was asked to explain this using his
particle model of light, he came up with an ahem... Illustration 2: Light at the boundary
odd answer. between air and water.
He said that when light particles reach the surface, they have fits (just like when you had a
fit when you were 3 years old and you didnt get what you wanted). Some of the particles
decide to go into the water, while the rest decide to bounce off.
Given that this is such a pathetic response, Newton basically lost any remaining support that
he had for his particle model of light.

Thomas Young
In 1801 the British scientist Thomas Young set up an experiment to show that when light passes
through two slits in a screen, the light will interfere on the other side just as waves should.
We will examine this Double Slit experiment in detail in Lesson 30.
At the time, this seemed to be a final undeniable piece of evidence to show that light was a
wave.
The wave model of light became the standard way of explaining light for about the next 100
years.
Wave-Particle Duality
It might seem that with all this evidence we are at the end of studying light and have everything tied up
neatly.
Instead, physicists found a problem when they tried to describe Quanta is the plural
something called Blackbody Radiation (covered in detail in Lesson 32). form of quantum, an
Max Planck was able to come up with a solution as long as he individual piece of
energy. This became
assumed that energy came in little pieces, called quanta. the basis of the branch
This led Albert Einstein (yup, the big guns are coming out now) to come of physics called
up with a theory that joined the idea of quanta to an explanation of light. Quantum Mechanics,
This meant the light came in little pieces (yikes, particles!) that were the subject of the next
named photons. chapter in Physics 30.
So, we have a big problem.

Guys like Huygens and Young had shown definite proof that light was a wave.
Planck and Einstein showed that light must be a particle.
It seems as though one must be right, and the other wrong.

This is in fact a bias of Western thought.
We always try to divide things into opposites; left-right,
up-down, right-wrong, black-white.
Is there a reason to think that this is the way nature must
work? Nope.
Many Eastern philosophies are based on the idea of mixing
seemingly opposite ideas together, like Ying and Yang.
In this way of thinking, light can be a wave and a particle.
How we choose to measure it will reveal one or the other.
Both aspects (wave and particle) make up light at the same
Illustration 3: The concept of
time. Ying and Yang is a classic
Chinese idea that nothing is
This leads us to the current way of describing light, the model known as entirely one thing... there is
Wave-Particle Duality. always a bit of the opposite
In the following lessons, we will sometimes use the wave model
included.
to explain what we are seeing, and sometimes the particle
model.
Still having a hard time with this? Think of this example. At school everyone thinks of me as
Mr.Clintberg the physics teacher. But when I go home my kids see me as daddy. I am not one of
these, I am both of them. It just depends on who the observer is (a student or my kids) that determines
how I am measured.

Lesson 24: Maxwell's Theory of Electromagnetism
James Clerk Maxwell (first mentioned in Lesson 21) is one of the great tragedies
of physics.
Although he contributed a huge amount of work to physics, he died in
1879 at the age of 48.
Many scientists believe he was the most important physicist of the 19th
century.
Some of his papers found at the time of his
death were later interpreted to show that he Did You Know?
was working on ideas that would have Einstein had a picture of
Illustration 1: James eventually led him to the Special Theory of Maxwell hanging in his
study.
Clerk Maxwell Relativity, twenty years before Einstein!
Maxwell's greatest accomplishment was his Theory of Electromagnetism.

Oersted had found that we can create a magnetic field by having current flow through a wire.
The strength of the magnetic field is predicted using Ampere's Law (Lesson 18).
Moving a wire through a magnetic field induces a current to flow through the wire.
The amount of current induced is predicted using Faraday's Law of Induction (Lesson
20).
Maxwell brought these ideas together while doing experiments with capacitors.
A capacitor is made up of two conductors that are not touching, each with the same amount
of oppositely signed charge.
It was while using capacitors that he came up with an experiment that showed that a
changing electric field resulted in a changing magnetic field which created a changing
electric field which... you get the idea.
Maxwell made a series of predictions based on his research:

1. EMR is produced whenever a charge accelerates.
This is because the accelerating charge will produce a changing electric field, the start of the
pattern of interrelated fields discussed already. It also means that the accelerating charge must
be losing energy since it is emitting EMR (a form of energy).
2. The frequency that a charge jiggles back and forth with will exactly match the frequency
of the EMR produced.
This makes sense, since the accelerating charge is what originally causes the fields that make up
the EMR.
3. All EMR travels at the speed of light, c
Maxwell actually predicted a speed slightly higher than the current accepted value of 3.00e8
m/s, but give the guy a break! This was over 140 years ago!
4. The electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to each other, and perpendicular to the
direction the wave is traveling.
Picture the electric and magnetic fields as intertwined transverse waves. Since they create each
other forever, we sometimes refer to EMR as a self propagating wave.
5. EMR will do all the things any transverse wave should do.
This includes ideas we will look at in later lessons like refraction, interference, and polarization.
He also showed that we could use the universal wave equation c = f for EMR.

Heinrich Hertz Helps!
In 1887 Heinrich Hertz performed an experiment to confirm Maxwell's
theories. A simplified version of the experiment is explained here.
Note, although the fields actually surround this setup in 3D all the way
around it, we will only look at what is happening to the right to keep it
simple.
In Illustration 2 we have an AC generator connected to two
separate metal antennas. Imagine this as a set of parallel plates
like the covers of a book, and then we flipped open the book.
Notice that with the current flowing down, the bottom
antenna is negative and the top antenna is positive. This
results in the electric field drawn in red.
Since the antenna is basically acting like a regular current
carrying wire, we can use the first hand rule to figure out
the direction of the magnetic field, shown with the blue Illustration 2: The apparatus at
X's. the first moment that it was
turned on.
A split second later, the AC generator being used
has reversed the direction of the current
(Illustration 3).
See how the original electric field (in red)
and original magnetic field (in blue) are
still feeding each other as they expand
outwards.
Since the direction of the current has
reversed, the new electric field (in green)
is matched with a new magnetic field (in
purple) that are pointing in exactly the
opposite directions to the original ones.
If we were to continue to watch this, we
would see the electric fields created
always go up or down, and the magnetic
fields always go in or out.
These are the intertwined transverse waves
Maxwell predicted.
Illustration 3: The apparatus a split second later.

Using a setup similar to this Hertz was able to verify that the EMR was obeying the predictions Maxwell had made.
Hertz used a metal ring as an antenna to detect the EMR being produced by his apparatus. This allowed him to
verify that the frequency of EMR being produced matched the frequency being detected.
He also set up a sheet of zinc to reflect the EMR and produce a standing wave. He was able to measure the
wavelength this way, and along with the frequency and the universal wave equation, showed that the EMR was
traveling at 3.00e8 m/s.
Homework
p647 #4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14

Lesson 25: Speed of Light
Over hundreds of years, physicists have tried to measure the speed of light. Did You Know?
This is not an easy task, since it travels so fast that it can cover An ancient Greek named
large distances almost instantly. Empedocles predicted that
Many of the scientists who tried failed, but with each attempt we light did travel at some speed,
learned more and more about how we might be able to do it. he just couldn't measure it.
Other people before and after
him thought that light traveled
Galileo at an infinite speed.
Galileo performed his own experiment to see if he could measure the speed of light.
Galileo stood on one hilltop while another person stood on another, both holding covered lanterns.
Galileo opened his lantern first.
As soon as his assistant saw the light from Galileo, the assistant opened his to shine a light
back.
Galileo hoped that by knowing the distance between the two hilltops and the time it took for the
light to travel between them he would be able to calculate the speed of light.
In the end, Galileo realized that the small time difference he measured was probably due to human reaction
time and his poor methods to measure time.
Galileo still believed that the speed of light would someday be measured, just not using his method.
Ole Rmer
About 75 years later a Danish astronomer named Ole Rmer did a
pretty good job of measuring the speed of light based on the
eclipse of one of Jupiters moons.
At certain times, Earth and Jupiter are closer to each other
in their orbits sometimes they are further apart.
Rmer had noticed that at some times there was a delay in
the time he could see Jupiter eclipse one of its moons.
The light had to travel the extra distance when Earth
was farther away from Jupiter.
Because Rmer had some rough figures on the distances of
the planets in their orbits, he was able to make a rough
calculation of the speed of light. Illustration 1: Because Earth orbits
By today's standards he was quite far off, but it was the the sun faster than Jupiter, the
first attempt to measure the speed of light that actually distance separating them can
came up with an answer. change quite a bit in only a few
months time.
Fizeau & Foucault
By the mid 1800s a French physicist named Armand Fizeau came up with a great way to finally measure
the speed of light accurately.
He shined a narrow, strong beam of light so that it would go in between the teeth of a spinning gear.
The light continued on, traveling a long distance of about 8.5km, hit a mirror, and bounced back
the way it came.

If the gear was spinning with the right period, one tooth of the gear would have had exactly the
right amount of time to move in the way of the returning light, blocking it from view. An
observer never saw the light this way.
Fizeau's result was actually very accurate, with only about a 5% error.
A few years later Jean Foucault (another French physicist) refined the method a bit by using spinning
mirrors and got an even more accurate measurement.
A beam of light bounced off of a spinning mirror and headed towards a second stationary mirror
about 35 km away.
When the light bounced back to the first spinning mirror and hit it, the spinning mirror had changed
it's angle a bit, so the beam of light bounced off it at an angle.
By figuring out how much time it would take for the mirror to have spun that far to create that
angle, Foucault was able to accurately measure the speed of light.
Albert A. Michelson
Albert A. Michelson used a spinning mirror apparatus that was a better quality
version of Foucault's apparatus.
The reason his method was so accurate is that he used a rotating eight sided
mirror.
A beam of light hit one of the sides and reflected to a stationary mirror
35 km away on a mountain top.
This beam bounced back to the rotating mirror. As long as the rotating
mirror has spun exactly 1/8th of a turn, the next side is in the correct
position to reflect the light to an observer looking through a telescope.
Illustration 2:
Albert A. Michelson
mirrors
telescope
curved mirror
Illustration 3: Michelson's apparatus.

Example 1: When Michelson did his experiment with the curved mirror 35.0 km away, he found that the 8
sided mirror needed to spin at 32 000 rpm. Using this information, determine the speed of light.
We need to reduce this to the most basic information that is needed to calculate velocity using the
formula...
d
v=
t
The beam of light has to travel 35.0 km to the curved mirror and back, so it actually travels
70.0 km (70.0e3m). Note, the distance from the light source to the 8 sided mirror and from the
8 sided mirror to the observer is so small in comparison that we don't even pay attention to it.
The mirror is spinning at 32 000 rpm, which we will change into a standard measurement of
frequency as we learned back in Physics 20...
f = 32 000 rpm 60 = 533.33 Hz
What we really need is the period of the rotation of the mirrors, since we need the time it takes to
spin just 1/8th of the way through a complete revolution.
1 1
T= = =1.875e-3 s
f 533.33
But since the mirror only needs to spin 1/8th of the way, we only need 1/8th of this period.
t = 1.875e-3 s 8 = 2.34375e-4 s
Now we can calculate the velocity.

d 70e3
v= = =2.98 6 e8=2.99e8 m/ s
t 2.3438e-4
Between the 1880s and 1920s Michelson made more and more accurate measurements of the speed of
light using this method.
It was his ability to measure the speed of light so well that won him the Nobel prize in 1907.
Currently the most accurate measurement we have (still using Michelson's method!) is
2.99792458e8 m/s. This value was measured in 1986.
This measurement is such an accepted standard, that we actually use it to define the metre. The
distance a beam of light travels in 1 / 2.99792458e8 seconds is one metre.
Example 2: If the Sun were to blow up right now, determine how long it would take before we saw the
explosion here on the Earth.
To see it blow up the light from the explosion has to travel from the explosion (at the Sun) to our
eyes (here on Earth). On average, the Earth is 1.49e11 m from the sun, so
d
v=
t
d
c=
t
d 1.49e11
t= = =496. 6 s=497 s=8.28 minutes
c 3.00e8
Homework
p650 #1-3 and p652 #1-5, 8, 9

Lesson 26: Reflection & Mirror Diagrams
The Law of Reflection
There is nothing really mysterious about reflection, but some people try to make it more difficult than it
really is.
All EMR will reflect off of appropriate surfaces, but for the purposes of this lesson we will only
care about visible light reflecting off of mirrors.
Drawings that show reflection always include a special line

that must be drawn first... the normal.
You might remember this word from when we studied
forces. We say that a line drawn at 90 to the surface is
a normal line.
When you want to figure out how something will
reflect from a surface, draw a normal line to that
boundary at that point. Illustration 1: Reflection diagram.
The Law of Reflection says the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.
These angles are always measured from the normal line so that we have a common reference.
In Illustration 1 we see that the angle is 42 coming in and 42 reflecting off.
This is an example of regular (specular) reflection.
The only time you need to be really careful with the law of reflection is when the surface is somehow
irregular.
We still draw normal lines, but we can end up with millions of them if the surface is really
random.
For example a lake on a windy day will show a really blurred image because the surface
reflects the light in so many directions.
We won't worry too much about this irregular (diffuse) reflection.
Plane Mirror Diagrams

We can use the Law of Reflection to draw diagrams to predict the way an observer will see an image in
a plane mirror.
Plane in this case refers to boring, old fashioned, flat mirrors.
Doing problems involving plane mirrors is actually pretty easy since we only have to remember a few
things:
1. The image will be the same size as the original object.
2. The image will appear as far behind the mirror as the object is in front of the mirror.
3. The Law of Reflection. Any light beam that hits the mirror will bounce off at exactly the same
angle. We assume the mirror is perfectly flat in these situations. We will have to make sure that
the light rays reflected off the mirror do so at an angle that makes them hit the observer's eye.
Lets look at a simple example to illustrate how we have to draw these diagrams.

Example 1: Sketch a ray diagram that shows how light will
travel from the object to the eye by reflecting from the mirror
in Illustration 2. Identify the position of the image.
Illustration 2: An object in front of a

mirror. This diagram is edge-on.
First, measure how far the object is in front of the

mirror. Draw a quick sketch (Illustration 3) of the
image behind the mirror at the same distance (just
make sure its flipped around, and must be drawn with
a dashed line).
Illustration 3: Showing the image

behind the mirror.
Illustration 4 shows how we draw a light ray (a line)

from the observers eye to an important part of the
image (like the top). The light ray should be dashed
when it is behind the mirror to show that the light ray
isnt really there.
Illustration 4: The first ray showing how

the person sees the image.

At the point where that light ray hit the mirror, bounce
it back at the same angle (law of reflection) so that it
hits the same spot on the original object as shown in
Illustration 5.
Illustration 5: The light ray actually

bounces off the mirror.
Now we draw another separate light ray that

shows the path the light takes to get from the
bottom of the object to the eye. It should look like
Illustration 6. This shows how the light rays from
the object converge on the eye.
Illustration 6: A second, separate ray drawn

on the diagram.
This gives you an idea of how the light rays are traveling from the object to you eye, and also why the
image appears to be behind the mirror.
Because the image isnt really behind the mirror (meaning that there are no true light rays that
are back there), we refer to it as a virtual image.
That's why we drew everything behind the mirror as dotted lines. It shows that there are no
real rays of light back there.
You can always do a test in your head to determine if you are dealing with a virtual image. Ask
yourself If I put a piece of paper where I think the image is (in the example above that would
be behind the mirror), will I see the image on the paper like a film on a movie screen? If the
answer is no, you have a virtual image.
Sometimes the answer can be yes when dealing with curved mirrors.

Curved Mirrors
Maybe youve gone into a mirror fun house that has all those weird mirrors that make you look 10 feet
tall, skinny in the middle and wide at the top.
Obviously these are not regular, plane mirrors. Instead, theyre all curved and bumpy and
misshaped.
Dont worry, were not going to be analyzing mirrors that are that weird, but we will be
looking at curved mirrors.
Imagine taking a giant metal ball and cutting a section out of it. You spray some shiny paint on
the inside or outside and you have a curved mirror.
The first kind we will be looking at is a concave converging mirror, which would mean that
you made the inside of the ball shiny.
Later we will look at convex diverging mirrors, where the outside of the ball was made
shiny.
Concave Converging Mirrors

To be able to figure out how an image will be formed in one of these converging mirrors, you need to
be aware of a few basic parts. Check out Illustration 7 and the description of each part that follows.
V PA
Illustration 7: Parts of a curved mirror.

Centre (C)
The centre shown in the diagram is where the centre of the sphere would be. The diagram exaggerates the shape of
the mirror a bit to be able to use it in some of the diagrams later on, but you should be able to get the basic idea.
Like a regular circle, the distance from the centre to the surface of the mirror is the radius.
Focus or Focal Point (F)

If an object was infinitely far away from the mirror, the light from it would converge on this one point. In the
diagrams we are doing we will mostly be looking at how some light rays pass through (or appear to pass through)
this focal point. The focal point is exactly in between the mirror and the centre. Since the distance between the
centre and the mirror is the radius, the distance from the focal point to the mirror is half of the radius. This distance
is referred to as the focal length.
Principle Axis (PA)

The blue line is the principle axis, a line that we will use as a reference point in our diagrams. It passes through the
centre and is perpendicular to the surface of the mirror.
Vertex (V)
Where the principle axis meets the mirror surface.

There are three rules you need to use to figure out where the image of Warning!
the object will appear. You only need to use two of the three to actually If you use all three rules, you'll
locate the image. sometimes see that the don't all
All of the rules involve what a ray will do when it leaves the intersect at the same point and it might
object. seem you did something wrong. Don't
worry, it's just because our mirror
You will need to have a ruler to draw the lines when you figure
diagrams are not perfect.
out these problems.
When you sketch the curved mirror itself, youll find you dont
have to be too careful about making its shape perfect close enough will give you decent
results.
The object we will be using in these examples is an arrow pointing up... that way we will have
an easy time seeing if the image is flipped upside down or not.
The image will appear where any two reflected rays cross.
Rule #1: Any ray through the focal point will reflect
parallel to the principle axis (Illustration 8).
Dont start worrying about how that ray of light
came off the object and went straight through the
focus it just did. Light reflects off objects at all
sorts of angles, and if it will help us to find where
an image is, we might as well assume one ray
goes right through the focus.
Illustration 8: Light Ray through the focus.
Rule #2: Any ray parallel to the principle axis will

reflect so that it passes through the focal point
(Illustration 9).
I know this sounds exactly the same as the first
rule, but look at it carefully and youll see that it
is the opposite.
Notice the spot where the reflected red ray is

crossing the reflected black ray from rule one
this shows me where the image will appear.
Illustration 9: Light Ray parallel to the
principle axis.

So how do we draw in the image?
Since all the rays were drawn from the tip of the object, this shows where the tip of the image
will be.
We know that since the base of the object is on the principle axis, the base of the image will
also appear on the principle axis.
Converging mirrors are so

named because the light
rays that are reflected off
the mirror come together
(converge) on the real
side. It's ok to call these
mirrors either converging
or concave.
Illustration 10: Image drawn in diagram.

We label the object as "O" and the image as "I", as shown in Illustration 10.
We draw the image as a solid line because the rays of light that make the image are actually
traveling through that point if I was to hold a piece of paper right there, I would see the image
appear there! It is a real image.
Also notice that the image is upside down (inverted) and slightly smaller (diminished)
compared to the original.
This is not always the case with curved mirrors. You might even find that your rays need to
be extended to behind the mirror to be able to be able to cross each other then the image
would be a virtual image behind the mirror.
For any image, you will need to classify it as:

Characteristic Description Warning!
Real light rays and images are drawn
Magnification Same / Enlarged / Diminished as solid lines, but virtual rays and
Attitude Erect / Inverted images are drawn as dotted lines.
Type Real / Virtual
Although we know where the image is, and that it is a real, inverted, smaller image, we can still
confirm it using our last method

Rule #3: Any ray that passes through the centre
will reflect back through the centre.
Unfortunately, this is the least reliable way to
draw a ray, since we had to assume that if the
mirror was big enough it would have
bounced the ray back. Notice that it hits just
about where the other two rays meet up.
Were probably doing ok.
Illustration 11: Showing the ray through the

centre.
Convex Diverging Mirrors
The same set of rules shown above apply to diverging mirrors, its just that things will look a bit
different since convex mirrors have their focal point and centre behind the mirror.
Diverging mirrors typically make a diminished, virtual image of the original object.
Lets look at an example using the three rules covered above for converging mirrors.
The only difference is that I will extend the rays behind the mirror as dotted lines to be able to
show how they pass through the focal point or through the centre.
Diverging mirrors are so

named because the light
rays that are reflected off
the mirror go apart
(diverge) on the real side.
Illustration 12: Diverging mirror.

Use Rule #2 (because it works well
for this mirror) to draw the ray coming
off of the tip of the object parallel to
the principle axis as shown in
illustration 13. When it hits the mirror,
it bounces off so that a dotted line
drawn behind the mirror will pass
through the focal point .
Illustration 13: A ray parallel reflects as though it came from

the focus.
Rule #3 (again, just because it works

well for this mirror) is used in
Illustration 14. This ray comes off of
the tip of the object aiming straight for
the centre. Where it hits the mirror it
will bounce back, but I draw a dotted
line behind the mirror to show where
the ray would have gone.
Illustration 14: Light ray through the centre.
Notice that there is now a place where

the two dotted lines hit behind the
diverging mirror. This is where the
image will appear.
The image is virtual (its
behind the mirror), it is erect
(right side up), and diminished
(smaller).
Illustration 15: Image shown behind the mirror.

