Suppose an electron is confined to a region of length 0.1 nm (of the order of the size of a hydrogen atom) and its kinetic energy is equal to the ground state energy of the hydrogen atom in Bohr's model (13.6 eV). (a) What is the minimum uncertainty of its momentum? What fraction of its momentum is it? (b) What would the uncertainty in kinetic energy of this electron be if its momentum were equal to your answer in part (a)? What fraction of its kinetic energy is it?
Suppose an electron is confined to a region of length 0.1 nm (of the order of the size of a hydrogen atom) and its kinetic energy is equal to the ground state energy of the hydrogen atom in Bohr's model (13.6 eV). (a) What is the minimum uncertainty of its momentum? What fraction of its momentum is it? (b) What would the uncertainty in kinetic energy of this electron be if its momentum were equal to your answer in part (a)? What fraction of its kinetic energy is it?
Suppose an electron is confined to a region of length 0.1 nm (of the order of the size of a hydrogen atom) and its kinetic energy is equal to the ground state energy of the hydrogen atom in Bohr's model (13.6 eV). (a) What is the minimum uncertainty of its momentum? What fraction of its momentum is it? (b) What would the uncertainty in kinetic energy of this electron be if its momentum were equal to your answer in part (a)? What fraction of its kinetic energy is it?
Study of body parts and their functions. In this combined field of study, anatomy refers to studying the body structure of organisms, whereas physiology refers to their function.
Consider an oxygen (O2) molecule in a bottle of air. Imagine that at a certain time, we locate the molecule along the x axis to within an uncertainty of 0.1 nanometers.
a) What is the minimum uncertainty in the molecule's x-velocity required by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? (Hint: the answer is about 10 m/s)
b) How does this compare (roughly) to the magnitude of the molecule's average x-velocity due to its thermal motion at room temperature? (Hint: the answer is delta v << average thermal speed)
(Hint: Avogadro's number of oxygen molecules has a mass of about 32 grams. At an absolute temperature T, a molecule has an average kinetic energy of 1.5 * kB * T, where kB is Boltzmann's constant. Room temperature is about 295 K).
A 10.0 g marble is gently placed on a horizontal tabletop that is 1.75 m wide. (a) What is the maximum uncertainty in the horizon- tal position of the marble? (b) According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, what is the minimum uncertainty in the horizontal velocity of the marble? (c) In light of your answer to part (b), what is the longest time the marble could remain on the table? Compare this time to the age of the universe, which is approximately 14 billion years. (Hint: Can you know that the horizontal velocity of the marble is exactly zero?)
An electron is confined to a region of space of the size
of an atom (0.1 nm). (a) What is the uncertainty in the
momentum of the electron? (b) What is the kinetic energy
of an electron with a momentum equal to Ap? (c) Does
this give a reasonable value for the kinetic energy of an
electron in an atom?