The Tevatron was a large particle accelerator that would collide beams of protons and anti-protons to see what would come out of the collisions. a) Let’s assume that each particle (in both beams) was accelerated to a total energy of 100 GeV. What is the speed of the protons (relative to the speed of light) if you assume the mass of the proton is equal to 1 GeV/c^2? Write your answer in terms of the speed of light—keep it as a decimal times “c”. You will need several decimal places. b) Suppose that you now accelerate each particle to a speed of 0.9c. Since they are moving in opposite directions, what is the speed that one would measure for the speed of the other particle? Just give the absolute value of this speed. Don’t worry about the sign. c) Given your answer in part b, what is the energy of that one particle would measure for the other particle?
The Tevatron was a large particle accelerator that would collide beams of
protons and anti-protons to see what would come out of the collisions.
a) Let’s assume that each particle (in both beams) was accelerated to a total energy of
100 GeV. What is the speed of the protons (relative to the speed of light) if you assume
the mass of the proton is equal to 1 GeV/c^2? Write your answer in terms of the speed of
light—keep it as a decimal times “c”. You will need several decimal places.
b) Suppose that you now accelerate each particle to a speed of 0.9c. Since they are moving
in opposite directions, what is the speed that one would measure for the speed of the other
particle? Just give the absolute value of this speed. Don’t worry about the sign.
c) Given your answer in part b, what is the energy of that one particle would measure for
the other particle?
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