The Formulas
There are a couple of formulas you can use to figure out its position, attitude (erect or inverted), and
magnification.
Mirror Equation
The first is called the mirror equation...
1 1 1
=
f d o di
f = focal length (m)
do = distance from mirror to object (m)
di= distance from mirror to image (m)
Ultra-Special Notes for Signs Using the Mirror Equation:
Anything in Front of the Mirror (Real) Positive +
Anything Behind the Mirror (Virtual) Negative -
This applies to the distances, and also applies to focal length...

a converging mirror with its focus in front has a positive focal length
a diverging mirror with its focus behind the mirror has a negative focal length.
+ - - +
o o
C F C F
Illustration 16: Converging mirror Illustration 17: Diverging mirror
We define which side is in front of the mirror by where we placed the object.
An object must always be in front of the mirror, otherwise it can not produce an image.
In Illustration 16 the mirror must be converging, since the object must be on the real
side.
In Illustration 17 we have a diverging mirror, again because of where we put the
object.
Notice how in both cases the positive side of the mirror is the side we have the object
placed at.

Example 2: A diverging mirror has a radius of 20 cm. An object is placed 30 cm in front of the mirror.
Determine where the image will appear.
Since the radius is 0.20 m (which is the distance from the mirror to the centre), the focal length
is -0.10 m. This is because the focus is half ways between the vertex and the centre, and
negative when the focus is behind the mirror of a diverging mirror.
1 1 1
= +
f d o di
1 1 1
=
di f do
1 1 1
=
d i 0.10 0.30
d i=0.075 m=7.5 cm
The negative sign on the answer indicates that the image is virtual, behind the mirror.
Magnification Equation
The magnification equation is...
hi d i
m= =
ho d o
Same as mirror equation and...
hi = height of the image (m)
ho = height of object (m)
m = magnification (how many times bigger or smaller)
Ultra-Special Notes for Using the Magnification Equation:

Same rules as for the mirror equation and...
Anything above the Principle Axis Positive +
Anything below the Principle Axis Negative -
Magnification Quantities:
|m| < 1 Diminished
|m| = 1 Same
|m| > 1 Enlarged
Example 3: For the same situation from Example 2, determine how tall the image is if the object is
5.0cm tall. Also determine the magnification.
hi d i
=
ho d o
d h
hi= i o
do
(0.075)(0.050)
hi=
0.30
hi=0.0125=0.013 m
The height is positive so the image is erect, above the principle axis.

To calculate the magnification either distances or heights could be used. Since the distances
have been through less calculations, we trust them more.
d i
m=
do
0.075
m=
0.30
m=0.25
The magnification is positive, verifying the image is erect. But, it less than one, so the image is
smaller than the object... one quarter the size!
Homework
p664 #1-5
p665 #9-10

Lesson 27: Refraction
Refraction is when waves change the direction they are traveling when they go
from one medium to another.
Have you ever looked at something like a pencil or pen sitting in a cup
of water? It probably looked something like Illustration 1.
Notice how the pen looks like it is bent and bigger in the water
something must be happening to the visible light as it travels through
two different substances water and air.
If someone is standing in a swimming pool, the light traveling
through the water from the persons feet does the same thing as it
changes medium and travels into the air. This bending often makes it
look like a person is short in the water. Illustration 1:
The way the waves move changes by moving to a different medium. Refraction makes the
pen look bent.
Since Ptolemys time (about 100AD) people knew about refraction, but they didnt know why it
happened, or how to predict and calculate it.
In the year 1600 a Dutch mathematician named Willebrord Snell was playing around with
numbers and figured out a formula that fit what everyone was measuring in their labs.
This meant that Snell had a mathematical formula that fit the empirical evidence collected in
labs.
The Law of Refraction (AKA Snells Law) in its basic form allows us to do calculations of
how a beam will bend when it moves from one medium to another. In its full form, it also lets
you do calculations involving wavelength and velocity of EMR in different media.
sin 1 n 2 1 v 1
= = =
sin 2 n 1 2 v 2
= angle measured from normal
n = index of refraction for medium
= wavelength of light
v = velocity of light
The index of refraction (n) is a way of comparing the optical density of The plural form of
different materials. index is indices.
Think of optical density as a measurement of how easily light can travel
through the medium.
A low index of refraction (like water nw = 1.33) is pretty easy to travel through.
A high index (like diamond nd = 2.42) is difficult for light to travel through.
The index of a medium is usually measured in an actual experiment theres no reliable way to
just predict what they will be.
Index of refraction has no units and is based on a comparison to how light travels in a vacuum.
The following table gives you an idea of some of the values of index of refraction for some
media.
You do not have to memorize this table.

Medium Index
Vacuum 1.00
Air 1.0003
Water 1.33
Ethanol 1.36
Glycerin 1.47
Crown Glass 1.50 1.62
Quartz 1.54
Flint Glass 1.45 2.00
Diamond 2.42
Simply use 1.00 in calculations.

Varies slightly due to inconsistencies in the glass and different methods of manufacturing.
Example 1: A beam of light traveling in glycerin hits the boundary between itself and water at an angle
of 43 from the normal. Determine the angle of refraction through the water.
We can call the original beam traveling in the glycerin the incident ray, and the light traveling in
the water the refracted ray. The indices for glycerin and water are on the table above, and then
we use Snell's Law to figure out the angle.
We can call either of media one and the other two, as long as we stay consistent. For this
question we're going to say water is one and glycerin is two, and that way we don't have to do
as much cross multiplying in the formula.
In the formula we only use the terms that we need, and drop the others.
sin 1 n2
=
sin 2 n1
sin 2 (n 2)
sin 1=
n1
sin 43 o (1.47)
sin 1=
1.33
o
1=48.9196=49
If you didn't get the right answer...

1. Is your calculator in degree mode?
2. Did you enter sin 43o in your calculator correctly so that you only took the sin of
that angle?
3. Did you take the inverse sin at the very end to get the angle?

We will usually be describing refraction in terms of whether the beam of light bends away from or
towards the normal.
Going from more dense to less dense = bend away
Going from less dense to more dense = bend towards
Speed of Light
Notice in Snell's Law that the velocity of light will change in different media.
The speed of light is a constant in one particular medium.
The speed that we use as a benchmark at all times is the speed of light in vacuum, 3.00e8m/s.
Scientists have successfully slowed light down to about 1 km/h! Although this is tough to do, it is
possible.
It is even possible for light to go faster if it is in a medium with an index of refraction less than
1.0.
This does not break Einsteins rules about the speed of light being the fastest speed.
He said no thing (with mass) can go faster than 3.00e8m/s light doesnt have mass!
And, in a particular medium, the speed of light is still the fastest possible speed.
Using the speed of light in a particular medium is actually one of the best ways to measure the index of
refraction for that medium.
The light first travels through vacuum and then enters the other medium where its new speed is
measured. From that you can calculate the index of refraction.
Example 2: A student is doing a lab. They test a material that light travels at 2.21e8m/s through.
Determine what substance this might be.
n2 v 1
=
n1 v 2
n v
n 2= 1 1
v2
1.00 (3.00e8)
n2 =
2.21e8
n2=1.35747=1.36
From the chart we see that ethanol has an index of refraction of 1.36. There might be other
substances with this same index, so we cant be sure.
Using Snell's Law to Predict Changes in Wavelength

You dont usually observe color changes, since you need to actually be in the other medium to be able
to see the different wavelength.
This follows from the change in the speed of light.
Remember that in Physics 20 we learned that as a wave travels from one medium to
another, its frequency remains constant.
According to v = f , if v changes but f stays the same, must change.

Example 3: A beam of red light ( = 700nm) is traveling through air (n = 1.00). If it leaves the air and
travels into a piece of flint glass (n = 1.75), determine the color (approximately) that it will be in the
glass.
n2 1
=
n1 2
n
1 = 2 2
n1 This makes it a indigo-violet color.
700e-9(1.00 )
1=
1.75
1 =4.00e-7 m=400e-9=400 nm
Homework
p668 #1-3
p670 #1

Lesson 28: Total Internal Reflection & Prisms
There are two topics that we should look at that are consequences of refraction:
Total Internal Reflection
Prisms
Total Internal Reflection

I know that it might seem like a typo, but total internal reflection is happening because of refraction.
If a beam of light is traveling from an optically dense medium into a less dense medium, the
light can refract so much that it actually gets trapped in the original medium (like it was
reflected).
Lets look at what happens to the refracted angle as we increase the incident angle slowly for a ray
leaving a more optically dense medium into a less optically dense medium.
In these examples we will refer to the light rays by colors. This has nothing to do with the color
of light being used. It's just to keep straight which diagram is referring to which situation.
Red Ray
Notice that the red beam in Illustration 1 does exactly what
we would expect it to do. It leaves the water and bends away
from the normal.
If we wanted to calculate anything for this situation,
we would do a normal calculation using Snell's Law.
There is nothing at all special about this first ray.
Illustration 1: This red ray has a small

incident angle.
Blue Ray
Weve increased the angle that the blue beam is traveling
through the water in Illustration 2.
This means that the beam leaves the water and travels
into the air refracted at a bigger angle away from the
normal.
Notice that the beam traveling in the air is getting
closer to the surface of the water.
This is still solved as basic Snell's Law question.
Illustration 2: The incident angle is
getting bigger.

Green Ray
This green beam is traveling through the water at a pretty big
angle from the normal.
In fact, it is traveling at such a big angle from the
normal that when the beam tries to leave into the air, it
is refracted at 90!!!
This means that the beam never really leaves the
water, but instead skims along the surface of the
water.
Illustration 3: The incident angle is so
For this reason we call the angle that the beam is
big that the refracted ray never truly
traveling in the water its critical angle with air.
leaves the water.
We can calculate this angle in the water using the
following method
sin 1 n 2
=
sin 2 n1 When calculating the critical angle, the angle
in the other medium must be, by definition, 90
sin 2 (n 2) degrees. Consider it to have perfect sig digs.
sin 1 =
n1
sin 90 o (1.00)
sin 1=
1.33
o
1=48.7535=48.8
This is the critical angle for water to air.

For any other combination of media you would have to calculate its unique critical angle.
Notice also that critical angles can only happen if something is going from higher to lower
density substances.
Going from lower to higher indices gives an unsolvable formula
Purple Ray
For any angle bigger than the critical angle you just calculated,
the beam cant even leave the water.
It will be refracted so much that it actually just starts to
reflect.
This is the total internal reflection that we were talking
about in the title for this section.
Just use the regular rule for reflection whatever the
incident angle is, the reflected angle will be the same.
Illustration 4: The angle of incidence
is so big that the ray reflects.

This is the principle used in fiber optic cables.
The fiber optic cable itself is made of a material like Plexiglas, part
plastic and part glass. It is slightly flexible, although if you bend it too
sharply it will snap.
If you use optical cable to connect parts of your home theatre
system, you basically are using fiber optic cable.
A light beam shining in one end of the fiber will bounce off of the
inside surface because of total internal reflection with very little loss.
The beam of light can't escape because it is trying to move from a
more dense (the cable) to a less dense (the air) medium.
The beam coming out the other end is very strong, even if the cable is
hundred of kilometres long.
A typical single strand of fibre optic cable can carry many times the
information that an old fashioned thick copper cable could do.
Prisms
Illustration 5: Fiber
Remember in the last lesson we saw that Snell's Law shows that different optic cable is protected
wavelengths of EMR will refract at different angles. on the outside by
If the EMR is visible light then the different colors will refract at
several layers of
different angles and split up. material.
Shorter wavelengths (like violet) refract the most.
Longer wavelengths (like red) refract the least.
This is what you see happening when light passes through a

glass prism and forms a rainbow.
Sir Isaac Newton noticed this effect while playing
around with prisms.
He reasoned that since shining white light into a prism
resulted in all the colors of the rainbow coming out,
visible white light must be made up of all the colors of
visible light.
He also found that if you used a second prism, you could
make the individual colors blend back together to form
white light.
Illustration 6: A prism splits white
light into all the colors.
Technically speaking...
breaking white light into its colors is called dispersion.
recombining colors into white light is called recomposition.

This also partly explains what happens when light refracts through a rain droplet and forms a true
rainbow.
Illustration 7: Visible light entering a raindrop results in a rainbow.

When the light enters the rain drop, it refracts.
The light that hits the back of the rain drop has total internal reflection and reflects back into the
drop.
The light refracts one last time as it exits the rain drop.
All these refracted light rays take different paths to your eye, so you see separated colors.
Homework
p673 #1

Lesson 29: Lenses
Remembering the basics of mirrors puts you half ways towards fully understanding lenses as well. The
same sort of rules apply, just with a few modifications.
Keep in mind that for an object to be considered a lens it must be made of a transparent material that
has an index of refraction higher than air.
That way it will be able to refract the light as it passes through.
Also, to get an image that isn't screwed up, we have to assume that the lens is thin.
The shape of a lens is named in a similar way to the naming of mirrors, its just a little more
complicated.
All lenses are broken into two broad groups, depending on whether they focus light at a point
(converging lens), or spread it out (diverging lens).
Converging lenses are always convex in shape, which means the centre is thicker than the
edges.
Diverging lenses are always concave in shape, which means the edges are thicker than the
centre.
Converging Diverging
Double Convex Double Concave
Planoconvex Planoconcave
Convex meniscus Concave meniscus

When drawing lenses in our sketches, we need to
put in a principle axis, just like mirrors.
You also need to add in a principle plane,
a line that is perpendicular to the principle
axis and runs length wise through the
middle of the lens.
We will be assuming that all refraction
happens when the light reaches this
principle plane.
Although this is not true, it makes our Illustration 1: Diagram showing a double convex
sketches a lot easier to do, and it is lens.
pretty accurate for lenses that are fairly
thin.
We still draw in the focal point, but now we do it on both sides.
Rule #1: Any ray through the focus will refract parallel to the principle axis.
Same basic idea as the rule you used for mirrors,
but now the ray refracts and travels through the
O
lens.
The light ray comes off of the object and goes

through the focus. Notice that we did keep the ray
moving in the same direction until it reached the
principle plane in the lens. Thats where we bent
the light so that it would travel parallel to the
principle axis.
Illustration 2: Rule 1 goes through the focus.
Rule #2: Any ray parallel to the principle axis will refract so that it passes through the focus.
O
This ray starts off parallel to
the principle axis. When it
reaches the principle plane, it
refracts so that it will go
through the focus on the other
side.
I
Illustration 3: Rule 2 is parallel to the principle axis.

Rule #3: Any ray that passes through the centre of the lens will come out the other side without
any refraction.
By centre, we mean where

the principle axis and O
plane cross. The ray goes
straight through as if
nothing was there. This is
because as much as the ray
is refracted one way on
one side of the lens, it will
be refracted back the other I
way on the other side of
the lens. Illustration 4: A ray goes straight through the centre.
It looks like this ray agrees with our other two, so we must be doing ok!
The image produced is...
enlarged
inverted
real (yup, rays of light really went through the lens and ended up on the other side.)
Lets look at an example using a diverging lens. We still use the same ideas, but well have to look at
where the image will be formed carefully.
Illustration 5: A diverging lens with an object on the left hand side.
When we draw in the first ray

parallel to the principle axis, it
will hit the lens and diverge (be
bent away). This must mean that
if I extend the diverging ray
back down as a dotted line, it
will hit the focus on the objects
side.
Illustration 6: The ray diverges (bends away on the other side) when it
goes through the lens.

We can draw another ray that
simply goes through the centre
and see what happens
Illustration 7: A ray through the centre still goes straight through.
Notice where this line crosses the

dotted line from the first ray? Thats
where my image will appear. Since one
of the rays is not truly there, the image
will be virtual.
Illustration 8: Showing the virtual image that is

produced.
You can use the same formulas as you did for mirrors to do calculations with mirrors. Just keep the
following rules in mind (theyre the same as the ones for mirrors)
Ultra-Special Notes for Signs Using the Mirror Equation:
Like mirrors...
a converging lens has a positive focal length
a diverging lens has a negative focal length.
The object is always a positive distance, and we look at where the image appears relative to the
object...
Images on the other side of the Lens (Real) Positive +
Images on the same side of the Lens (Virtual) Negative -

Example 1: A converging lens has a focal length of 0.22 m. If an object is placed 0.41 m in front of the
lens, determine the image will appear and identify its characteristics.
Since the lens is converging, the focal length will be +0.22 m. The object placed in front of the
lens will have a positive distance from the lens of +0.41 m (objects are always positive
distance).
1 1 1
= +
f di do
1 1 1
=
di f d o
1 1 1
=
di 0.22 0.41
d i=0.474737=0.47m
Since the distance to the image is positive, it is real. For a lens this means it is on the other side
of the lens from the object.
To figure out the other characteristics of the image we will use the magnification formula.
d
m= i
do
0.47
m=
0.41
m=1.15789=1.2
The negative sign on the magnification means the image is inverted. Since the magnification is
greater than one, the image is enlarged.
Homework
p681 #1-2

Lesson 30: Diffraction & Interference
The wave model of light eventually replaced Newton's particle theory.
This did not happen overnight, and it certainly wasn't the work of one person.
Three specific concepts became the best evidence of a wave model of light.
Huygen's Principle
Young's Double Slit Experiment
Diffraction Gratings
Huygen's Principle
One special property of waves is diffraction around obstacles and through openings.
As we already briefly discussed, diffraction happens when waves appear to fill in the missing
spots after hitting or going through these situations.
If water waves go through a small opening then they will spread out on the other side to
eventually be wider than the opening they went through.
After hitting an obstacle, water waves will fill in the missing area behind the obstacle so that
it doesn't look like anything was ever blocking the wave.
Christiaan Huygens tried to explain this property in his model known as Huygen's Principle is
Huygen's Principle. a model that helps us
Huygen's Principle says you should imagine a wave as being made up understand waves, but
of an infinite number of tiny point wave sources, each of which spreads is not necessarily what
the waves are actually
out on its own and allows the wave to continue. doing.
All these little waves are called wavelets.
These wavelets look like individual ripples in a pond spreading outwards after a rock is thrown
in.
The difference in this model is that we only picture the portion of the ripple that spreads
forwards in the direction the wave is traveling.
wavelets meet and

obstacle overlap each other,
light source forming the new
wavefront with no gaps
wave front
with point
sources
Illustration 1: The wavelets coming from one
wave front diffract around an obstacle.

For diffraction to be observed, the size of the opening or obstacle needs to be about the same size as the
wavelength of the wave.
If the wavelength is much bigger or smaller, the diffraction will be difficult (if not impossible)
to see.
Originally, this was a weakness in the wave model of light.
Scientists did not understand just how small the wavelengths of visible light really were, so
their experiments originally had opening and obstacles that were far too big.
No diffraction was observed, so they thought that maybe light was not a wave.
Even as they started to realize just how small the wavelengths of visible light might be,
there was the problem of how to get an obstacle or opening that small.
Young's Double Slit Experiment

These problems were solved in 1801 by Thomas Young.
There are different ways to explain how he did this, but they all get you
to the same result.
For the purposes of our explanation, we will be using the idea of a
screen with two narrow slits cut through it.
Imagine if you took a sheet of paper and made two parallel slits in
the middle with a razor blade and you'll have the right idea.
Young placed a screen that had two slits cut into it in front of a monochromatic
(single color) light. Illustration 2: Thomas
The results of Young's Double Slit Experiment should be very different Young
if light is a wave or a particle.
Lets look at what the results would be in both Young had to be very careful with his setup.
situations, and then see how this experiment He needed the light rays to be parallel and
supports the wave model. in phase (waves with crests and troughs at
the same times) in order to work. He did this
by using a single light source and shining it
If light is a particle through a single opening first, then this
single beam of light hit the double slits.
We set up our screen and shine a bunch of monochromatic
light onto it.
If light is a particle, then only the couple of particles of light that go exactly where the slits are
will be able to pass through.
Imagine it as being almost as though we are spraying paint from a spray can through the
openings.

Since they are little particles they will make a pattern of two exact lines on the viewing screen.
Illustration 3: If light is a particle...

If light is a wave
If light is a wave, everything starts the same way, but
the results we get are very different.
There are still only two light rays that actually
go through the slits, but as soon as they pass
through they start to diffract (Illustration 4).
Notice that at some points the two sets of waves
will meet crest to crest, at other spots crest
meets trough.
Where crest meets crest, there will be
constructive interference and the waves
will make it to the viewing screen as a
bright spot.
Where crest meets trough there will be Illustration 4: The light passing through the
destructive interference that cancel each small slits starts to diffract on the other side.
other out a black spot will appear on the
screen.

