Consider two experiments involving a metal sphere with a radius of 2.00 μm that is suspended in a vacuum. In one experiment, a pulse of N photons reflects from the surface of the sphere, causing the sphere to acquire momentum. In a second experiment, an identical pulse of photons is completely absorbed by the sphere, so that the sphere acquires momentum. Identify each type of collision as either elastic or inelastic, and, assuming that the change in the photon wavelength can be ignored, use linear momentum conservation to derive the expression for the momentum of the sphere in each experiment.
Consider two experiments involving a metal sphere with a radius of 2.00 μm that is suspended in a vacuum. In one experiment, a pulse of N photons reflects from the surface of the sphere, causing the sphere to acquire momentum. In a second experiment, an identical pulse of photons is completely absorbed by the sphere, so that the sphere acquires momentum. Identify each type of collision as either elastic or inelastic, and, assuming that the change in the photon wavelength can be ignored, use linear momentum conservation to derive the expression for the momentum of the sphere in each experiment.
Question
Consider two experiments involving a metal sphere with a radius of 2.00 μm that is suspended in a vacuum. In one experiment, a pulse of N photons reflects from the surface of the sphere, causing the sphere to acquire momentum. In a second experiment, an identical pulse of photons is completely absorbed by the sphere, so that the sphere acquires momentum. Identify each type of collision as either elastic or inelastic, and, assuming that the change in the photon wavelength can be ignored, use linear momentum conservation to derive the expression for the momentum of the sphere in each experiment.
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