Physics 103

Quiz 2 (Light / Quantum Mechanics)

Instructions: Write your logical solutions on a short bond paper. Box all final answers.

1. (10 points) A photon of green light has a wavelength of 520 nm. Find the photon’s frequency,
magnitude of momentum, and energy. Express the energy in both joules and electron volts.

2. (10 points) The photoelectric work function of potassium is 2.3 eV. If light having a wavelength of
250 nm falls on potassium, find (a) the stopping potential in volts; (b) the kinetic energy in electron
volts of the most energetic electrons ejected; (c) the speed of these electrons.

3. (10 points) X rays with initial wavelength 0.0665 nm undergo Compton scattering. What is the
longest wavelength found in the scattered x-rays? At which scattering angle is this wavelength
observed?

4. (15 points) An electron is in a box of width 3.0 x 10-10 m. What are the de Broglie wavelength and
the magnitude of the momentum of the electron if it is in (a) n=1 the level; (b) the n=2 level; (c)
n=3 the level? In each case for the n’s how does the wavelength compare to the width of the box?

5. (15 points) A proton with initial kinetic energy 50.0 eV encounters a barrier of height 70.0 eV.
What is the width of the barrier if the probability of tunneling is 3.0x10-3. How does this compare
with the barrier width for an electron with the same energy tunneling through a barrier of the
same height with the same probability?

6. (40 points) A particle is trapped inside a circular ring. (a) solve for the allowed energy levels of the
particle and (b) its normalized wavefunction.

“In the world of the very small, where particle and wave aspects of reality are equally significant,
things do not behave in any way that we can understand from our experience of the everyday world.
All pictures are false, and there is no physical analogy we can make to understand what goes on inside atoms.
Atoms behave like atoms, nothing else.”

-end of quiz-