When this experiment is performed we actually see this interference if we look at the light that hits a
screen placed away from the double slit screen (Illustration 5).
We must conclude that light is made up of waves, since particles can not diffract.
Illustration 5: The interference pattern seen on the viewing screen.
Young's Double Slit Calculations

When you set up this sort of an apparatus, there is actually
a way for you to calculate where the bright lines caused by
constructive interference (called fringes) will appear.
There is always a middle line, which is the
brightest. We call it the central fringe or central
antinode and give it an n value of 0.
The formula we will use has a variable, n,
that is a count of how many bright fringes you
are away from the central fringe.
Illustration 6: The orders of the fringes.
The fringe to either side of the central fringe has
Note, for monochromatic light these lines are
an order of n = 1 (the first order fringe or first
all the same color.
order antinode).
The order of the next fringe out on either side is n = 2 (the second order fringe or second
order antinode) , and so on.
The dark spaces that happen between the bright fringes are referred to as nodes and have values that
are between the n values of the bright fringes.
For example, the dark space that appears between the bright antinodes numbered 1 and 2 above
would have an n value of 1.5.

Method 1: The Small Angle Approximation
One formula that we can use to figure out problems involving double slit experiments is easy to mix
up.
It is based on measuring a bunch of distances, so sometimes you Warning!
might get confused about which is which. Use this method when you know that
the angle from the central fringe to the
It also only gives us an approximate value, and it goes really fringe you are measuring is less than
wonky if the angle away from the central fringe is more than 100.
o
about 10 .
For this reason, we will often refer to this formula as the small angle approximation.
xd
=
nl
= wavelength of light used (m)
x = distance from central fringe (m)
d = distance between the slits (m)
n = the order of the fringe
l = length from the screen with
slits to the viewing screen (m)
It is very easy to mix up the measurements of x, d, and l.

l Make sure to look at Illustration 7 and see the different
things each is measuring.
If you mix up x and d it's not so bad, since they are both on
top in the formula. If you were to mix them up with L, you
would get the wrong answer.
Almost all questions that you will see for this formula just
involve sorting out what each variable is... you might find it
helpful to write out a list of givens.
Illustration 7: Symbols in the

formula measure different parts.
Example 1: A pair of screens are placed 13.7m apart. A third order fringe is seen on the screen 2.50cm
from the central fringe. If the slits were cut 0.0960 cm apart, determine the wavelength of this light.
Identify (roughly) what colour its is.
First of all, using the small angle approximation here should give us a pretty good answer, since
according to the measurements above...
opp
0.0250 m
tan =
adj
0.0250
tan =
13.7
o 13.7 m
=0.105
Wow! I'd say that's less than 10o!

Just to make sure youve got all the numbers from the question matched with the correct
variables
l = 13.7 m
n=3
x = 2.50cm = 0.0250 m
d = 0.0960cm = 9.60e-4 m
xd
=
nl
0.0250(9.60e-4)
=
3(13.7)
=5.83942e-7m
=584e-9=584nm
Its probably a yellow light being used given the wavelength we've measured.
We don't have to do the conversions from the original answer in metres into nanometres, it's just
makes it easier to identify the colour.
Method 2: Sine Theta Formula

There is also a version of the formula where you measure the angle
between the central fringe and whatever fringe you are measuring.
The formula works the same way, with the only difference
being that we measure the angle instead of x and l.
d sin
=
n
Make sure that your calculator is in degree mode before
using this version of the formula.
Warning!
Use the sine theta method when it is Illustration 8: Measuring the angle
obvious the angle is bigger than 100. in Young's Double Slit.
Example 2: If a yellow light with a wavelength of 540 nm shines on a double slit with the slits cut
2.20e-3 mm apart, determine what angle you should look away from the central fringe to see the
second order fringe.
Do not forget to:
1. Change the wavelength into metres.
2. Change the slit separation into metres.
3. "Second order" is a perfect number and has an infinite number of sig digs.
4. Take the inverse sign at the end to get the angle.
d sin
=
n
n
sin =
d
540e-9(2)
sin =
2.20e-6
=29.400351=29.4o

Diffraction Gratings
You know the old saying two hands are You can actually do the single slit experiment wherever
better than one? Well, we're going to take it you are right now! Hold two of your fingers very close
to the extreme. together; there should be only the tiniest little gap between
If you want, you can get a wimpy them that you can barely see through. Look towards a light
source, light a light bulb, through the gap in your fingers. In
interference pattern with light using the gap between your fingers you shold see very faint gray
just a single slit (that's what you did lines that run parallel to your fingers... these are the
with your fingers). destructive interference "dark" fringes!
A double slit apparatus like the one that
Young used works well to give clear images of the fringes of the interference pattern.
What if we increased the number of slits? The interference pattern will become more clearly
defined.
This was an idea that some physicists thought of after Youngs work had been published.
Was there a way to make an apparatus like Young's that had a lot of slits in the first screen?
Now, when I say a lot of slits, I really do mean a lot. These guys wanted to figure out a way
to have hundreds, or thousands of slits, cut into the screen.
They figured that this would produce incredibly sharp interference fringes that they would be
able to measure even more accurately than those in Youngs experiment, which would allow
them to measure the wavelengths of light even more carefully.
The problem was, how could you possibly cut that many slits into a
screen you simply cant.
Their solution was to look at things a little differently.
Have you ever been driving in a car that had a big crack in the
windshield? You probably found it was very distracting if the
crack was right in front of your eyes. This is because light doesnt
travel very well through cracks in glass. In fact, even scratches in
glass block the passage of light.
Illustration 9: The piece of
The idea these scientists had was to take a piece of glass and cut glass with parallel scratches.
very narrow parallel scratches into the surface using a diamond.
These scratches wont let light through, but light will still be able to pass through the spaces
in between it will be like thousands of little slits cut into a screen!
These are called diffraction gratings, since they diffract light though the little
gratings cut into them.
Held up near a source of white light, they will easily split the light up into
a rainbow of colors.
You can also use a monochromatic light and see very distinct bright and
dark fringes.
If we use these diffraction gratings it is possible to measure the
wavelength of light very accurately, even if the most basic measurements Illustration 10:
are taken. Diffraction grating.

If a white light is used with a diffraction grating, the different colours will be split up on the viewing
screen according to their wavelengths.
The violet end of the spectrum (with the shortest wavelengths) refracts at a very small angle
and is closer to the central fringe
Red (with the longer wavelength) refracts at a big angle and is far away from the central fringe.
This is significant since it is the exact opposite of what we see when white light passes
through a prism (See Lesson 28).
Real diffraction gratings are made out of pieces of glass cut by a diamond, are
about the size of two postage stamps, and cost at least $50 each!
Replica diffractions gratings are made by rubbing an acetate sheet (the
kind teachers use on overheads) on top of a real diffraction grating to
pick up some of the scratches.
The advantage is that a replica diffraction grating only costs about $2.
The downside is that the fringes are not nearly as clear. Illustration 11:
Replica diffraction
Whether you are using a true diffraction grating or just a replica, you can still use gratings barely show
both of the formulas that we looked at in Young's Double Slit Experiment last any colors in this
lesson. image.
What you will have to watch out for is the way that you get the value for "d" to use in the
formulas.
The spacings between the scratches are incredibly small.
Because of this, the traditional way of labeling a diffraction grating is to say how many
scratches there are in a certain amount of length on the glass.
In both Illustrations 10 and 11 the gratings had spacings of 600 lines/mm.
It means that you have to do a quick conversion to find "d" for the formula.
Since d is the distance between the scratches in metres and we have the number of
grooves per millimetre, the first thing we would do is take the inverse.
Then, since we want metres instead of millimetres, we divide by 1000 (the number of
millimetres in one metre).
Did You Know?

The reason a CD or DVD has a rainbow of colors on it is because the thousands of circular grooves
pressed into the aluminum subsurface act as a diffraction grating.
Also, the latest series of Canadian polymer bills have a diffraction grating built in for security purposes.
Check out the Bank of Canada for more information.
Example 3: Determine the value of d for the true diffraction grating shown in Illustration 10 that is
labeled as 600 lines/mm.
600 lines / mm Take the inverse
1 / 600 = 0.00166666 mm/line Divide by 1000 to get metres
0.00166666 1000 = 1.6666666e-6 = 1.67e-6 m/line

Example 4: Using the value for d for the diffraction grating you just calculated, determine the color
of light being used if the angle from the central bright band (fringe) to the first fringe is 17.5.
Since this is the first bright fringe from centre, n = 1. Also, make sure your calculator is in
degree mode!!!
d sin
=
n
1.666666e-6( sin17.5 o)
=
1
=5.011793325e-7 = 501e-9 = 501 nm
This is basically green light.
Homework
p691 #1,3
p693 #1
p697 #6, 8

Lesson 31: Polarization
Polarization is something that people have known about (indirectly) for a long time, but for many years
didn't understand.
When you look at sunlight reflecting off of water, the glare can just about blind you!
The same sort of thing happens when you get an intense glare from snow... snow blindness.
This happens because of the way hitting the surface changes the shape of the light wave. This
is what we call polarization.
If you took a piece of Iceland Spar (a type of crystal) and held a piece of tourmaline (another
crystal) and held them both in front of your eye, you could get rid of that glare almost
completely.
EMR is basically a bunch of transverse waves pointing in all sorts of

directions all at once.
Waves of light are vibrating up-down, left-right, diagonally back and
forth, in every direction all at once.
If you were to look at a beam of light coming straight at you and see
its waves, youd see something that looks like Illustration 1.
This is what the waves look like normally. We call it unpolarized or
non-polarized light.
When light hits a reflective surface like water, it will reflect the light waves Illustration 1: Viewing
polarized slightly. EMR head on shows
This is because the waves that are vibrating in the direction that hits waves vibrating in every
the surface get scrunched a bit. direction.
The part of the wave parallel to the surface isn't scrunched, but
might bulge outwards a bit.
Imagine watching a basketball hitting the ground in slow motion. You'd see it squish
vertically, and bulge out a bit horizontally.
Illustration 2: Light reflected from a lake becomes polarized.

Your eyes and brain have a hard time figuring out how to interpret this information, so we see
this scrunched polarized light as a glare from the surface.

To get rid of the glare, we need to make the vibrations the same size again.
To imagine how we can do this, imagine a regular fence made out of boards that are vertical.
You put a piece of rope through the space between two of the boards.
Stretch out the rope and get a friend to hold on to it on the other side while you grab the other
end and shake it up and down to make waves that move vertically.
Will your friend on the other side see the waves coming towards him? Yup! Since the waves
are vertical, they will pass through the vertical spaces in the boards.
Now try shaking the rope side to side.
The waves will never reach your friend on the other side (even though he might see the rope
shake a bit), since horizontal waves cant travel through a vertical opening very well.
A piece of Iceland spar and tourmaline, or a polarizing filter, would remove most of the waves
vibrating in every direction, except one.
In a polarizing filter there are long molecules aligned parallel that act almost like the fence
boards in the example above.
When the light goes through the polarizing filter only waves parallel to the molecules in the
polarizing filter will be able to pass through.
If the polarizing filter is vertical, then the only waves to get through would be
Illustration 3: The reflected light passes through a polarizing filter.

The glare would be gone. Since the horizontal and vertical vibrations are equal, your eyes and
brain can interpret the information correctly again. It just won't be as bright as it originally was.
Did You Know?

The first European explorers that reached the Inuit in Canada's
north learned a good lesson. The explorers kept having trouble with
snow blindness. The Inuit showed them how to take a piece of bone
and cut horizontal slits through it. When worn in front of the eyes,
you don't get snow blindness anymore. The slits are acting as a
primitive polaroid filter.

Knowledge of polarization and polarizing filters
is actually very useful for photographers to
know about.
To reduce the effect of the glare while
taking a picture in these conditions, we
can put a polarizing filter on the camera
so that it is aligned vertically.
Although it wont get rid of all the
horizontal waves, it will get rid of
enough so that the waves are about
equal. This will get rid of the glare.
To see a real life example of what a
polarizing filter can do, look at these two Illustration 4: Photos taken without and with
sample images of a person sitting behind polarizing filters. Images courtesy of the Tiffen
a glass window below. Company.
The first one is taken with no filter, the second with the filter in place.
Video Killed the Radio Star!

Glare can happen from many surfaces, not just water, snow, and glass. You can watch a video of me
getting rid of glare by clicking here.
If you place two polarizing filters on top of each other so that the are aligned 90 to each other, then
you will see nothing.
This happens because one filter is getting rid of the horizontal, while the other is getting rid of
the vertical.
With almost all of the light blocked out, you don't see anything.
Homework
p697 #6, 8
p699 #1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 19,
20, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 37, 39-42

Lesson 32: Birth of Quantum Mechanics
End of an Era...
At the end of the 1800s, physicists looked back at a period of 300 years of great growth
Newton had explained the motion of objects here on earth (and in the heavens).
Maxwell had put together electricity and magnetism in his work on electromagnetic radiation.
Thomson had figured out the mass of atomic particles.
...and more!
Altogether, most physicists believed that they had pretty much figured out the whole universe! They
were willing to admit that there were still a few questions, but for the most part they were sure they
could answer those problems based on what was already known. It was felt that it was only a matter of
time (and not much time) before it would all be cleared up right?
Wrong.
All of the physics you have studied up till now is called Classical Physics.
It works great for the kind of physics we've looked at, and you can keep on using it for those
kinds of questions.
The problem was that classical physics (as we now call it) could not explain a few nagging
questions in physics right around the end of the 1800's.
One of these problems involved something called blackbody radiation.
Blackbody Radiation
A blackbody is an object that perfectly absorbs all wavelengths of EMR that strike Blackbody radiation
it. was also called cavity
This means that all EMR, from the lowest frequency AC radiation to the radiation at one time.
highest cosmic rays, will perfectly be absorbed by the object. In this model we
imagine a hollow
It's called a blackbody, since objects colored black absorb all visible
sphere with a single
light that falls on them. True blackbodies work even better than this, but hole drilled in the side
it seemed like a good name. (the cavity), through
This EMR being absorbed is really energy that the blackbody is absorbing. which the EMR enters.
This energy is also perfectly re-emitted, released by the object, as EMR.

According to classical physics, as the frequency of the emitted EMR increases, so should the
intensity.
As more and more energy from the EMR was absorbed, it would cause the atoms of the
blackbody to vibrate faster and faster at higher and higher frequencies.
These vibrating atoms (made of charged particles) would release higher and higher
frequencies of more and more intense EMR.
This classical physics explanation of the emitted EMR could be drawn as a graph
(Illustration 1).
The problem is, this doesn't happen!

Instead, the intensity of the emitted radiation does increase, until it reaches a particular
frequency that depends on the temperature, and then drops.

The peak frequency is the reason why different So, why don't you ever see a burner on a
objects at different temperatures appear as stove glowing green? As the colors shift
different colors, like the red hot burner on a stove. higher and higher, most of the colors
The higher the temperature, the higher the eventually end up being emitted strongly,
peak frequency shifts up to. so they all blend into white light.
So the shift in visible light as the temperature
increases is from red to violet.
We also have a generic graph of this (for no particular temperature) on the graph in
Illustration 1.
Intensity as a function of frequency for released EMR
predicted by
Intensity of classical
EMR physics observed in
experiment
Frequency
of EMR
Illustration 1: Blackbody radiation prediction and reality.
Physicists could not explain why the graph suddenly drops off, or why it peaks at the particular
frequencies at particular temperatures.
Some of the best minds of the time worked on this, people like Wilhelm Wien, Lord Rayleigh,
and Sir James Jeans.
Never heard of these guys? Doesn't surprise me. Although they made important
contributions in physics, their attempts at blackbody radiation failed to come up with an
explanation.
Because the frequency that the graph drops off at corresponds roughly to the frequency of
ultraviolet radiation, this problem became known as the Ultraviolet Catastrophe.

Max Planck
Late in the year 1900, Max Planck (pronounced Plonk, not kidding) came up
with a new idea that would solve the problems everyone was having trying to
explain blackbody radiation.
Up to this point everyone was assuming that those little vibrating
electrons (thought to be absorbing and then re-emitting the blackbody
radiation) could vibrate at any frequency.
Planck suggested that there is a minimum
Quanta is the plural
amount of energy that a particular frequency of form of quantum. So a
EMR can transfer to the matter. bunch of individual
Illustration 2: Max This smallest individual piece of energy was pieces of energy is
called a quantum. called quanta.
Planck
The idea of pieces of energy, quanta, was used to explain the shape of blackbody radiation graphs.
Planck found that a very simple formula could be used to calculate the quantum at a particular
frequency of EMR
E = hf
E = energy of the radiation (J)
h = Plancks Constant = 6.63e-34 Js
f = frequency of the EMR (Hz)
Warning! Two Special Notes!

This formula is the amount of energy emitted by a single piece of radiation. To have multiple pieces, the formula would look like
E = nhf
n = number of pieces of radiation emitted
Sometimes we measure the energy in electron volts, so we use a different value for Planck's Constant, h = 4.14e-15 eVs . Only use
this value if you have a really good reason to.
Planck was saying that energy is not continuous, but instead is quantized, coming in tiny pieces.
This is sort of like when you look at a picture in the newspaper.
On a big scale it looks like a continuous picture.
If you can get down to the little details you'll see its actually made up of little dots that
blend together. Quanta.
Example 1: Determine the smallest amount of energy from a light source that emits light at a
frequency of 4.50e14 Hz.
E = hf
E = 6.63e-34 (4.50e14)
E = 2.9835e-19 = 2.98e-19 J
It is normal to state this answer in Joules. If we had calculated it with the other value of Planck's
Constant we would have had the answer 1.86 eV.

Example 2: Determine the minimum energy transferred by a light source with a 212 nm wavelength in
electron volts.
Remember the universal wave equation can apply to EMR...
v= f
c= f
c
f=

This can be substituted into Planck's formula...

hc
E=hf =

4.14e-15(3.00e8)
E=
212e-9
E=5.85849=5.86 eV
Albert Einstein
In 1905 an unknown physicist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea
that built on what Planck had said.
Planck thought that his ideas of quanta and E = hf was all about how
matter absorbed and emitted energy.
Remember, he was focused on explaining blackbody radiation.
Einstein suggested that these ideas were primarily about the light itself.
He figured that light itself was where it all started, that the light
itself was made up of individual pieces.
The reason this was so radical an idea was because it meant that
light was acting like a particle.
The light particles were eventually named photons.
Illustration 3: Albert
Einstein... ya mighta
This idea was not immediately accepted by everyone, since there was so much heard of him.
evidence that light acted as a wave, not a particle.
Photon comes from the
As we will see in later lessons, the amount of evidence that light had a
Greek word for light.
particle nature increased to a point it couldn't be ignored. Einstein originally called
This does not mean that we abandon the wave nature. Instead we will photons a light quantum.
bring the two ideas together. The chemist Gilbert N.
Lewis came up with the
name photon.
Example 3: You buy a laser at the store and read on the label that it has a frequency of 4.38e15 Hz.
The label also says that it runs at 4.06 mW. Determine how many photons it can release in one second.
This is the total energy being released as a bunch of individual photons come out of the laser
each second. We can calculate how many photons by using the Power formula from Physics 20
and the special version of Planck's formula that has n for the number of photons in it...

E=nhf
Pt =nhf
E Pt
P= n=
t hf
E= P t 4.06e-3(1)
n=
6.63e-34(4.38e15)
n=1.3981005e15=1.40e15 photons
Homework
p706 #1-3
p707 #1-3
p708 #1-2

Lesson 33: Photoelectric Effect
Hertz Experiment
Heinrich Hertz was doing experiments in 1887 to test some of Maxwell's theories of EMR.
One of the experiments involved using a coil of wire as a receiver to detect EMR produced by a
separate device.
This was very much like Maxwell's own experiments with low frequency AC radiation.
Hertz was having problems seeing the spark that was made by the coil, so he placed the whole
thing inside a dark box and looked through a glass window.
Funny thing was, the sparks seemed shorter now. He could see them in the dark, but they
just weren't as big anymore.
Hertz noticed that when he changed the glass window to one made out of quartz, the sparks got
bigger.
The big difference is that the glass blocks UV, but the quartz does not.
In the end, Hertz concluded that if random UV radiation in the room was able to go into the box
(it could only do that if glass did not block it) it would hit the coil and help electrons pop off
making bigger sparks.
Hertz did not try to figure out why this was happening.
Einstein's Explanation
Threshold Frequency
Einstein figured out that it was the frequency of the light hitting the metal that was important.
When the UV light hit the metal of the coil, it had enough energy to knock off electrons.
This was happening because the individual photons of UV had enough energy according to
the formula E = hf.
If the metal is exposed to radiation with a frequency less than UV, nothing happened.
Since the frequency of the light is so low, each photon does not have enough energy to
knock off the electrons.
This critical minimum frequency that is needed to start knocking off the electrons was named
the threshold frequency.
The special symbol used for it in formulas is fo .
Work Function
Einstein believed that to give a single electron the energy to move, the metal was hit by a single photon
(destroying itself), and transferred its energy to the one electron.
Since the electron is originally attached to the metal, some minimum amount of energy must be
needed just to snap it off. Otherwise, electrons would just be dropping off of atoms all the time.
Einstein called this the work function of the metal, since you needed to do work on the electron
to break it off.
Every metal has its own work function, since different metals hold on to their electrons with
different strengths.
Popping the electrons off starts to happen at a minimum threshold frequency, so that must
correspond to the work function.
The formula for this is a modification of Planck's formula.

E=hf
W =h f o
W = work function (J)
h = Planck's Constant
fo = threshold frequency (Hz)
Warning!
Ok, sure, this formula is almost exactly the same as Planck's. The difference here is what we're talking about. Planck's formula is
about any photon of EMR. The formula for work function is all about minimum energy needed to knock electrons off a metal. You must
use the work function formula when calculating things concerning electrons being knocked off to show that you understand we are not
just talking about the photons themselves.
Just like Planck's formula, you can use the value for Planck's constant in electron volts and get
your final answer in electron volts.
In fact, it is very common to give the value for the work function in electron volts.
You could also use a maximum threshold wavelength instead of the minimum threshold
frequency.
Example 1: Determine the threshold frequency of a material with a work function of 10eV.
Since the value for the work function is given in electron volts, we might as well use the value
for Plancks constant that is in eVs.
W =hf o
W
f o=
h
10
f o=
4.14e-15
f o=2.41546e15=2.4e15 Hz
Example 2: Determine the work function of a metal in Joules if the maximum threshold wavelength is
1.10e-7 m.
W =hf o
hc Remember that c = f so we can change
W= the formula just like we did for Planck's
o formula.
6.63e-34(3.00e8)
W=
1.10e-7
W =1.80818e-18=1.81e-18J

Millikan's Measurements of the Photoelectric Effect
Robert Millikan set up an experiment using the following apparatus.
A UV light source was aimed at a piece of zinc inside a
vacuum tube.
With the UV source turned on a current was
shown on the ammeter.
How could a current flow when there is a
huge gap between the wires in the tube?
It was reasoned that when the UV light hit
the zinc plate, the photons of UV knocked
electrons off the zinc. These electrons fly
across the tube and hit the metal plate.
The result is a negative charge on the metal
plate (it's gaining electrons) and a positive
charge on the zinc plate (it lost the Illustration 1: Photoelectric Effect apparatus
electrons).
Current flows in the wire, as the electrons move from the metal plate back to the zinc
plate.
Stopping Voltage
To further test these ideas we can turn on the variable voltage source.
Notice that the variable voltage source is set up so that the metal plate will be negative and the
zinc plate becomes positive.
This voltage should work against the electrons getting all the way from the zinc plate to the
metal plate. Only electrons with enough kinetic energy (going fast enough) will be able to get to
the metal plate.
Any electrons that have too little energy will just get pushed back by the negatively charged
metal plate and stick back onto the zinc plate.
The voltage was slowly increased from zero, and for a while nothing appeared to be changing.
But, there came a point when the voltage became too great for even the fastest moving electrons
to get across the gap. At this point (and for any higher voltages) the ammeter gives a reading of
zero.
This is the stopping voltage, the voltage that is enough to get rid of all the kinetic energy the
electrons had trying to get across the tube.
We can come up with a formula for this by relating it to the ideas we have from Lesson 13 on
voltage.
E
V=
q
E=q V
E k max=q V stop
Ek max = the kinetic energy of the
fastest moving electrons (J)
q = charge of an electron (C)
Vstop = the voltage needed to
stop the electrons (V)

Example 3: Determine the maximum kinetic energy of electrons emitted from a zinc surface if they
are stopped by a 16 N/C uniform electric field over a distance of 3.0cm.
First calculate the voltage.
V

E=
d

V =E d
V =160.030
V =0.48 V
Then figure out the maximum kinetic energy of the fastest moving electrons.
Ek max =q V stop
Ek max =1.60e-19( 0.48)
Ek max =7.68e-20=7.7e-20 J
Photoelectric Effect Formula (the Biggy!)

If the frequency of the incoming light is great enough, there should be enough energy to break off the
electron and have some left over to give it some kinetic energy. So
hf =E k max W
Input Energy Maximum Kinetic Work Function

This is the energy Energy This is the energy
of the incoming This is the part of that is needed to
photon. the energy that snap off the
allows the electron electron.
to move.
Note, some electrons will need more than
This is really a formula that shows conservation of energy. the bare minimum W to be released (they
The original input energy is from the incoming might be attracted more strongly), so their
photon. Ek is not as great as the maximum. Thats
Some of this energy is used to just snap off the ok, though, since well only worry about
electron from the metal. This is the work function. the electrons that came off the easiest
Any left over energy becomes kinetic energy used by and have the maximum kinetic energy.
the electron to go zipping across the tube.
This formula is built from separate formulas on your data sheet.

From the way that we've seen that each of those individual parts can be changed around, we can
adjust this basic formula to fit a particular problem as necessary.

Example 4: The threshold frequency of silver is 1.14e15 Hz. EMR with a wavelength of 2.50e-7 m
strikes a piece of pure silver. Determine the speed of the electrons that are emitted.
First we'll figure out how much kinetic energy the electrons are getting. We will have to
substitute formulas into the one we've built so far.
hf =E k max +W
hc
=E k max +hf o

hc
Ek max = hf o

6.63e-34 (3.00e8)
Ek max = 6.63e-34 (1.14e15)
2.50e-7
E k max=3.978e-20=3.98e-20 J
Now figure out the velocity of the electron.
1 2
Ek max = mv
2

v=
2 Ek max
m

v=
2(3.98e-20)
9.11e-31
v =295521=2.96e5 m/s
Homework
p716 #1-3
p718 #1-2
p719 #1-3
p720 #2, 6, 7

Lesson 34: Photoelectric Effect Graphs
Like many other topics in science, the results of the photoelectric effect can be better understood if the
results are presented in a graph. It is important to be able to interpret these graphs correctly.
The following graph is a typical example of how the photoelectric effect will be shown to you.
Realize that some parts can be changed, and although this will change the graph (like
flipping it around), the same essential information is there.
The vertical axis is labeled as energy.
If we're in the positive values, we're basically looking at the kinetic energy the electron has
as it zips around.
A negative energy value is how much energy it is lacking to be able to break off the metal it
starts on.
The horizontal axis is the frequency of the light striking the metal.
Energy as a function of
Frequency
energy
(J) y
x slope = Planck's Constant
work frequency
function (Hz)
threshold
frequency
Illustration 1: Energy as a function of Frequency
Threshold Frequency
The x-intercept is the threshold frequency of the material. This makes sense, since the electron will
have zero kinetic energy when it has received a photon at the threshold frequency. The electron has just
enough energy to be knocked off the surface, but thats it!

Work Function
The y-intercept is the work function of the material. For any frequency less than the threshold
frequency, its like the electron is in a deep hole. As the frequency goes from zero to higher values, the
electron is lifted higher out of the hole, until finally at its threshold frequency its out. When there are
no photons hitting it (frequency = 0 Hz), it is completely attached to the material. This is why they
appear as negative values on the graph.
Plancks Constant
If you look at the values you would use to calculate the slope of the line (x and y), youll notice that
the rise over run would be a change in energy over a change in frequency. Look at the formula E = hf
and solve for energy over frequency what do you get?
y rise
E=hf slope= =
x run
E and
h= E
f slope=
f
So the slope of the graph will always be Plancks constant.
Example 1: The following graph shows the effect of shining different frequencies of light on three
different metals. The metals and their work functions are copper (4.70eV), calcium (2.90eV), and
selenium (5.11eV). Identify which line represents each metal.
Energy as a function of
Frequency
energy
(J)
frequency
(Hz)
From the formula for work function (W = hfo) we know that the bigger the work function, the
bigger the threshold frequency. Therefore, the lines are...
calcium (2.90eV)
copper (4.70eV)
selenium (5.11eV)

You can even relate the photoelectric effect formula to the formula for a straight line graph if it helps
you remember what the three parts of the graph represent.
y = mx + b
Ekmax = hf + W
hf = Ekmax + W
The y axis is Ekmax

The slope (m) is Planck's Constant (h)
The x axis is the frequency
The y intercept is the work function (W)
Homework
p720 #8-10

Lesson 35: Compton Effect
The photoelectric effect and Einstein's theories about light having a particle nature caused a lot of
scientists to start to reexamine some basic ideas, as well as come up with some new ones.
Based on a lot of Einstein's work (including his Special Theory of Relativity), physicists
predicted that these photons should have momentum, just like other particles do.
The tough part is explaining and proving this in a
reasonable way, since you don't exactly feel light
Do you find it kind of odd that we're
hammering you into the floor. talking about all this stuff supporting the
The momentum that the light photons have must theory that light acts like a particle, and
be very small, and not based on the common way yet still doing calculations using values for
of calculating momentum using p = mv (since wavelength and frequency? Sounds kinda
light has no rest mass). wave-like to me. I don't blame you. This is
wave-particle duality. At times we can't
Instead the formula was based on the wavelength
really separate the two from each other.
and frequency of the light, just like Planck's
formula.
h hf
p= or p=
c
p = momentum (kgm/s)
h = Planck's Constant (always 6.63e-34)
= wavelength (m)
f = frequency (Hz)
c = speed of light
Warning!
Only the first formula is on your data sheet, but the other one is just derived from substituting
c = f . Be careful to only use these formulas if you are doing something involving the momentum of photons.
In 1923 A.H. Compton started shooting high frequency x-rays at various Graphite is just a hunk
materials and found that his results seemed to support the idea of photons of solid carbon.
having momentum. In one setup he shot the high frequency x-rays at a piece of
graphite.
If light was a wave, we
would expect the x-rays
to come out the other
side with their
wavelength smaller
(Illustration 1).
Basically we can
explain this as the incident x-rays with transmitted x-rays with
waves squishing bigger wavelength smaller wavelength
when they hit the
graphite, like a ball
squishing when it graphite
hits the ground.
Illustration 1: If light was a wave, we'd expect results like this.

Instead, Compton found that the x-rays scattered after hitting the target, changing the direction
they were moving and actually getting a longer wavelength.
Remember, longer wavelength means smaller frequency.
Since E = hf, the scattered photons had less energy! Somehow, the x-ray photons were
losing energy going through the graphite. So where'd the energy go?
Compton found that electrons were being thrown off the target at an angle.
Compton was able to explain all he was seeing (which became known as the Compton Effect)
by using
The conservation of energy (the energy the photon lost had to go somewhere).
The photon theory of light (to figure out the momentum of the photons).
The conservation of momentum (to explain the angles things were shooting off at).
scattered x-rays with

longer wavelength
incident x-rays with

small wavelength
graphite
ejected
electron
Illustration 2: What Compton actually observed.
If we looked at this in terms of momentum, we'd need to be careful about using the correct momentum
equations for each part.
Incident x-rays
h
The original x-rays have a small wavelength, and the formula p= shows us that this means

it has a lot of momentum.
Scattered x-rays
h
The x-rays that made it through have a bigger wavelength, so p= means it has less

momentum.
Ejected electrons
We would calculate the electron's momentum using a classic p=mv calculation.

Compton found that if he did all the calculations, including treating this as a 2-D momentum collision,
the numbers worked beautifully.
In fact, it's almost spooky just how perfectly the numbers worked out. It was basically a 100%
perfect conservation of momentum.
This showed that the particle model of light with all its talk about photons must be correct.
This was a turning point in the particle theory of light, when the majority of physicists
started to really believe the wave-particle duality of light was probably correct.
After looking at the data he got from his experiments, Compton also found that he could predict the
exact change in the wavelength between the incident and scattered x-rays.
His formula was based on the wave-particle duality of light, as well as the angle of the scattered
x-ray.
h
= 1cos
mc
= change in wavelength between
incident and scattered (m)
h = Planck's Constant
m = mass of electron (kg)
c = speed of light
= scattered x-ray's angle
Example 1: An x-ray light source with a wavelength of 1.28e-12m is shot at a piece of graphite. On the
other side, the x-ray is observed to have scattered at an angle of 15o away from the original path.
Determine the wavelength of the scattered x-ray (ignore sig digs). Then determine the velocity of the
ejected electron.
First, draw a sketch just to make sure you have everything correct. Rather than go to the trouble
of drawing the x-rays as waves, we'll just draw them is vectors to show their paths.
15O
= 1.28e-12m
electron
graphite
First we'll figure out the scattered x-ray's wavelength...

h
= (1cos ) scattered = + incident
mc
6.63e-34 scattered =8.26607287e-14+1.28e-12 m
= (1cos15 o )
9.11e-31 (3.00e8) scattered =1.362660729e-12 m
=8.266072876e-14 m

We will handle the second part of the question like any other 2D conservation of momentum
question, where we know stuff about two things and figure out the third.
Let's figure out the momentum (without rounding for sig digs yet) of the two x-rays...
Incident X-Ray Scattered X-Ray
h h
p= p=

6.63e-34 6.63e-34
p= p=
1.28e-12 1.362660729e-12
p=5.1796875e-22 kgm/ s p=4.86548108422e-22 kgm/ s
The incident x-ray is all of the before momentum, and it's all along the x-axis. So the
momentum before the collision is 5.18e-22 kgm/s.
We need to break up the scattered x-ray into x-axis and y-axis components, and use them to
figure out the electron's momentum.
x-component y-component
22
7e- adj opp
4.8 y cos = sin =
hyp hyp
15O adj=cos (hyp) opp=sin (hyp)
x
adj=cos 15o (4.87e-22 ) opp=sin 15o ( 4.87e-22)
adj=4.69969383657e-22 opp=1.25927916818e-22
The electron has the rest of the x-axis momentum, and a y-axis momentum that cancels out the
scattered x-ray...
4.80e-23
x-component
5.1796875e-22 4.69969383657-22 = 4.79993663428e-23
1.26e-22
y-component
-1.25927916818e-22
Figure out the angle and the hypotenuse, and then use it to get the velocity.
opp
tan =
adj
1.26e-22
tan =
4.80e-23
=69.13488379=69.1o
p=mv
p
c 2=a2 + b2 v=
m
c 2=(1.26e-22)2 +(4.80e-23)2 1.35e-22
c=1.34765646229e-22 v=
9.11e-31
v=147 931 554=1.48e8 m/s
So the electron is moving at 1.48e8 m/s [69.1O below the path of the original x-ray].
Homework p723 #1,2

Lesson 36: de Broglie Wavelengths
In 1923 Prince Louis de Broglie proposed a new idea
Could things believed to be particles (like electrons and baseballs) sometimes
act like waves?
All the stuff discovered so far has shown that what appeared to be waves
(EMR) sometimes acted like a particle, so de Broglie just wanted to know if
particles could act like waves.
Nobody really took de Broglie seriously until Einstein read his paper and
agreed with his ideas.
Illustration 1:
de Broglie suggested combining a couple of formulas, one of them a particle type, the Louis de
other a wave type. Broglie
h
p=mv p=

h
mv=

h
=
mv
= wavelength (m)
h = Planck's Constant (always 6.63e-34)
m = mass (kg)
v = velocity (m/s)
This formula allows us to calculate the de Broglie Wavelength of a Warning!

moving particle. Many people make the mistake of
For an object to have a wavelength, it must be moving. calculating the energy of the moving
Day to day objects that are around us have wavelengths so small particle using kinetic energy, then using
that we can never hope to measure them. E = hc / to find the wavelength. You
can NOT do this, as it assumes the
mass stops, changing all its energy into
Example 1: Determine the de Broglie wavelength of a 0.200kg ball a pulse of EMR.
moving at 15.0m/s.
h
=
mv
6.63e-34
=
0.200(15.0)
=2.21e-34 m
Now the hard part finding experimental data to support the theory.
The problem was that no one had ever seen a particle diffract or interfere with another particle,
which would be proof that the particle was acting like a wave.
With wavelengths as small as the one we found in Example 1, it's impossible to see the wave
properties.

Remember from Youngs Double Slit experiment that to be able to see the effects of
diffraction and measure wavelength, you need slits or objects which are not much larger
than the wavelengths being studied.
It is impossible to build a diffraction grating as small as 10-34m. That's smaller than the
orbits of electrons around a nucleus!
But notice where mass is in the formula with a really small mass (like an electron), the
wavelength gets bigger!
These might be measurable.
Example 2: Determine the wavelength of an electron accelerated by a 100V potential difference.

First calculate the velocity of the electron using formulas you used in the electricity unit
1 2
E k = mv E=q V
2
1
qV = mv 2
2
v=
2qV
m
v=

2( 1.60e-19)(100)
9.11e-31
v=5 926 739
Now use that velocity to calculate the wavelength

h
=
mv
6.63e-34
=
9.11e-31(5.93e6)
=1.22794623189e-10=1.23e-10 m
Although this wavelength is very small, the spaces between the atoms of a
crystal are about this size.
Davisson and Germer shot electrons at a crystal sample of nickel in a
vacuum tube and observed a diffraction pattern.
The spaces between the atoms of nickel are about the same size
as the wavelength of the moving electrons, so they acted like the
openings in a diffraction grating.
On the other side of the nickel the electrons (acting as waves
interfering with each other) hit the phosphorescent coating on the
tube and formed the glowing pattern as shown in Illustration 2.
Just like measuring values in Young's Double Slit experiment, we Illustration 2:
can make similar measurements here to find the wavelength. Interference pattern seen
The value de Broglie predicted and Davisson-Germer's values were for electron diffraction.
exactly the same.
The conclusion: particles have wave properties!
Homework
p728 #1, 2 and p742 #1-4, 7-11, 13-15

Lesson 37: Thomson's Plum Pudding Model
Remember back in Lesson 18 when we looked at trapping moving particles in a circular path using a
magnetic field?
In this lesson we look at how using this type of set up eventually helped physicists start to
figure out the nature of the atom.
Early Theories about Atoms

In 1803 John Dalton presented his theory that the elements of the periodic table were made of atoms.
The main reason he was proposing this idea was to be able to explain the chemistry that he was
studying.
Dalton believed that atoms were solid pieces of matter that could not be broken down any
further.
This is why his model is often referred to as the Solid Sphere Model.
Although Dalton's model was able to explain the way he saw chemical reactions working, he
was unable to really prove that matter was made up of these atoms, or how chemical bonding
could happen between them.
During the late 1800's experiments with cathode ray tubes (CRTs) were starting to The negative
give the first glimpses into what an atom might be. electrode is referred
A cathode ray tube is just a vacuum tube with two electrodes at the ends. to as the cathode.
When a really high voltage is applied, mysterious cathode rays
That's the reason
this is called a
moved from the negative electrode to the positive electrode. cathode ray tube.
Sometimes you could see a glow at the opposite end of the tube when
the tube was turned on.
William Crookes used a really high quality cathode ray tube in
1885.
In his tubes he usually placed a mask, an object that would
block some of the cathode rays from getting to the other side of
the tube. This resulted in a shadow.
He believed that the the results of his experiment suggested that
the particles coming off the cathode were negatively charged.
In 1895 Jean Baptiste Perrin was able to verify this by showing that
cathode rays shot into a metal tube caused the metal tube to gain a Illustration 1: A classic
negative charge. Crookes tube.
Video Killed the Radio Star!
You can watch a couple of videos demonstrating a Crookes tube by clicking here and here. You can also scan the
following QR codes.

J.J. Thomson's Cathode Ray Tube
The real breakthroughs started when J.J. Thomson began his research. He Did You Know?
performed a series of three experiments. Besides winning the Nobel
Prize in Physics himself,
seven of his research
First Experiment assistants and even his own
son, George, all won Nobel
His first experiment was to see if the negative charges could be separated
Prizes in Physics. One of
from the cathode rays using a magnetic field. Thomson's students was
At the time, it was not known that the cathode rays were the negative Ernest Rutherford.
charges.
When Thomson failed to separate them, he figured out that the negative charges were what the
cathode rays were made up from.
Second Experiment
His second experiment was to see if he could cause the cathode rays to be deflected in an electric field.
Before this, stray air molecules in the tube kept getting ionized and screwed up the results.
Thomson built a nearly perfect vacuum tube for his CRT and showed that the electric field did
bend the cathode rays in the direction to be expected for negative charges.
Third Experiment: Charge-to-Mass Ratio

Thomson's third experiment was the most important, and the one that he is most remember for.
It allowed him to measure properties of the cathode rays, specifically the charge-to-mass ratio.
This value is really just a measurement of how much charge in Coulombs you get per
kilogram of the substance.
You can guess that this number is pretty big... one kilogram of just electrons would have a
huge amount of charge.
Combined with later work, the charge-to-mass ratio was the first look into the atom that
physicists really had.
Thomson's apparatus was a modified version of the regular CRT.

path with
only electric
field
parallel magnetic field produced

plates by an electromagnet
- + +
X X X X X X X X X X X X
e- X X X X X X X X X X X X path with
X X X X X X X X X X X X both
X X X X X X X X X X X X
-
hot filament parallel
ejecting plates
electrons
path with
only
magnetic
field
Illustration 2: Thomson's CRT for his charge-to-mass ratio experiment.

At the start we have a hot filament. If this metal is hot enough it will start to eject electrons.
The first set of parallel plates are arranged to accelerate the electrons towards the right.
The electron now enters a part of the CRT that will change its path in one of several ways.
If just the second set of parallel plates are turned on, the electric field will cause the
electrons to move up a bit as they travel to the right. When they hit the globe at the end of
the tube, this results in a glow near the top.
If just the magnetic field being created by an electromagnet is on, then the electrons will be
forced downwards by the magnetic field as they travel to the right (use your third hand
rule). When they hit the globe at the end of the tube, this results in a glow near the bottom.
Here's the tricky one! If both the electric and magnetic fields are turned on at the same
time, and everything has been set up just right, the electron sails straight through in a
straight line.
As much as the electric field pushes up, the magnetic field pushes down. They cancel
each other out.
The electric force on the charges that can be calculated using

Fe

E= F e =Eq
q
The force of the magnetic field is simply...

F m=qvB
These two forces are exactly balancing each other, so they must be equal in magnitude...
F e =F m

E q = q v B
cancel cancel

E=v B

E
v=
B
v = velocity (m/s)

E = electric field (N/C or V/m)
B = magnetic field (T)
This equation is often referred to as the velocity selector formula.

Only electrons that are moving at this specific velocity will result in forces that balance out.
As long as Thomson set everything up well and tweaked the dials so he eventually got the
electrons to hit dead centre, he was able to figure out the velocity based on the electric and
magnetic fields he was using.

Example 1: You have just finished setting up a CRT like Thomson's. Determine the velocity of the
electrons if the magnetic field is 3.65 T and the electric field is 7.62e7 N/C. Explain the significance of
your answer.

E
v=
B
7.62e7
v=
3.65
v=2.0876712e7=2.09e7 m/ s
These electrons are moving very fast. In fact, they are moving at almost 10% the speed of light.
In university level physics you will learn that velocities this high actually have an effect on your
final answer.
After he has taken down his readings and figured out the velocity, Thomson next turned off the electric
field.
With the electric field off, only the magnetic field remains to push the electrons around.
The magnetic fields force downward on the electrons will cause them to start to accelerate
downwards as we saw earlier.
If we were able to make the magnetic field cover a larger area, we could actually trap the
electrons in the magnetic field and force them to move in a big circle.
Thomson took the path the electrons did follow in his magnetic field and extrapolated how
big the circle would be if he was able to trap them.
The magnetic force is causing centripetal motion, just like in Lesson 18 Example 1.
F m =F c Warning!
mv 2 You do not have to solve this formula for
q v B= charge-to-mass ratio if the question asks
r
for just one variable. This is just the way
mv Thomson originally used it, and the way we
qB=
r use it for solving these question now.
q v
=
m Br
q
= charge-to-mass ratio (C/kg)
m
v = velocity (m/s)
B = magnetic field (T)
r = radius of path (m)
Example 2: You decide to try to recreate Thomsons experiment to find the mass of an electron. You
set up your cathode ray tube with an electric field of 1.86e4 N/C between the plates and a magnetic
field of 5.80e-4 T. These settings result in electrons traveling straight through when they are both
turned on. After shutting down the electric field, you measure the path of the electron. It has a radius of
0.325m. Determine the charge-to-mass ratio according to your experiment, and compare it to the
accepted value.
We will need to solve this problem in a couple of steps.

Step One: How fast is the electron going?
We can calculate this since the balanced electric and magnetic fields will only let a
specific velocity electron all the way through. We use the velocity selector formula.

E
v=
B
1.86e4
v=
5.80e-4
v=3.2068966e7 m/ s
Step Two: Whats the charge-to-mass ratio?

This is when the centripetal and magnetic forces are balanced.
F m =F c
mv 2
q v B=
r
mv
qB=
r
q v
=
m Br
q 3.2068966e7
=
m 5.80e-4 (0.325)
q
=1.70127138e11=1.70e11 C /kg
m
Step Three: Compare it to the theoretical value.

It's easy to get the theoretical value for charge-to-mass for an electron based on the
values we have on the data sheet.
q 1.60e-19
= =1.76e11C / kg
m 9.11e-31
This value is pretty close to the one we calculated from experimental data. We should
calculate the percent error to finish our comparison.
measured accepted
% error=
accepted
1.70e111.76e11
% error=
1.76e11
% error=0.0313386=3.13 %
Thomson's Plum Pudding Model

Based on all his work, Thomson came to some conclusions Many textbooks now use the names raisin
about the structure of atoms. bun or chocolate chip cookie when
First, his value for charge-to-mass ratio was
referring to Thomson's model of the atom.
Although it was other scientists that
thousands of times bigger than anyone had ever actually gave Thomson's model the
measured for something like a hydrogen ion. nickname plum pudding, I always use this
This meant that the cathode rays were super name since I feel it more accurately
concentrated charge. reflects Thomson's British heritage.
Other scientists had shown that the cathode rays
could even travel through a thin sheet of metal foil.

Thomson concluded that these corpuscles (his name for the electrons) must be extremely
tiny and densely charged.
Although at first he believed atoms were entirely made up of electrons, he eventually realized
that this was wrong.
Since elements can exist as neutral atoms, there must be some positive substance that
cancels out the electrons' negative charges.
Thomson suggested a model of the atom called the Plum Pudding model.
Its name is supposed to make you think of a lump of stuff with little pieces floating inside it.
This model of the atom is that small negatively charged electrons are floating around inside a
lump of positively charged material.
-
-
- -
- - -
- - -
- -
Illustration 3: J.J.
Thomson's Plum Pudding
Model.
Although we now know Thomson's model is wrong, at the time it was the first model of the atom to
take into account separate negative and positive charges.
Homework
p756 #1, 2
p758 #1, 3

Lesson 38: Millikan's Oil Drop Experiment
The work of people like J.J. Thomson allowed us to find out about the
Did You Know?
existence of negatively charged electrons.
Millikan had the help of a
In 1909 Robert A. Millikan came up with an experiment to
graduate student named
measure the charge on an electron, called the Oil Drop Harvey Fletcher. Millikan took
Experiment. full credit for the experiment,
and in return Fletcher took
The apparatus was actually quite simple credit for a dissertation he was
There were two parallel plates set at a specific distance apart writing on methods of
with a known voltage between them. measuring charge. This was a
secret that Fletcher took to his
That way we know the electric field strength.
grave.
The top plate is positive, and the bottom plate is negative.
Millikan drilled a very small hole in the center of the top plate.
He then used an atomizer to spray very fine drops of mineral oil over the top plate.
An atomizer is like those fancy perfume bottles you see that have a ball you squeeze to
make the perfume spray out.
Friction between the nozzle of the atomizer and the mineral oil droplets caused some of the
drops to gain a small charge (charging by friction).
+ mineral oil
Fe
Fg
scope
Illustration 1: Millikan's Oil Drop Experiment.

Just by chance, some of the oil drops might fall down the hole in the top Did You Know?
plate. Atomizers were the
If they have a positive charge, we expect them to go accelerating basis for the invention of
down to the negative plate and crash into it. gasoline carburetors on
If they have a negative charge, something different might happen. cars.
If the force due to gravity (Fg) pulling the drop down is exactly
balanced by the electric force (Fe) pushing it up, the drop should float between the two
plates.

Since the force due to the electric field and the force due to gravity are balanced, it is possible to derive
an equation to calculate the charge on the droplet.
F e =F g
q
E =mg
V
q =mg
d
mgd
q=
V
q = charge (C)
m = mass of oil droplet (kg)
g = acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
d = distance between plates (m)
V = voltage (V)
Measuring the mass of the oil droplet is a bit of a tough one, especially since it
usually only floated for a couple of seconds and then splattered on one of plates.
Millikan had a solution to this problem
First, he used a miniature telescope with hash lines etched onto the
glass. When he looked into the scope hed see something like
Illustration 2.
By knowing the distance between the hash marks, Millikan could
measure the diameter of the oil drops. Then he could figure out the Illustration 2: Hash
volume of the oil drop. lines are scratched
Then he would use the density of mineral oil to find the mass of the into the lens.
oil drop.
Millikan spent thousands of hours squinting through that scope,

desperately trying to see drops float and quickly measure their Did You Know?
diameter. As of 1986 the most precise and
accurate measurement of the
After thousands of trials, Millikan had enough successful
elementary charge is
trials to show that all of the charges he calculated were 1.60217653(14)e-19 C. The last
multiples of one number, 1.60e-19 C. two numbers are in brackets
Since he never found a smaller common multiple of this because although they are
charge, he concluded this must be the charge on a single considered questionable, they
electron. might still be applied in some
Because it is the most basic charge possible we call it an calculations.
elementary charge , e on data sheets.
The idea that charge could be quantized (broken down to an indivisible piece) had been proven.
This is sometimes called the quantization of charge.
Since we now have both the charge-to-mass ratio (q/m) and the charge of an electron, we can
also work out the mass of an electron, 9.11e-31 kg.

Example 1: An oil drop in a Millikan apparatus is determined to have a mass of 3.3e-15 kg. It is
observed to float between two parallel plates separated by a distance of 0.95cm with 340V of
potential difference between them. Determine how many excess (extra) electrons are on the drop.
F e =F g
mgd
q=
V
3.3e-15(9.81)(0.0095)
q=
340
q=9.04539706e-19=9.0e-19C
But the question asked how many excess electrons are on the drop, not for the charge. Since we
know one electron has a charge of 1.60e-19 C
9.04539706e-19 C
=5.65337316 electrons
1.60e-19 C /electron
Since it is impossible to have part of an electron, we round this off to get the final answer of six
excess electrons.
Homework
p763 #1, 2
p764 #1

Lesson 39: Rutherford's Planetary Model
Ernest Rutherford was curious about what alpha particles did when
you shot them at various materials. Rutherford's work with alpha
2+ 2+
Alpha particles are helium nuclei (He or ) released by particles doesn't end here. In
later lessons we will learn how
some radioactive materials.
they relate to radioactive decays.
Rutherford was able to measure that the alpha particles were
traveling at high speeds of about 2.5e7 m/s.
Rutherford thought it would be a good idea to shoot these alpha particles at an atom to see
what it was made of.
In the classic Rutherford Scattering experiment (aka the Gold Foil experiment), Hans Geiger and
Ernest Marsden set up a radioactive sample of radium inside a lead box with a small hole cut in one
side.
This hole allows a stream of alpha
particles to exit the box and travel towards
a thin sheet of gold.
Gold is great to use because of its paths of 2+
malleability. It can be hammered down alpha
lead box
to a sheet that is only a few atoms particles
thick... you can even faintly see 2+
through it!
radioactive
Forming a loop on the other side was a sample zinc
screen coated in zinc sulphide. inside sulphide
If an alpha particle got through the sheet of screen
gold foil
gold, it would cause a spot to glow on
Illustration 1: Rutherford's Scattering Experiment
the zinc sulphide screen.
By putting the screen in various positions, Rutherford was able to measure how often alpha
particles came through the gold at different angles.
The actual results surprised Rutherford. -

If Thomson's Plum Pudding Model was correct, the -
positive charge of the atom is spread out over a relatively - -
large area. - - -
This would mean that the effect of this positive charge
would be very weak on other charges, because it is so - - -
spread out.
The negative electrons are unimportant since they are - -
all over the place, spaced out, and tiny.
This would result in very small (if any!) scattering Illustration 2: In the Plum Pudding
angles for the alpha particles, since the alpha particles Model, we expect alpha particles to
would just about sail straight through. basically go straight through.
Rutherford found that the angles of deflection showed something different.
Most particles did go off at small angles, but some went off at very large angles.
A small number of alpha particles even came bouncing right back in the direction they came
from.
Rutherford described this in a lecture by saying it was almost as incredible as if you
had fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.

The only model that could explain this was a concentration of positive charge in the centre
of the atom, a bunch of empty space, and electrons in orbit.
A bunch of empty space and the electrons far out in orbit meant that the alpha particles
often went almost straight through.
The concentrated positive charge in the centre would explain when the alpha particles
deflected at big angles, and if it hit the centre straight on would result in the alpha
particle bouncing straight back.
This is the basis of Rutherford's Planetary Model. negative

The nucleus is where all the positive charge is found
electrons
(this is why this model is sometimes called the Nuclear
Model).
The electrons orbit around the nucleus at pretty much
random positions.
Although Rutherford still accepted Thomson's
work showing that electrons were there, he didn't
have any reason from his own experiments to think positive
they were any special spot other than in orbit. nucleus
As a note, there is no mention of neutrons yet, since no
Illustration 3: Rutherford's Nuclear
one had discovered them by this time. Model.
Unfortunately, about as soon as the model was published it was realized that there was a serious flaw.
The electrons that are orbiting the nucleus are doing so in circular pattern (the simplest way).
Since the electrons are moving in a circle, they are accelerating (centripetal acceleration).
According to Maxwell's Theory of Electromagnetic Radiation, any accelerating charge will
create EMR.
As the moving electrons release this EMR, they are really releasing photons of energy.
This means that the electrons are losing energy!
If this is true, the electrons should spiral in towards the nucleus and crash. In fact, it should
happen in about 10 nanoseconds!
We know that this does not happen, since atoms are actually very stable.
So, what's the answer? Do we have to modify...
Rutherford's Planetary Model
Maxwell's Theory of EMR
... or, come up with a whole new idea???
Homework
p770 #1, 4

Lesson 40: Bohr's Model
While Rutherford was working in his lab at the University of Manchester trying
to figure out atoms, he had a person named Niels Bohr working for him.
Previously Bohr had worked for J.J. Thomson.
Bohr showed that he was a better than average physicists by suggesting
multiple improvements to the experiments being done in Rutherford's lab.
Eventually Bohr was even able to suggest an answer to the problem with
Rutherford's Planetary model.
Bohr was able to take two ideas and put them together to come up with his
model.
1. Rutherford's Planetary Model
Bohr knew that he couldn't completely trash Rutherford's Planetary
model. Illustration 1: Niels
The experiments Rutherford had done proved that there must be a
Bohr.
positive nucleus surrounded by negative electrons.
The change Bohr came up with concerned the electrons' positions.
Rather than allowing the electrons to be just anywhere, he suggested that the could
only exist at specific distances from the nucleus.
2. Quantum Mechanics' Discrete Energy
Specific positions for the electrons agreed nicely with the ideas of discrete amounts of energy
that we learned about in quantum mechanics.
As we learned in the last lesson, if the electrons were anywhere they would eventually
spiral in and crash.
In fact, as they spiral in they should go faster and faster and release their energy in
ever increasing amounts.
Since E = hf, this would mean we should see a bunch of increasingly higher
frequencies of EMR being given off by atoms all the time. But we don't.
Instead, experiments showed that atoms only ever emit energy at specific frequencies.
This must mean that specific, discrete amounts of energy are being emitted.
Spectroscopy
There was strong evidence of energy being released as quanta when physicists studied spectroscopy.
This was one of Bohr's inspirations to come up with his model, as well as some of its best support.
Spectroscopy involves looking at light from various sources through a diffraction grating and
analyzing the colors that are seen.

Emission Spectra
In experiments it was discovered that if a high voltage (or heat) is applied to a gas sample of an element
in a tube at low pressure, it will give off light.
When a diffraction grating is used to examine the light, it does not emit a continuous spectrum
of colors. Instead, each element releases an emission line spectrum A continuous spectrum
made up of individual lines of color at specific frequencies. is when pure white light is
Every element gives off its own unique emission line spectrum. It broken up to show all the
acts like a fingerprint of that element. colors of the rainbow
without any missing.
Illustration 2: Set up for producing an emission spectra.
Absorption Spectra As early as 1814 Josef von Fraunhofer

The opposite is also true. had noticed that if you allowed sunlight to
go through a prism, the resulting spectrum
If we shine a continuous spectrum of white light
of visible light had some black lines in it.
through a cool gas at low pressure, it will absorb the This absorption line spectrum lets us
light at the same frequencies as it emits. know what the Sun is made from.
These missing lines from the continuous spectra
are called the absorption line spectrum.
Illustration 3: Set up to produce an absorption spectra.

Illustration 4: A continuous spectrum shows all the colors of the rainbow, an emission line spectrum
shows just a few slivers of color, and an absorption line spectrum shows a few black slivers missing.
Balmer's Formula
A Swiss high school teacher Johann Jakob Balmer came up with a formula that showed that the spectra
being seen in these experiments followed a clear pattern.
Johannes Robert Rydberg improved this formula and came up with a standard version for
hydrogen that let you calculate the wavelengths of light emitted.
Hydrogen is important in that it is the simplest element, and scientists were focusing on
explaining it first.
1
1
= RH 2 2
n f ni
1

= wavelength of light emitted (m)
RH = Rydberg's Constant for Hydrogen
nf = final energy level
ni = initial energy level
When Bohr saw this formula he was inspired, because everything fit together so well.
The idea of electrons existing at specific positions shows up in the formula as n values.
Because an electron would have a specific amount of energy at these particular positions,
we will call them energy levels.
Bohr said that electrons in these energy levels are stable and do not emit EMR as they orbit.
Since these electrons are not losing energy, we can also refer to these positions as
stationary states. This does not mean that the electrons are stationary, just that they are in a
stable position.
Bohr theorized that energy in the form of EMR is...
...emitted when an electron falls down from one level to a lower level.
...absorbed to make an electron jumps up from one level to a higher level.

Example 1: Determine the wavelength of light emitted when an electron in hydrogen jumps from the
second excited state (the third energy level) to the ground state.
The ground state is a name used to refer to the closest the electron can get to the nucleus, n = 1.
The electron can't fall any further, so it's like it hit the ground.
1 1 1
(
= RH n2 n 2
f i
)
1 1 1
(
=1.10e7 2 2
1 3 )
=1.02272e-7 m=1.02e-7 m
There are names given to some specific jumps in hydrogen based on the names of the people that first
studied them.
Lyman Series
Measured by Theodore Lyman.
Always has a final energy level of 1.
This is such a large fall that it releases lots of energy and UV light is emitted.
Balmer Series
Measured by Balmer himself.
Always has a final energy level of 2.
Since this is not as great a fall, not as much energy is released. This is why visible light is seen.
Paschen Series
Louis Paschen measured this one.
It always has a final level of 3, so it releases very little energy.
It is always infrared radiation emitted.
Balmer
Series
Lyman
Series
Paschen
Series
n=5 n=4 n=3 n=2

n=1
nucleus
Illustration 3: The Lyman, Balmer, and Paschen series all have different stopping
points for the electron. This diagram is not drawn to scale.

Example 2: Determine the (a) longest and (b) shortest wavelengths possible in the Paschen series.
The Paschen series always has nf = 3.
a) The longest wavelength is the smallest frequency possible. Since E = hf, a small frequency
means the released EMR will have a small amount of energy. If only a small amount of energy
is released, the electron must have only fallen the smallest amount possible. This means the
electron must have started just above the third energy level at the fourth energy level.
1 1 1
(
=R H n 2 n 2
f i
)
1 1 1

=1.10e7 2 2
3 4 ( )
=1.87012987e-6=1.87e-6 m
b) The shortest wavelength is the biggest frequency possible. Since E = hf, a big frequency
means the released EMR will have a huge amount of energy. If a huge amount of energy is
released, the electron must have only fallen a long ways. What's the highest up in can start?
Well, technically, n = infinity! So we will set ni = .
1 1 1
=R H
( 2
2
n f ni )
1 1 1

=1.10e7 2 2
3 ( )
1 1

=1.10e7 2 0
3 ( )
=8. 18 e7=8.18e-7 m
Energy Level Sizes and Energies

Using other formulas Bohr calculated two special numbers for the lowest energy level (n=1) of
hydrogen
He figured out the radius of the orbit of electrons in the lowest energy level for hydrogen as
being 5.29e-11m
He also figured out the energy in the ground state as -2.18e-18J (13.6eV).
Bohr made it negative because you must add energy to jump it up. 13.6eV is the amount of
energy you would have to add to an electron starting in n=1 to be able to get it to be ionized
out of the hydrogen.
Using these numbers for the ground state you can use two formulas Bohr came up with to figure out
the radius of the nth energy level.
r n=n2 r 1
rn = radius of nth energy level (m)
n = energy level
r1 = radius of first energy level (m)

the energy of the nth energy level.
1
E n= E1
n2
En = energy of nth energy level (J or eV)
n = energy level
E1 = energy of first energy level (-2.18e-18 J or -13.6eV)
Bohr thought these formulas were great!

Not only are they useful, they also agree with everything else in the model.
You can even use these formulas to prove that Balmer's formula is correct.
Bohr also thought it was good that they were such easy formulas, since simple explanations are
usually correct in science.
The energies are negative, since Bohr pictured the electrons as though they were at the bottom
of a hole. By adding that energy we can lift the electron out (ionizing the atom).
Example 3: Determine the (a) radius and (b) energy of an electron in the fourth energy level of
hydrogen.
r n=n2 r 1
a) r 4=4 2 (5.29e-11)
r 4=8.464e-10=8.46e-10 m
1
E n= E1
n2
b) 1
E4= (2.18e-18)
42
E 4=1.3625e-19=1.36e-19 J
Note, this answer could also be given in eV.
Unfortunately all these formulas only work for the simplest atom,
hydrogen. Did You Know?
If you try to apply the formulas to any other element, you get Bohr once said Your theory is
crazy, but it's not crazy enough
the answers that do not agree with actual experiments. to be true.
Bohr understood that there were problems with his model, but
he hoped that there might be a way to improve it.
It is still valid to use it to make predictions.
Jumping Energy Levels

Jumping through energy levels means energy is either absorbed or released.
Lots of different, specific amounts of energy can be involved, since many different
combinations of jumps can occur.
The energy involved is always equal to the difference between the two specific energy levels.

Example 4: The following diagram (not drawn to scale) shows four energy levels of hydrogen.
n=4 -0.85 eV
n=3 -1.5 eV
n=2 -3.4 eV
n=1 -13.6 eV
a) Determine the total number of possible energies emitted as electrons fall through these
levels.
b) Determine the wavelength of EMR emitted as an electron drops from n3 to n1.
a) Sketch out all the possible falls the electron can go through. It doesn't have to fall
all the way down, which is why we can have many different possible energies.
ni = 4
n=4 -0.85 eV
ni = 3
n=3 -1.5 eV
ni = 2
n=2 -3.4 eV
n=1 -13.6 eV
Count 'em up! This gives us a total of 6 possible energies that will be released.

b) Each of the falls we just looked at involves the electron releasing a specific amount of
energy; each of these energies is released as a specific frequency/wavelength of EMR.
We can figure out the energy difference between n3 to n1, and then calculate the
wavelength.
E= E f E i
E =E 1E 3
E=(13.6)(1.5)
We use Planck's constant in eVs since we
E=12.1eV have an energy in eV. Also, we use the
energy as an absolute value, since we
hc hc know this is energy being released as
E= = EMR.
E
4.14e-15 (3.00e8)
=
12.1
=1.02645e-7=1.03e-7 m
Homework
p.775 #1
p.778 #2
p.780 #3, 5, 11

Lesson 41: Quantum Model
Bohr's model of the atom was a great triumph, but it also had several problems that even Bohr was
willing to admit. His model could not explain any of the following:
1. Why shouldn't electrons emit EMR when they are in their energy levels?
2. The formulas only work for hydrogen.
3. It was found that each emission line is actually made of two or more closely spaced lines, called
the fine structure.
4. Some emission lines are brighter than others.
It must be remembered that in Bohr's model the electron was still considered to be a particle (like some
infinitely small ball) spinning around the nucleus.
Bohr hadnt totally realized how much his theory and quantum mechanics could be joined.
de Broglie had shown how particles have wavelike properties. Although everyday objects
are too large to show much wavelike behavior, electrons definitely can and do.
It started to become clear that electrons can not be thought of as particles maybe they are
acting more like waves even in the model of the atom.
Assume that you figure out the de Broglie wavelength of an electron.

For the electron to orbit the nucleus, its wavelength must be able to fit perfectly around the
nucleus.
You cant fit the electrons wavelength if the orbit is smaller or bigger than some multiple of
the wavelength.
Bohr
smaller or
energy
bigger
level
than the
Bohr
energy
level
electron as
a wave
Illustration 1: The electron as a wave will either fit or not fit as a whole
number of wavelengths around the nucleus.
Only some radii energy levels the correct radius to let the wavelengths wrap perfectly around.
If theyre just a bit smaller or big, the wave would add destructively collapse.
If it fits the radius, the electron (as a wave) is very stable.
It explains why an electron does not emit EMR and spiral into the nucleus following Maxwell's theory
of EMR.
The electron exists as a standing wave, not as a regular particle.
Since it is not an accelerating charged particle, Maxwell's theory of EMR does not apply.

Remember that Bohrs model couldnt explain orbits in atoms beyond hydrogen. This new Quantum
model can!
If, for example, you add another proton to hydrogen you get helium.
The extra positive charge exerts a greater force on the electron and draws it into a smaller
radius orbit.
The electrons velocity adjusts, so it now has a different wavelength. This means the radius
must be different.
The Quantum Model can explain all elements.
If you follow this theory, the electron stops being a particle orbiting the nucleus at a certain point.
Instead, an electrons mass and charge can be thought of a spread out as a standing wave
around the nucleus.
The electron is not really at any one position as a particle, it's everywhere as a wave.
Even as a wave, the electron exists mostly right near the Bohr orbit.
There is a probability associated with that wave and where you would find the electron at any
moment.
This explains the fine structure of the emission spectra, since sometimes the electron is a
little higher or lower when it falls.
The electrons have become a cloud of electrons. Sometimes this model of the atom is called
the Electron Cloud Model.
The Bohr model has evolved into a mathematical quantum model involving waves and probability.
Using some fancy physics, the Quantum Model can even explain why some emission lines are
brighter than others.
The Quantum Model of the atom is the longest lasting model, and is essentially the model used
today.
Homework
p784 #1

Lesson 42: Inside the Nucleus
Nuclear physics gets its name from the fact that we are concerned with only the nucleus of the atom.
Chemistry needs to pay attention to the electrons of the atom, since electrons determine how the
chemical bonds form.
Nuclear physics is concerned with the nucleus, since the nucleus determines the element as well
as the nuclear reactions that can happen.
The Nucleons
Nucleon is the name given to anything that you find in the nucleus. This includes protons and
neutrons.
Remember e stands for
Protons elementary charge, and does not
necessarily have anything to do with
symbol is p+ electrons.
positive charge = +e
mass = mp = 1.6726e-27 kg
number of protons in a nucleus = atomic number symbol is Z
It is the number of protons in the nucleus that determine which element you are dealing with. A single
proton is the entire nucleus of the simplest atom, hydrogen
Neutrons Notice that a neutron does have a

slightly bigger mass than a proton.
symbol is n0 This will be important later.
no charge
mass = mn = 1.6749e-27 kg
number of neutrons in a nucleus = neutron number symbol is N
The total number of nucleons (protons + neutrons) in a nucleus is called the

atomic mass number symbol is A.
A=Z+N
A = atomic mass number = # of nucleons
Z = atomic number = # of protons
N = neutron number = # of neutrons
Writing out Symbols

To write down which nucleus we have, we use the chemical symbol from the periodic table along with
the A and Z values.
The A and Z values are always written to the left of symbol, with A on top.
A
Z X

Example 1: An nucleus has 7 protons and 8 neutrons. Identify what element it is, and write out its
symbol.
According to the periodic table, the element with 7 protons is nitrogen.
Since nitrogen has 7 protons, its Z value is 7.
To get the A value, we have to add the number of protons and neutrons to get 15.
15
7 N
Since we can just look up the atomic number of an element on the periodic table, we often skip
writing the value for Z so
15
N
We read this as nitrogen-fifteen or N-15.
Example 2: If a nucleus has the symbol 23 11 Na then identify as much as you can about it.
From the periodic table we can see that this is the symbol for sodium. We can also see
this from the atomic number being 11, which is the atomic number for sodium.
Specifically, we would call it sodium-23.
This also means that the nucleus has 11 protons.
To figure out the number of neutrons, we will take 23 11 to get 12 neutrons. Notice
that to find the number of neutrons in the nucleus, do the
calculation A Z.
Isotopes
It is possible to find atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus,
even though the number of protons stays the same.
These are called isotopes.
Chemically, isotopes react almost identically when compared to each other. Only physics needs
to be really concerned with different isotopes of an element.
For example, although carbon with 6 neutrons is the most common isotope of carbon, there are other
isotopes of carbon.
Although they all have different numbers of neutrons, the number of protons stays the same.
Carbon-12 is the most common, so it has the highest percent abundance, a measurement of how
much of each isotope would be found in an average sample of the element.
11 12 13 14
C
6 6C 6C 6C
Isotope
carbon-11 carbon-12 carbon-13 carbon-14
Number of Protons 6 6 6 6
Number of Neutrons 5 6 7 8
Natural Abundance Trace 98.93% 1.07% Trace
The masses on your periodic table (e.g. carbon is 12.01) are weighted averages based on the natural
abundances.

Since most carbon is carbon-12, the number is pretty close to 12.
But, the little bit of carbon-13 does pull up the number a bit, so we get 12.01.
This is sort of like if you get 55% on a unit exam, and 75% on a tiny quiz.
If your mark was just an average, we'd add these and divide by two to get 65%.
But in most classes the exam will be worth a lot more than the quiz (the exam is weighted
more than the quiz), so maybe the quiz can only pull up your overall mark a bit to maybe
57% .
The number of neutrons strongly affects the stability of the nucleus.

As we will see later, having just the right number of neutrons makes a nucleus more stable. This
is why some isotopes are more common than others.
In unstable isotopes, the number of neutrons partly determines the rate at which the nucleus
decays and releases radiation.
Because different isotopes have different masses, they can be separated from each other using a mass
spectrometer (Lesson 18).
Depending on the mass of the isotope, it will have a specific radius as it travels through a
magnetic field.
Binding Energy
We know that protons are packed together pretty tightly in the nucleus, so why doesn't the electrostatic
force between them cause them to flying apart.
Since nuclei are obviously not flying apart, there must be something that is holding the nucleons
together. Could it be the gravitational attraction of the masses?
For this to be true, the gravitational force Fg would have to be about the same as the
electrostatic force Fe.
Let's check it out for just two protons. We can grab the numbers for protons from the
data sheet and figure out the ratio between Fe and Fg.
As long as the ratio is about 1:1 we will know Fg is holding the nucleus together as
much as Fe is trying to push things apart.
k q1 q 2
Fe r2 k q1 q 2 8.99e9(1.60e-19)(1.60e-19) 2.30144e-28
= = = = =1.237203e36=1.24e36
F g G m1 m2 G m1 m2 6.67e-11(1.67e-27)(1.67e-27) 1.86020e-64
r2
Woof! The ratio is 1.24e36 : 1! The electrostatic force pushing the protons apart is huge
in comparison to the wimpy gravitational force trying to keep them together. In fact, the
gravitational force is insignificant in comparison.
This means that the force of gravity is way too weak to hold the nucleus together against
the electrostatic force pushing it apart.

This was such a problem in physics that physicists came up with a new
attractive force to explain what was holding the nucleons (especially Did You Know?
protons) together... the strong nuclear force. The strong nuclear force
is one of four fundamental
The strong nuclear force can only act over incredibly small
forces that are used in
distances, measured in femtometres. physics. The others are
The strong nuclear force is so short range that it can actually only gravitational,
attract other nucleons that are right next to each other. Nucleons electromagnetic, and the
that are on opposite sides of the nucleus do not affect each other weak nuclear force.
by the strong nuclear force.
2
This is in contrast to the electrostatic force which (although it weakens according to 1/r )
acts over infinite distances. A proton on one side of a nucleus can repel another proton on
the other side because of the electrostatic repulsion between them.
In stable nuclei the strong nuclear force is strong enough to hold nucleons together in the
nucleus.
There is a constant battle between the strong nuclear force trying to hold the nucleus
together and the electrostatic force trying to throw it apart.
As long as the nucleus is stable, energy must be added to separate the nucleons from each other and
move them far enough apart that the strong nuclear force can't hold them together.
This is called the binding energy.
Since energy must be added to move the nucleons apart, separate nucleons must have more
energy.
When nucleons are bound in the nucleus they have not had energy added yet, so they have
less energy.
Einstein's formula...
E = mc2
E = energy (J)
m = mass (kg)
c = speed of light (3.00e8m/s)
...shows that energy is directly related to mass.
So, since separate nucleons have more energy, they must have more mass.
Nucleons bound in the nucleus have less energy, so they have less mass.
This means that separate nucleons are always heavier than when they are stuck together
in a nucleus.
mp + mn > mnucleus
It would be like building something out of lego pieces, and in the end it weighs less than
what the individual pieces weighed at the start.
The difference between the mass of the nucleus and its individual nucleons is called the mass
defect (m).
The mass defect is directly related to the binding energy added to break apart the nucleus
according to the formula E = mc2.

Atomic Mass Units
Masses of atoms are sometimes given as atomic mass units (amu), which has the unit u.
Although not part of the metric system, it is still popular when discussing nuclear physics.
This is because measuring super-tiny stuff like protons in kilograms seems a bit silly.
The atomic mass unit is based on a neutral atom of carbon-12, which is given a mass of exactly
12.000000u.
th
1 u = 1/12 the mass of carbon-12.
1 u = 1.660 539e-27 kg
The masses of subatomic particles measured in amu are

mp = 1.0072765 u
mn = 1.0086649 u
me = 0.0005486 u *
* The mass of an electron is so small compared to
protons and neutrons that it is usually ignored in calculations.
We often use atomic mass units in physics, so we need to remember that 1 u = 1.660 539e-27 kg. That
way we can convert mass from amu into kg.
Example 3: The mass of a zirconium-93 atom is 92.90647 u. Determine the mass of the nucleus, the
mass defect, and the binding energy of this isotope of zirconium. Don't worry too much about sig digs
for this question.
From the periodic table we know the atomic number of zirconium is 40. The symbol for this
isotope would be 93 40 Zr . This means that this isotope has 40 protons, 40 electrons (as long as it
is neutral), and 53 neutrons (calculated from 93-40).
The mass of a zirconium-93 atom includes the mass of the 40 It is likely that in most
electrons, which we must subtract to get the mass of the questions they will simply give
nucleus. you the mass of the nucleus
mnucleus = matom 40(me) and you'll be able to skip this
step.
= 92.90647 u 40 (0.0005486 u)
mnucleus = 92.884526 u
What would the mass of the nucleus be if we found the total mass of all the nucleons (protons
and neutrons) as separate masses...
mnucleons = 40(mp) + 53(mn)
= 40(1.0072765u) + 53(1.0086649u)
= 40.29106 + 53.4592397
mnucleons = 93.7502997 u
The mass defect is the difference between the actual mass of the nucleus and what the total
mass of all the protons and neutrons would be if separate.
m = mnucleons - mnucleus Remember that 1 u =
= 93.7502997 92.884526 1.660539e-27 kg
m = 0.8657737 u = 1.43765099402e-27 kg

The binding energy is related to the mass defect.
EB = m c2
= 1.43765099402e-27 (3.00e8)2
EB = 1.29388589462e-10 J
Remember that 1 eV
= 1.60e-19 J
We often state binding energies in MeV, where M is the prefix for 106.
EB = 1.293886e-10 J
= 8.08678684e8 eV
= 808.678684e6 eV
EB = 809 MeV
Later we will find that calculations such as these are useful to figure out how much energy is released
in certain reactions.
Homework
p791 #1, 2
p792 #1, 2
p794 #1, 2
p795 #1, 2

Lesson 43: Alpha, Beta, & Gamma Decay
The late 1800s and early 1900s were a period of intense research into the new nuclear realm of
physics.
In 1896 Henri Becquerel found that a sample of uranium he was doing

experiments with had a special property.
After he was done with a series of experiments using the uranium,
he put it into a drawer with a photographic plate.
A photographic plate is a piece of glass covered in chemicals. It
was used as the film in old style cameras.
Becquerel was surprised to find out later that the uranium had
caused the plate to be fogged up, as if it had been exposed to light.
He correctly assumed that the uranium was emitting radiation
Illustration 1: An early
camera with photographic
similar to visible light.
plates.
He was even able to show that a magnetic field seemed to
change the direction that this invisible radiation traveled.
Shortly after this, Marie and Pierre Curie isolated two other
Did You Know?
radioactive elements, polonium and radium.
In 1934 Marie Curie died of leukemia
No matter what physical or chemical stresses they placed from years of exposure to
on these elements, they continued to emit radiation just radioactive elements. She received
like the uranium that Becquerel had used. two Nobel Prizes, in Physics and
Since nothing they did could stop the radioactivity, Chemistry. The element polonium
they believed that the radioactivity must come from that she helped discover is named
deep within the atom, in what we would today call the after her homeland, Poland.
nucleus.
We now know that radioactivity actually results from the decay (disintegration) of an unstable nucleus.
This process fundamentally changes the nucleus of the element itself.
The radiation that we measure is evidence of events happening inside the nucleus.
In many cases this will actually result in the element changing to a different element, a
process called transmutation.
The reason these decays happen is because they result in more stable nuclei.
Ernest Rutherford and others started studying the radiation that was emitted by these elements.
He found three distinct forms of radiation, originally divided up based on their ability to pass
through certain materials and their deflection in magnetic fields...
Alpha (): could barely pass through a single sheet of paper. Deflected as a positive
particle in a magnetic field.
Beta (): can pass through about 3mm of aluminum. Deflected as a negative particle in
a magnetic field. *
Gamma (): can pass through several centimetres of LEAD! Not deflected in a magnetic
field. * Because of our modern understanding of what can
happen in decays, we will have to examine two
different kinds of beta decay later.

X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X
Magnetic X X X X X X X
Field X X X X X X X
Alpha, Beta, &

Gamma source
inside a lead box
Illustration 2: Different types of radiation
traveling through a magnetic field.
Alpha Decay
The reason the alpha radiation has such a hard time even passing through a piece of paper is because it
is not a form of EMR like we might expect. It is actually the nuclei of a helium atom 42 He !
During an alpha decay, a nucleus is able to reach a more stable state be allowing 2 protons and 2
neutrons to leave the nucleus.
This will result in a smaller nucleus, which is often the more stable arrangement.
Because 2 protons and 2 neutrons are really just helium-4, the particle that is emitted is really
helium.
Because this helium is not just regular helium floating around in the air, but is born from a
nuclear decay, we usually don't call it a helium atom. Instead we call it an alpha particle.
Alpha particles come out of the nucleus as just nucleons without any electrons .
So, each alpha particle has a charge of +2e .
The atom that originally went through the alpha decay has just lost some of its nucleons. That must
change the element somehow.
It's actually pretty easy to figure out what will happen as long as we apply the conservation of
nucleons.
Warning!
The conservation of momentum,
The Conservation of Nucleons energy, and charge also still
The total number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) apply. The conservation of
must remain the same before and after a nucleons is just the newest
nuclear decay reaction. conservation law that applies to
the following situations.

We can write out what basically looks like a chemistry reaction to show how what we started with (the
parent nucleus) transmutates according to a radioactive decay into another element (the daughter
nucleus) and the emitted particle.
It's not a chemistry equation though, since we are showing things that happen in the nucleus,
and we can end up with different elements on each side.
Just remember that we must end up with the same number of nucleons as we started with.
Example 1: The iridium-168 isotope is known to go through alpha decays. Write out a decay equation
that shows this process.
Start by looking up iridium on your periodic table so that you can find out its atomic number.
Then write down the most basic decay reaction; show what you started with (the iridium is your
parent nucleus), and how it has decayed by emitting an alpha particle and some other nuclei.
168 4
77 Ir 2 X
Notice how on the left I have a total of 168 nucleons, of which 77 are protons. So far on the
right side I've only shown 4 nucleons and 2 protons... woof! There's a bunch missing! They
must be making up my unknown daughter nucleus, X. We can figure out the numbers for the
daughter nucleus by just subtracting what we have (on the alpha particle) from what we had on
the parent nucleus (the iridium).
Nucleons = A value = 168 4 = 164
Protons = Z value = 77 2 = 75
There's only one element on the periodic table that has 75 protons: rhenium. That means that the
finished alpha decay reaction of iridium-168 should show...
168 4 164
77Ir 2 75 Re
Parent Nucleus Alpha Particle Daughter Nucleus
In the process of alpha decay the total mass of the daughter nucleus plus the alpha particle is less than
the mass of the original parent nucleus.
m parent malpha mdaughter
The missing mass isnt really missing. Its been turned into energy following Einsteins
formula E = mc2.
This works out for our new understanding of conservation of mass and conservation of
energy being interchangeable.
The energy is found (mostly) in the kinetic energy of the alpha particle and daughter nucleus
moving away from each other.
The alpha particle usually moves faster, since the alpha particle is almost always much
lighter than the daughter nucleus.
Also keep in mind that if the parent nucleus was at rest, the alpha particle and daughter
nucleus will travel off in opposite directions so that the conservation of momentum is
obeyed.

Example 2: Determine how much energy is released when Uranium-238 decays to Thorium- 234 .
This is an alpha decay. The reaction for it would be...
238 4 234
92U 2 90 Th
It is possible to look up the total masses of these atoms in your textbook (p.881) or on the
internet.
For masses we get...

238.0508u 4.0026u + 234.0436u
Add up the stuff on the right side...

238.0508u > 238.0462u
If we subtract them, we find that there is 0.0046u unaccounted for after the reaction has
occurred. Since 1u = 1.66e-27 kg...
E = mc2 = (0.0046u x 1.66e-27kg/u) (3.00e8m/s)2 = 6.87e-13 J
We often state these answers in MeV (mega electron volts). First we would convert it to eV, and
then MeV...
6.87e-13 J
=4.30e6 eV =4.30MeV
1.60e-19 J / eV
Beta decays happen in two

Beta Decay ways, called beta negative and
beta positive. Beta negative is
Beta Negative Decay ( -) the classic beta decay
Beta negative decay (-)happens during a process that at first seems Rutherford observed. We will
crazy. A neutron falls apart and becomes a proton and an electron! look at both.
This isn't as crazy as it sounds if you look at the facts.
Remember earlier when we pointed out that neutrons have just a tiny bit more mass than
protons? Now you know why. In the simplest terms, the neutron is made up of a proton and an
electron stuck together.
In the beta negative decay, the neutron becomes a proton (which stays in the nucleus) and an
electron that goes flying out (the beta particle).
To make sure that you understand that the beta particle is not just a regular electron, but
rather one that came from inside the nucleus, we will use the symbol 10 .
Notice its A value is zero since it is not a nucleon, and its Z value -1 since it is the opposite
charge of a proton.
Example 3: Write out the beta negative decay reaction for calcium-46.
As with the alpha decay in Example 1, first find your parent nucleus on the periodic table and
write out a basic decay reaction...
46 0
20 Ca 1 X
Just like before, we figure out the A and Z values for our unknown daughter nucleus by
subtracting what the beta particle has from the parent nucleus...
A = 46 0 = 46
Z = 20 - (-1) = 21

So our daughter nucleus must be scandium, the only element with 21 protons.
46 0 46
20 Ca 1 21Sc
There is only one other thing we should put in our reactions for beta negative decay.
When physicists first examined beta negative decays, they figured that since the electrons that
are the beta particles are so light, they should just go shooting out of the nucleus at tremendous
speeds (conservation of momentum & energy).
In reality, a lot of them moved really slow. Did You Know?
In order to still have conservation laws obeyed, it was realized An antineutrino is an antimatter
that a very small, neutral particle must also be emitted from the particle. Antimatter is different
nucleus. from regular matter because
one characteristic (such as
Today we call that particle an antineutrino and give it the
charge) is the exact opposite.
symbol v . Antineutrinos have a spin that
So, we should really write the answer from Example 3 as... is opposite to neutrinos.
46
20 Ca 10 46
21 Sc
v
If we wanted to just look at how the neutron changes into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino, we
could write it out as...
0
no p++ 1 + v
Beta Positive Decays ( +) Positrons ( + ) have

The other type of beta decay we examine is called beta positive. the exact same mass
Beta positive is different from beta negative because the particles as an electron, but they
emitted are the exact opposite. have a +1e charge.
For example, the beta positive decay emits a positive positron. Positrons are the
antimatter version of
A positron is sometimes called an antielectron, since it is the electrons.
antimatter version of an electron. Antimatter is discussed in detail in
Lesson 47.
Positrons have the same mass as an electron, but their charge is +1e.
0
We use the symbol + to represent positrons, and in decay equations we write it as 1 .
Following the trend of everything is opposite, beta positive decays involve a proton decaying into a
neutron and a positron, while also releasing a neutrino for conservation of momentum to be followed.
p+ no + 01 + v
We can still use the rules for conservation of nucleons to figure out the products of a beta
positive decay.
Example 4: Potassium-40 is known to go through beta positive decays. Write out the decay equation
for this decay.
You should know the drill by now. We need to gather info on potassium-40 and then write out
the decay.
40 0
19 K 1 + X
Just like before, we figure out the A and Z values for our unknown daughter nucleus by
subtracting what the beta particle has from the parent nucleus...
A = 40 0 = 40
Z = 19 - 1 = 18

So our daughter nucleus must be argon, the only Notice the neutrino v (no bar over the
element with 18 protons. top) added at the end. This is the
40 antiparticle of the antineutrino in the beta
19 K 01 + 40
18 Ar + v negative decay.
Inverse Beta Decays (aka Electron Capture)

Although not really one of the main forms of decay, we are looking at these inverse beta decays
simply because of their similarity to beta negative decays.
In this process a proton rich nucleus absorbs an electron from one of the inner energy levels.
p+ + e - no + v
Shown with nucleons values to prove conservation of nucleons we would have...

1 0 1
1 p + 1 e 0 n + v
Example 5: Rubidium-83 is known to go through electron captures. Write out the decay equation for
this decay.
83
37 Rb + 10e 36
83
Kr + v
Gamma Decay ()
Gamma radiation can only be stopped by stuff like a few inches of lead.
This is because unlike the other two forms of decay, gamma decays emit a form of EMR, not a
particle.
You will remember that gamma radiation is quite high up in the frequencies of the EM
spectrum.
This allows it to pass through anything but the densest of matter.
Gamma decays happen most often after a alpha or beta decay.

This happens because the nucleus has just been through a lot! Spitting out other subatomic
particles, changing to a different element, and all that.
The nucleus is basically all jiggled up and needs to release some energy somehow.
An easy way to do this is to let off a gamma burst.
Because we are releasing energy (not particles), the A and Z values stay the same.
Example 6: The argon-40 that was produced in Example 4 is in an excited state, so it releases a burst
of gamma radiation. Write the equation for this.
40
18 Ar 40
18 Ar
Decay Series
Anytime a nucleus decays, the daughter nucleus itself may still be unstable.
In this case, the daughter nucleus is now the parent nucleus and will go through another decay.
By this process a nucleus may go through several decays before reaching a nucleus stable
enough to stay the same for a while.
This bunch of decays is called a decay series, and can be written several ways.

Example 7: Write a decay series for thorium-226 decaying to astatine-214.
Without looking stuff up we have no way of being certain which decays will happen, but we can
make some guesses and see if we end up in the right spot. We will leave out any gamma decays
here, since they do not change any of the nucleon numbers.
226 4 222
90 Th 2 88Ra
222
88 Ra 10 + 222
89 Ac +
v
222
89 Ac 42 218
87 F r
218
87 F r 42 214
85 At
To save room, and since we can figure out what kind of decay happened from the products, we
sometimes write a decay chain that skips the decay particles...
226 222 222 218 214
90 Th 88 Ra 89 Ac 87 F r 85 At
Radiation Risks
You've probably seen a movie with a Geiger counter clicking like crazy as the people get near a
radioactive source, or Homer Simpson glowing green after falling into the nuclear reactor.
In real life there are radiation sources all around you. There is no big problem with this, since
this natural background radiation has always been there. Biologically, life on Earth has always
been exposed to these low levels of radiation.
The problem is when people are exposed to large doses of radiation in extraordinary
circumstances.
The levels a person is exposed to can be measured in a variety of units like:
Rad: A rad is the older unit used to describe each kilogram of tissue exposed absorbing
0.01 J of energy.
Gray (Gy): one Gray means each kilogram of material absorbs 1 Joule of energy. So,
1 Gy equals 100 rad.
Sievert (Sv): is a modified version of Grays, because it takes into account the Relative
Biological Effectiveness (RBE) of a particular kind of radiation. The more dangerous a
particular kind of radiation is to a person, the more the original Grays are multiplied to
give Sieverts.
In normal situations, a person can expect to be exposed to about 0.5 mSv in a year. Any
exposure of about 6 Sv or higher will be fatal.
Radiation can cause damage to a human in two ways.

Radiation Sickness
Radiation sickness usually refers to a very large dose of radiation in a small period of time. The
problem is that the radiation can ionize cells. This means that the radiation is knocking
electrons off the cells, usually interfering with cell division.
Many people that survived the initial blast of the bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki died
from radiation sickness a few days later.
Genetic Damage
The radiation can cause damage to the actual DNA of cells. This can result in cancer, which will
usually show up after several years.

Since the three types of radiation have different abilities to penetrate matter, they represent different
levels of risk to humans.
Alpha has a high ionization rate, but can not easily penetrate matter. A layer of clothes or even
the top layer of skin (which is dead anyways) can stop it. The alpha particles can only move
through the air about 5 cm before being stopped. Alpha radiation is really only a danger if you
either breathe in or swallow the source of the alpha radiation.
Beta does not ionize as easily, but it can penetrate matter more easily, traveling about 0.50 m
through the air and about 1 cm into a body. This means that although beta radiation can be a bit
more of a risk, it is still most dangerous if the source is ingested.
Gamma can easily penetrate your body, since it is EMR with a high frequency. Although it
doesn't ionize much, it causes the most damage to a person. Even being near an unshielded
source of gamma radiation for a short period of time is very dangerous!
Homework
p799 #1-3
p800 #1-3
p801 #1-3
p803 #1
p805 #1
p810 #11

Lesson 44: Half Life
The half life of an element is the time it will take half of the parent atoms to transmutate into something
else (through alpha or beta decays, or another process). Half life is totally based on
This amount of time varies from just 10-22s to 1028s that's probabilites and statistics, so
1021 years! anything that we say is just a best
The total number of atoms in a sample stays the same, it's guess based on previous
experience.
just that some of the atoms have changed to different
elements.
Example 1: The half life of 146C is 5730 years. Explain what you would expect to happen over a long
period of time.
Imagine a sample of carbon that originally had 100 of these carbon-14 atoms. In reality we
would need the sample to have many more atoms, since statistics are really only reliable for large
numbers.
During the first few hundred years or so we would notice that some of the carbon-14 atoms have
transmutated into some other element. In fact, a lot of them have changed. Since we started with
a lot of the carbon-14 atoms, there is the greatest chance of seeing quite a few change. It would
be like throwing 100 quarters into the air; since there are so many, you've got a really good
chance of seeing a 50-50 split between heads and tails when they hit the ground.
By the time 5730 years have passed, we would expect to only have 50 carbon-14 atoms
remaining. Remember, the half life is the time it takes for half of them to change. There are still
the same total number of atoms, just not as many carbon-14 as we started with.
Some people think that if we wait another 5730 years, all of the carbon-14 will be gone... nope!
Remember, half life is the time it takes for half the atoms to decay. So, after the next 5730 years
we would expect 25 carbon-14 to be left; that's half of the 50 that we had after the first half life.
And so on, and so on... Eventually, after about six or seven half lives have passed, the number of
carbon-14 atoms becomes so small that probabilities fall apart and you basically have the last few
atoms decay whenever.
Start 1 Half Life 2 Half Lives 3 Half Lives 4 Half Lives 5 Half Lives
0 Years Passed 5730 years 11 460 years 17 190 years 22 920 years 28 650 years
100 atoms 50 atoms 25 atoms 12 or 13 atoms 6 or 7 atoms 3 or 4 atoms
This is the original Since one half life Remember, half of Half of the previous Statistics really You have a chance
amount. No decays has passed, we the amount we amount. We can't start to break down of throwing 4
yet. have half the had, not what we be exact, since we when we have this quarters in the air
atoms we started started with. are rounding off a few atoms. and they all land as
with. number based on tails. Same thing
statistics. here... all of these
might decay in one
half life.

Activity
As a sample of something is decaying and going through half lives,
we can measure the activity of the sample.
Activity measures the number of nuclei that decay per second
(sometimes also called the decay rate).
It is usually measured in Becquerels (Bq), which is equal
to decays/second.
The familiar clicking of a Geiger counter in movies is
measuring the activity of the sample.
As time passes, the number of nuclei available to decay
decreases, so the activity of the sample drops. Illustration 1: A Geiger counter.
Consider Example 1 from above...
At first there were 100 nuclei that had the possibility to decay. There was a good chance that out
of that 100 we would see some decay. Using a device like a Geiger counter, maybe we measure
its activity at something like 72Bq (for example).
After 5730 years, there are only 50 nuclei left. The number of decays per second (activity) will
also drop to half the original since there are only half as many chances to have decay happen.
Following the example activity we started with, we would expect to see an activity of 36Bq.
After another 5730 years, the activity will have dropped by half again to about 18Bq.
Whether you are looking at number of atoms left, or activity of the sample, the percentage remaining is
an exponential curve.
Percentage vs Half Lives
100
90
80
70
60
Percentage
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Half Lives

Theres a formula on your data sheet for taking care of these types of questions.
The amount can be either atoms, or mass (any units), or activity. Just make sure you keep the
units the same.
n
N=No
1
2
N = amount after time has passed
No = original amount
n = number of half lives
Example 2: Marie Curie had a 765g sample of polonium-210 (half life = 138d) in a box. After 3.8 years
of refining radium, she goes to the box to get her polonium. Determine how much polonium-210 is in
the box.
First, we need to get our units for time the same, so figure out how many days there are in 3.8
years.
d
3.8 a 365 =1387 d
a
Now we can figure out how many half lives have passed (the n value in the formula).
1387 d
n= =10.0507246377 half lives
138 d /half life
Now we figure out how much polonium-210 is remaining.

n
1
N =N o
2() 10
N =765 ( 0.5 )
N =0.7212599892=0.72 g
We could argue whether or not the answer has two or three sig digs; I put it as two since the time
(in years) that passed is two sig digs.
By the time Madame Curie gets back to her box, shell only find that 0.72g of polonium-210 is
remaining. There is still a total of 765g of stuff in the box, but only 0.72g of it is polonium-210.
The other 764.28g of stuff would be other elements that the polonium-210 decayed into.
Example 3: You have 75.0 g of lead-212. If it has a half life of 10.6h, determine how long it will take
until only 9.30 g remains.
This question is tougher than the previous example. If you write out the formula, heres what you
get
n
N =N o() 1
2
n
9.3=75() 1
2
9.3=75( 0.5) n

Method 1: Logs
Now, if youre good with logarithms in math, you can go ahead and solve it.
9.3 n
=0.5
75 Simplify your expression a bit.
n
0.124=0.5
log 0.5 0.124=3.01158797 Solve the logarithm to find out how many half lives.
3.01158797 x 10.6 h=31.9 h Multiply half lives by time in one half life.
Method 2: Guess and Check

But in Physics 30 you are not required to use logs, so there is an easy way to estimate.
1. Type 75 into your calculator and divide by 2. You should get 37.5. So, after one half life
youve got 37.5g left.
2. Divide 37.5 by 2 to get 18.75 so after two half lives youve got 18.75g.
3. Divide 18.75 by 2 to get 9.375. After three half lives have passed youve got 9.375g left.
Thats pretty close to the 9.30g in the question, so after just a little more than three half
lives you should have 9.30g left over.
Take the half life of the material (10.6h) and multiply it by 3 half lives to get 31.8 hours! That's
pretty close to our wonderful answer calculated above using logarithms.
Homework
p813 #2
p817 #5-8

Lesson 45: Fission & Fusion
Start talking to someone about nuclear energy, and theyll probably think of two things: nuclear bombs,
and the towers of a nuclear power plant like on the Simpsons. Most people view nuclear energy as
something to be afraid of, but like most things, once you understand it a lot of the fear disappears.
There are two main types of nuclear reactions that can release energy:
Fission: The process of causing a large nucleus (A > 120) to split into multiple smaller nuclei,
releasing energy in the process.
It can start when the large nuclei absorbs a neutron, causing it to become unstable to the
point that it falls apart.
This is the reaction that we use in nuclear power plants and early nuclear weapons.
Fission is relatively easy to do, but also leaves us with lots of nuclear waste that must be
stored for thousands of years before it is safe.
Fusion: The process of causing small nuclei to stick together into a larger nucleus, in the
process releasing energy.
This is the process that drives our sun, and all other suns.
We can do it under the right conditions in a lab, but we end up putting in more energy
than we get out.
The left over products of fusion are relatively safe, which is why a lot of research is
going into developing fusion reactors.
Fission
The most typical fuel used in a fission reactor is uranium-235.
In 1939 four German scientists discovered that uranium-235 would become very unstable if it
gained an extra neutron, forming uranium-236.
Uranium-236 is so unstable that a fraction of a second later it will split to form two smaller
atoms, and in the process release energy.
Here are two common fission reactions that uranium-236 can go through...
235 1 236 141 92 1
92U 0n 92U 56 Ba 36 Kr 3 0n
and
235 1 236 140 94 1
92U 0n 92U 54 Xe 38 Sr 2 0n
Some things to notice

1. Both reactions start the same when we add a single neutron to uranium-235, which forms
uranium-236 for a split second.
2. Barium-141, krypton-92, xenon-140, and strontium-94 are smaller nuclei that uranium-236
could split into.
3. At any point in the reaction the conservation of nucleons stays the same.
4. In the first reaction three neutrons were ejected, while in the second reaction only two were
ejected. Although it is possible for as many as 5 neutrons to be ejected in some fission
reactions, on average it is about 2.5 neutrons.
5. These reactions are exothermic (they release energy).

The basic reaction is written out as
235
U 10n 236 1
92 92U X Y 2.5 0 n
X and Y represent any of the smaller nuclei that uranium-236 will split into.
To keep this reaction going, do we need to keep on adding neutrons?

Well, we could, but it takes energy to isolate neutrons and then throw them at the uranium-235,
so this isnt the best idea.
We do have an average of 2.5 neutrons thrown off each reaction that is successful, so why not
just use those?
Thats exactly what we do!

If exactly one neutron gives rise to another reaction, the self sustaining reaction that results is
called critical. Each reaction leads to one reaction afterwards. This is a chain reaction.
Critical Nuclear Reaction

We give the initial neutron to start
Reaction One 235 1
U n
236
U X Y 2.5 n
1 Reaction One. One neutron produced
92 0 92 0
from Reaction One feeds Reaction
1 neutron Two, while 1.5 neutrons fly away
Reaction Two happens because of the

235
U 10n 236 1
Reaction Two 92 92U X Y 2.5 0 n
neutron that was fed to it by Reaction
One. Now Reaction Two makes its own
1 neutron neutrons, one of which feeds the next
reaction...
235 1 236 1
Reaction Three 92U 0n U X Y 2.5 0 n
92
The process is repeating again...
1 neutron
235 1 236 1 and again. One reaction causes one

Reaction Four 92U 0n U X Y 2.5 0 n
92 more reaction to happen in a row for as
long as there is uranium.
If two or more neutrons give rise to more reactions, the increasing rate of reactions is called
supercritical. Each reaction leads to multiple reactions afterwards.
Supercritical Nuclear Reaction
Reaction 1
Reaction 2 Reaction 3
Reaction 4 Reaction 5 Reaction 6 Reaction 7

Each reaction leads to multiple reactions, meaning that with each generation of reactions the
number or reactions is increasing exponentially.

There are a few situations when we want this to happen...
in a nuclear bomb, since we want one reaction we kick off
to result in a cascade of exponentially more and more
reactions within a split second
when a nuclear power plant is first being started up, until it
reaches the number of reactions that we can keep going at
the same time. Then it will be stepped down to just a
critical reaction.
There is also a situation when we do not want a supercritical

reaction, which is when a nuclear power plant is going into a
meltdown.
This is what started to happen at the Chernobyl Nuclear
Reactor in Ukraine.
Illustration 1: Chernobyl
Reactor Number Four.
If less than one neutron gives rise to more reactions, the decreasing
rate of reactions is called subcritical.
For example, lets say you have four reactions, but the neutrons from only three of them feed
later reactions, and of those three only two continue, then down to one the reaction will
eventually die out.
This is what happens when you shut down a reactor.
Reactors use control rods to control the rate of the reaction.

Made from elements such as boron and cadmium, control rods are very good at absorbing
neutrons.
If a reaction is going supercritical, drop the control rods further into the core to absorb
extra neutrons and the reaction slows.
If the reaction is going subcritical, pull the control rods out further, which lets more
neutrons react and get more reactions going again.
Nuclear Reactors
All reactors that we currently use go through the process outlined above. There were a couple of
problems back in the 1940s that needed to be figured out before reactors could work.
Problem One
The 2.5 neutrons released in the fission process are moving really fast, in fact too fast to be able to be
absorbed by the next uranium-235 in the chain.
We need to be able to slow them down. Something that slows down neutrons in a reactor is
called a moderator.
If you want something to slow you should hit it against something about the same size, so it
would be best if we could get these fast moving neutrons to hit some different neutrons.
Unfortunately, naturally occurring neutrons are very unstable, so wed be better off with
something about the same size as neutrons. Hmmm, maybe protons!
A cheap source of a bunch of protons is water! All those hydrogen atoms in water are made
up of a single proton orbited by an electron.

So, our solution to the first problem is to use water as a moderator to slow down the fast moving
neutrons from one reaction, allowing them to interact with the next uranium nucleus in the chain.
Problem Two
Water is mostly made up of hydrogen-1 atoms.
Hydrogen-1 doesn't just slow down neutrons, they usually absorb neutrons. This prevents them
from going on to the next part of the reaction.
1 1 2
1 H 0 n 1 H
This means that the water has absorbed the neutron that hit it, forming hydrogen-2, also called
deuterium.
Since the water molecules now have two extra neutrons (one on each hydrogen), the water
is atomically more heavy, so we often call it heavy water.
There are three solutions to this problem:

1. Use enriched uranium in the reactor.
This just means that the uranium ore is more carefully refined to contain more U-235, so the
critical reactions have a better chance of happening even if some neutrons are absorbed by
regular water. This is often used in American reactors.
2. Use heavy water in the reactor.

Rather than starting with regular water, intentionally put heavy water in as your moderator.
Hydrogen-2 in the heavy water will not absorb many more neutrons. This way you can use
regular uranium ore. CANDU (CANadian Deuterium Uranium) reactors use this method.
3. Use graphite (carbon) rods.

It turns out this works really well as a moderator. It is a popular method for building reactors in
the former Soviet Union and Britain. There is one big problem if oxygen gets into the reactor,
carbon can actually burst into flames (theyre basically giant BBQ briquettes). This is what
happened at Chernobyl.

Fusion
By the time the 1920's rolled around, physicists had figured
out that the Sun was made from about 73% hydrogen and
27% helium.
The suggestion was made that maybe hydrogen nuclei
fuse together to form helium nuclei.
This would fit, since four hydrogen nuclei (four
protons) have just a little more mass than a helium
nucleus. It would make sense the mass that was
missing after fusion would have been converted to
energy (E=mc2).
This very basic fusion, called a proton-proton chain,
is the source of energy for stars like our Sun.
So why dont we use fusion instead of fission here on Earth in

our nuclear reactors?
Unfortunately at this stage of technology we havent
worked out all the bugs yet.
We can build and run fusion reactors right now, but
we end up putting in more energy than we get out.
This is because the fusion reactions require intense
heat and pressure to allow fusion to happen.
There is a great deal of research working on cold
Illustration 2: Proton-proton chain.
fusion, the ability to cause fusion to happen at Image courtesy of Borb.
lower temperatures.
Homework
p813 #2
p819 #2
p824 #1, 4, 6, 8
p826 #3, 5-8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 25, 30

Lesson 46: Cloud & Bubble Chambers
Imagine you're on a really stupid game show where they put a whole bunch of ping pong balls on the
floor, turn off the lights, and then send you in to count them. How would you do it?
I'm thinking that your only chance is to get down on your hands and knees and try to touch
them around you.
One of the problems is that in the very act of counting them (by reaching out), you change them
by pushing them around, maybe even missing some of them.
This is kind of the same problem that subatomic physicists have. They have to reach around in the
dark to measure something that they can't see.
The amazing part is that methods have been developed to do this, and actually do it accurately.
This is the beginning of our journey into the modern subatomic realm of physics.
Cloud Chambers
In 1894 the Scottish physicist Charles Wilson was interested in the odd shadows that can sometimes be
formed on cloud tops by mountain climbers (called Brocken Spectre).
To be able to study this further, he came up with a way water
to build a device called a cloud chamber that would droplets
allow him to make his own mini-clouds inside a glass
chamber.
To be able to do this he made his device so that he
could keep the air inside supersaturated with water.
Air can usually only hold a certain amount of path of
charged particle
vapour. Supersaturated means the air was
holding more vapour than it would normally be Illustration 1: Water droplets condense
able to at that pressure and temperature. It is in a along the path of the charged particle.
very delicate state that can easily be disturbed to
cause condensation of the vapour into liquid
droplets.
He quickly realized that as charged particles passed
through his cloud chamber they were able to ionize
some of the molecules. This resulted in ions that
caused water vapour to condense.
Over the next few years Wilson was able to see the
path the charged particles had passed through by looking
for the little vapour trails forming in the chamber.
This is sort of like knowing where a 747 jet has
flown by looking for its vapour trail streaking across
the sky.
Illustration 2: A particle's path as
seen in a cloud chamber.

Bubble Chamber
A bubble chamber is the exact opposite of a cloud chamber.
Instead of a supersaturated vapour that can condense into a liquid, a
bubble chamber uses a liquefied gas that is at such a low pressure
that it is on the edge of boiling back into a gas.
As a particle passes through this liquid, it causes it to boil into a gas,
leaving a trail of bubbles along its path.
A bubble chamber is otherwise quite similar to a cloud chamber.
Illustration 3: A
Cloud and bubble chambers are usually operated with a constant magnetic hydrogen bubble
field perpendicular to the path of the particles. chamber image.
This way we can observe the particles as they spin through a spiral pattern.
This happens because the magnetic force acting on the charged particles causes a centripetal
pattern.
By simply measuring the radius of their path we can figure out quantities such as charge to
mass ratio, just like in Lesson 18.
Both cloud and bubble chambers suffer from the drawback that they can not detect neutral particles,
since only ions (and ionizing photons) can cause any change in the chambers.
Instead, we have to look for the interactions of other particles with neutral particles.
For example, if we see a charged particle interact with something we can't see we can
guess it was a neutral particle.
Analyzing Particle Tracks

The best way to use either kind of chamber is to place it in a magnetic field and then make
measurements of the paths of particles.
Any charged particle will follow a distinct pathway in the magnetic field because of the
magnetic force acting on it. This will cause it to follow a circular path, allowing us to use...
Fm = Fc
Example 1: The image shown here was taken using a bubble chamber that was
placed in a 4.75e-3 T magnetic field [out of page]. Notice that in the middle,
where nothing was before, we suddenly have two tracks appear that spiral in
opposite directions. Each of these tracks has an initial radius of 8.55 mm. We
know that the particles creating the tracks are initially traveling at 0.0240c
(0.0240 times the speed of light). Explain, using a sketch, what you believe is
happening in this image. Determine the charge-to-mass ratio of both particles.
Finally, explain the significance of your calculation.
Since the spiraling particles appear out of nowhere, we must assume

that there was originally an uncharged particle or photon traveling to the
right. It then transformed into two charged particles that we can see in
the bubble chamber.
According to conservation of charge, since the original particle/photon
was neutral the charges of the two particles we see must add up to zero.
This means one of them is positive and the other negative. We can use Illustration 4: Photo
the third hand rule to figure out which is which. Since the particles are taken in a bubble
chamber.
traveling to the right (thumb) and the magnetic field is out of the page (fingers), our left hand
palm pushes up (must be a negative charge spiraling up), and our right hand pushes down
(must be a positive charge spiraling down).
A sketch of this would look something like this...
8.55mm
negative charge
Neutral Particle/Photon
(invisible in photo)
transformation
positive charge
8.55mm
To figure out the charge-to-mass ratio, we know that the the magnetic force is causing
centripetal motion. We only need to do this once for both particles, since they are both doing the
exact same thing (even though in opposite directions) in the same field.
F m =F c
2
mv
qvB=
r
q v
=
m Br
q 0.0240(3.00e8)
=
m 4.75e-3 (0.00855)
q
=1.7728531856e11=1.77e11C /kg
m
This value is significant because it is very close to the charge-to-mass ratio of an electron. What
is surprising is that we already figured out the one particle is negative and the other is positive.
Both particles have a charge-to-mass ratio that indicates they are both electrons, but one of them
has to be positive. We'll examine this odd result in the next lesson.
Homework
p834 #1
p835 #7

Lesson 47: Antimatter
The name antimatter might have you start thinking about stuff from sci-fi
movies, but it is actually a real thing!
In 1928 the British Physicist Paul Dirac was playing around with some of
the more modern physics ideas of the time.
Using the work of Wolfgang Pauli, Einstein's Theory of Relativity,
and Schrodinger's Wave Equation, Dirac came up with a formula that
made an odd sounding prediction. If electrons exist (and we know
they do), a positive particle with the same mass should also exist !
In 1932 Carl Anderson took a photo of a cloud chamber that showed the
existence of this strange particle.
Anderson verified this because the radius of the particle's path allowed
him to calculate its charge-to-mass ratio (which was the same as an Illustration 1: Paul
electron's), and he could see that the path in the magnetic field could Dirac
only happen if the particle was positive.
This was the first antimatter particle discovered. It is usually called a positron, although you can
also call it an antielectron.
This means we have to change the way we think of the structure of matter.
Up to now, we only used three fundamental particles to describe the building blocks of all
matter; electrons, protons, and neutrons.
We now have to expand our way of thinking to include the existence of antimatter.
When writing down symbols for charged antimatter, you usually keep the same symbol and
just change the sign. If the antimatter is neutral, put a bar above the symbol.
Particle Symbol Antiparticle Symbol
Electron e- Positron e+
Proton p+ Antiproton p-
Neutron n Antineutron n
Neutrino v Antineutrino v

Antimatter has some interesting qualities.

Did You Know?
When matter and antimatter collide, a process
Particle-antiparticle annihilation might sound
called particle-antiparticle annihilation like something from sci-fi movies, but it is very
happens. possible that it may one day be a source of
In this process, the two particles cause the energy. The idea in movies of containing
total destruction of each other, transforming antimatter in a magnetic field, and then
all of their mass into energy according to combining it with matter is physically possible.
conservation of mass-energy (E=mc2).

Example 1: Particle-antiparticle annihilation does happen in stars. One such reaction involves an
electron and a positron colliding...
e+ + e- 2
Assuming the gamma photons are identical, determine the energy of one of the released photons.
This annihilation will cause the complete transformation of the electron and positron into
energy according to conservation of mass-energy. Keep in mind that the only thing that makes
them different is that they have different charges. They both have the exact same mass, the mass
of an electron. Let's calculate the equivalent energy of one electron.
Converted this is 512 438
2 2
E = mc = 9.11e-31 (3.00e8) = 8.199e-14 = 8.20e-14 J eV, or 0.512 MeV
One of the particles annihilating would result in the energy burst measured here. But what if the
question had asked for the total energy released? The answer would come from calculating the
mass of both particles changing to energy.
1 024 875 eV, or
2 2
E = mc = (2 x 9.11e-31) (3.00e8) = 1.6398e-13 J = 1.64e-13 J 1.02 MeV
Particle-antiparticle annihilation has even led to some

interesting technology, like PET scanners in hospitals.
PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography.
A radioactive isotope, such as fluorine-18, is
injected into a person.
As it moves throughout the persons body, it
emits positrons through beta positive decays.
I know this sounds dangerous, since it
sounds like the persons body should
explode in a burst of gamma radiation.
Nothing that dramatic happens. As you saw
in the example above, the amount of energy
of those gamma rays are actually quite
small. As the positrons hit electrons in the Illustration 2: PET Scanner.
person's body, small gamma rays are
emitted out of the person.
While these gamma rays are coming out, gamma ray detectors spin around the person.
Depending on where they detect gamma rays coming from, they can draw out a 3D map
of the inside of a person.
Due to changes in technology, most PET scanners in hospitals are being replaced with PET/CT
scanners, devices that combine the advantages of PET scanners with CT (computed
tomography) scanners.
Homework
p839 #6-8

Lesson 48: The Subatomic Zoo
By the 1930's physicists blew apart any possible way of going back to a simple model of matter being
made up of just three fundamental particles like electrons, protons, and neutrons.
We've already seen that we have to add in the idea of antiparticles, so, we've already doubled
the number of fundamental particles.
The discoveries that started to be made were so fantastic and almost unbelievable, that
physicists started to refer to their model of subatomic particles as the subatomic zoo.
Over time, higher and higher energies were being used to investigate the structure of matter.
This is necessary since as you try to probe smaller and smaller structures, the fundamental
forces holding matter together get stronger and stronger.
At 13.6eV you can ionize a hydrogen atom, causing an electron to be ejected.
At a few hundred electron volts you can look at various energy levels in atoms.
Rutherford had to use around 10 MeV (106 eV)to be able to look at the size of a nucleus.
This was necessary to allow his alpha particles to have enough energy to get close to the
nucleus, overcoming the electrostatic repulsion. He got alpha particles with about this
energy from using polonium and radium isotopes.
By the time we reach GeV (109eV), we start to see some wacky stuff happen... the particles
start to combine and break apart, momentarily creating new fundamental particles never
seen before!
It would be like throwing a golf ball at a vase, and in the resulting wreckage seeing a
pencil appear for a brief moment.
O.K., most of these new particles only exist for a few microseconds, but who cares! They really exist!
Some of the first discoveries
involved cosmic rays.
Although we are not certain
where they come from,
cosmic rays are made up of
about 90% protons, 9% alpha
particles, and 1% electrons.
Traveling through space,
these primary cosmic rays
can have energies of 1014
MeV! This is about seven
orders of magnitude higher
than anything humans can Illustration 1: Cosmic ray collision in atmosphere, causing
produce in particle the primary cosmic ray to split into secondary cosmic rays.
accelerators.
When they hit our atmosphere they react with air molecules and create less energetic
secondary cosmic rays that can actually reach the surface of the Earth.
Notice all the symbols used for the secondary cosmic ray particles in Illustration 1. These are some of
the new fundamental particles that were discovered starting in the 1930's.
A muon (-) acts like an electron, but has a mass that is 207 greater. Its antiparticle is the
antimuon (+).
Pions are unlike any other particle, and come in three types, -, +, and o.

This is starting to get a bit weird, right?
You used to think of just a little barn filled with only three critters, protons, electrons, and
neutrons.
Now we are entering the subatomic zoo, where the number of fundamental particles is a lot
bigger. In fact, we currently know of over 300 fundamental particles.
To help keep track of everything, physicists have divided these Spin is a measurement of a particle
particles into different groups, based on properties like their similar to how we would measure the
interactions with other particles, and spin. momentum of something like a spinning
The following chart traces the relationships and main top. Spin always happens as a half
integer (like 1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc) called
qualities of these groups. fermions, or whole integer (0, 1, 2, etc)
called bosons.
All
Fundamental
Particles
Leptons Hadrons
Name means thin. Name means thick.
Do not interact using strong nuclear force. Do interact using strong nuclear force.
Only 6 (and their 6 antiparticles) have Hundreds have been discovered.
ever been discovered. Further divided up based on spin.
Have a half integer spin, making them
fermions.
Mesons Baryons
Name means middle. Name means heavy.
Have an integer spin, Have a half integer
making them bosons. spin, making them
fermions.
Although there are many more than shown here, the chart on the next page shows some of the most
common particles from each group.
You do not have to memorize this table.
Notice that we are showing the hadrons broken up into its two sub-groups, mesons and
baryons.
You'll also see that the masses of the particles are given in some weird units, which we will
explain soon.

Family Particle Symbol Mass (MeV/c2)
electron * e 0.511
electron neutrino ** ve < 7e-6
muon
106
Leptons
muon neutrino v < 0.17
tauon 1777
tauon neutrino v < 24
+
140
pions
o 135
K+ 494
Mesons kaons o
K 498
psi 3097
Hadrons
upsilon 9460
proton * p+ 938.3
neutron * n 938.6
lambda o 1116
Baryons
+ 1189
sigma
- 1192

omega 1672
* Basic fundamental particles you need to know about.
This is the neutrino we discussed in beta positive
decays in Lesson 43. Remember there are also
antineutrinos involved in beta negative decays.
When we discuss the mass of all these fundamental particles, it seems a bit silly to use kilograms.
Although we will always use kilograms as the standard measurement of mass, it is handy to
have a system that is better suited to the much smaller masses we are now dealing with.
This is why you will often find masses listed in the units MeV/c2.
This comes from rearranging the formula for mass-energy equivalence as follows...
E=mc2
E
m= 2
c
To be able to do conversions with these numbers (if necessary), keep in mind two things...
You can always calculate the energy of a particle in Joules, then convert it into electron
volts.
Megaelectron volts are 106 eV.

Example 1: Determine the mass of an electron in MeV/c2 based on the value for its mass in kilograms
on the data sheet..
First, figure out its mass-energy equivalence in Joules...
E = mc2 = 9.11e-31 (3.00e8)2 = 8.199e-14 J
Now figure out how many eV that is...
8.199e-14 J
E= =512437.5 eV
1.60e-19 J /eV
Finally, determine how many MeV that is by sliding the decimal over 6 places...
E = 512437.5 eV = 0.5124375 MeV = 0.512 MeV
Since this is the energy of the electron in MeV...
E 2
m= 2 =0.512 MeV / c
c
Homework
p844 #3, 5, 8

Lesson 49: Quarks
By 1960 physicists felt pretty much like you do right now... confused!
Leptons are really small, and there are only six of them (and their antiparticles), so it seems like
they are probably fundamental particles.
The hadrons (mesons and baryons) are really big, and there are so many of them, that it seems
like maybe they are made up of just a few other smaller fundamental particles.
In 1963 Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig independently suggested the properties of the
fundamental particles that make up the hadrons, named quarks.
To explain the two most important hadrons, protons and neutrons, we only need two of these quarks...
2
up quark with a e charge symbol is u.
3
1
down quark with a e charge symbol is d.
3
This bothered physicists, since it involved having
charges that were a fraction of an elementary charge,
which had never been seen. electrons
By 1967 the Stanford Linear Accelerator was u u
being used to shoot high energy electrons at
protons. The electrons deflected around the d
proton in an uneven pattern that suggested the electrons proton
charge of a proton was not evenly spread out,
just as the quark model suggested.
The quark model eventually built up to having six Illustration 1: The electrons are deflected around
the proton because of the concentration of
quarks and their antiparticles (wow! just like there positively charged quarks near the top and
are six leptons and their antiparticles). negatively charged quarks near the bottom.
With these six quarks and their antiquarks we
can explain all the hadrons.
The six quarks were even used to predict some new hadrons that hadn't been discovered up
to that point.
The following chart shows all six quarks.

Remember that each quark also has an antiquark that only differs by having the opposite charge.
You are only responsible to know the first generation quarks.
All the hadrons can be built from either two or three of these quarks.
The exception is the theta particle (+) discovered in 2003. It is made up of five quarks.

Generation Name Symbol Charge
2
up u e
3
First
1
down d e
3
1
strange s e
3
Second
2
charm c e
3
bottom (AKA 1
b e
beauty) 3
Third
2
top (AKA truth) t e
3
Example 1: Using the information from this table, explain how a proton and a neutron would be made
from up and down quarks. Do not use antiparticles.
A proton needs to have a charge of +1e. The combination uud would give us this charge:
2 2 1 3
uud = e e e = e = 1 e
3 3 3 3
A neutron needs a charge of zero. The combination udd would give us this charge:
2 1 1
udd = e e e = 0 e = neutral
3 3 3
Explaining Beta Decays

We can use quarks and leptons (quarks and leptons are all fermions based on their spin) to explain beta
negative and beta positive decays.
Beta Negative Decays
Keep in mind that a beta negative decay happens when a neutron decays into a proton, an electron (the
beta negative particle), and an antineutrino.
no p+ + e + v
udd uud + e + v
Notice that one of the down quarks in the neutron has changed into an up quark to make a
proton.
This does result in a change in charge...
2 1 2 1
q = q f qi = e e = e e = 1 e
3 3 3 3
This is ok according to the conservation of charge, since we also see an electron with a
charge of -1e produced.
The change in the quark caused a +1e change
The creation of an electron (beta negative particle) caused a -1e change
Overall the change is (+1e + -1e = 0) zero!

Beta Positive Decays
Keep in mind that a beta negative decay happens when a proton decays into a neutron, a positron (the
beta positive particle), and a neutrino.
p+ no + e+ + v
uud udd + e+ + v
Notice that one of the up quarks in the proton has changed into an down quark to make a
neutron.
This does result in a change in charge...
1 2
q = q f qi = e e = 1 e
3 3
This is ok according to the conservation of charge, since we also see a positron with a
charge of +1e produced.
The change in the quark caused a -1e change
The creation of a positron (beta positive particle) caused a +1e change
Overall the change is (-1e + +1e = 0) zero!
Where do we go from here...?

As far as Physics 30 is concerned, you're done. But that doesn't mean physics is finished.
We've gone about as far as the late 1960's, early 1970's. There's a lot more that's been done in
physics since.
If you interested in seeing more, go on the net and check out topics like the Standard Model,
String Theory, and Grand Unified Theory. These are the big topics in physics right now.
If you do check them out, be wise in your choice of sources. These theories are cutting edge,
and there's a lot of kooks out there that have their own websites spreading their own
answers. Keep in mind that a wise man says A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Homework
p849 #3, 7, 8, 9

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Lesson 1: Momentum & Impulse

Its easy to come up with answers like

Inertia is the property of an object to stay at rest or in motion.

Momentum is calculated by multiplying the mass and velocity of an object.

1/21/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 5 / Section 9.1 & 9.2

1/21/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 2 of 5 / Section 9.1 & 9.2

Newton's Second Law

p but we know that p = m v

m v and we also know that v

But we just saw that Newton used impulse in his formulas

1/21/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 3 of 5 / Section 9.1 & 9.2

1. You could apply a medium force over a medium time interval.

When you hit the haystack

1/21/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 4 of 5 / Section 9.1 & 9.2

Its the force that hurts, so you want it to be as small as possible.

First, change 65 km/h into 18.05555 m/s.

F t = m v v = vf -vi = 0 18.05555 = -18.05555m/s

1/21/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 5 of 5 / Section 9.1 & 9.2

Since nothing in the impulse

2/15/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 3 / Section 9.2

If we calculate the area under the

Illustration 2: Graph for Example 2 (Force as a function of Time)

2/15/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 2 of 3 / Section 9.2

Time (s) 10.0 Time (s) 10.0

2/15/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 3 of 3 / Section 9.2

Illustration 1: Collision of a red and blue ball, showing initial

2/14/2015 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 2 / Section 9.3

Example 1: Objects bounce apart

Example 2: Objects stick together

2/14/2015 studyphysics.ca Page 2 of 2 / Section 9.3

We need to show what happens before and after the collision.

9/14/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 6 / Section 9.4

Now we need to start looking at some questions with calculations.

9/14/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 2 of 6 / Section 9.4

We can do the same for the y component of the blue ball...

9/14/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 3 of 6 / Section 9.4

We want the velocity, not the momentum, of the blue ball...

9/14/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 4 of 6 / Section 9.4

Do the blue ball before the collision

We will now add the x and y components to get a new resultant.

Illustration 9: X and Y totals from before the collision

The red ball after the collision

9/14/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 5 of 6 / Section 9.4

16.2 kgm/s When you calculate the x and y

This means that there is a certain amount of x-component unaccounted for

We also have some y-component unaccounted for

We calculate the hypotenuse as 24.16761562kgm/s.

9/14/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 6 of 6 / Section 9.4

9/5/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 3 / Section 9.3

bullet Maximum Height

Part 2: Conservation of Momentum

9/5/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 2 of 3 / Section 9.3

9/5/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 3 of 3 / Section 9.3

7/3/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 3 / Section 10.1

Most of Franklins research actually focused on amber rods

Franklin decided to say that

7/3/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 2 of 3 / Section 10.1

Sometimes the atom may lose or gain electrons.

7/3/2013 studyphysics.ca Page 3 of 3 / Section 10.1

Insulators Semiconductors Conductors Superconductors

Insulators & Conductors

We say that the iron is a conductor, while the rubber is an insulator.

2/15/2012 studyphysics.ca Page 1 of 2 / Section 10.1

If a negatively charged object is brought close to a conductor