Problem Statement of Series 6, Year 29

In the year 2015, a Nobel prize for Physics was given for an experimental confirmation of the oscillation of neutrinos. You have probably already heard about neutrinos and maybe you know that they interact with matter very weakly so they can pass without any deceleration through Earth and similar large objects. Try to find out, using available literature and Internet sources, how many neutrinos are at any instant moment in an average person. Don't forget to reference the sources.

Pikos' friend wears glasses. When she puts them on, her eyes seem to be smaller. Is she shortsighted or farsighted? Justify your answer.

We are going up and down the same hill with the slope $α$, driving at the same speed $v$ and having the same gear (and therefore the same RPM of the engine), in a car with mass $M$. What is the difference between the power of the engine up the hill (propulsive power) and down the hill (breaking power)?

Neutral particle beams are used in various fusion devices to heat up plasma. In a device like that, ions of deuterium are accelerated to high energy before they are neutralized, keeping almost the initial speed. Particles coming out of the neutralizer of the COMPASS tokamak have energy 40 keV and the current in the beam just before the neutralization is 12 A. What is the force acting on the beam generator? What is its power?

Two particles, an electron with mass $m_{e}=9,1\cdot 10^{-31}\;\mathrm{kg}$ and charge $−e=-1,6\cdot 10^{-19}C$ and an alpha particle with mass $m_{He}=6,6\cdot 10^{-27}\;\mathrm{kg}$ and charge 2$e$, are following a circular trajectory in the $xy$ plane in a homogeneous magnetic field $\textbf{B}=(0,0,B_{0})$, $B_{0}=5\cdot 10^{-5}T$. The radius of the orbit of the electron is $r_{e}=2\;\mathrm{cm}$ and the radius of the orbit of the alpha particle is $r_{He}=200\;\mathrm{m}$. Suddenly, a small homogeneous electric field $\textbf{E}=(0,0,E_{0})$, $E_{0}=5\cdot 10^{-5}V\cdot \;\mathrm{m}^{−1}$ is introduced. Determine the length of trajectories of these particles during in the time $t=1\;\mathrm{s}$ after the electric field comes into action. Assume that the particles are far enough from each other and that they don't emit any radiation.

Think up and describe a device that can deduce its orientation relative to gravitational acceleration and convert this information to an electrical signal. Come up with as many designs as you can. (An accelerometer-like device that is in most smart phones.)

If we drop a bouncing ball or any other elastic ball on an appropriate surface, it starts to bounce. During every hit on the surface some kinetic energy of the ball is dissipated (into heat, sound, etc.) and the ball doesn't return to its initial height. We define the coefficient of restitution as the ratio of the kinetic energy after and before the hit. Is there any dependence between the coefficient of restitution and the height which the ball fell from? Choose one suitable ball and one suitable surface (or several if you want) for which you determine the relation between the coefficient of restitution and the height of the fall. Describe the experiment properly and perform a sufficient number of measurements.

• Find, in literature or online, the change of enthalpy and Gibbs free energy in the following reaction

$$2\,\;\mathrm{H}_2 \mathrm{O}_2\longrightarrow2\,\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{O},$$

where both the reactants and the product are gases at standard conditions. Find the change of entropy in this reaction. Give results per mole.

• Power flux in a photon gas is given by

$j=\frac{3}{4}\frac{k_\;\mathrm{B}^4\pi^2}{45\hbar^3c^3}cT^4$.

Substitute the values of the constants and compare the result with the Stefan-Boltzmann law.

• Calculate the internal energy and the Gibbs free energy of a photon gas. Use the internal energy to write the temperature of a photon gas as a function of its volume for an adiabatic expansion (a process with $δQ=0)$.

Hint: The law for an adiabatic process with an ideal gas was derived in the second part of this series (Czech only).

• Considering a photon gas, show that if $δQ⁄T$ is given by

$$\delta Q / T = f_{,T} \;\mathrm{d} T f_{,V} \mathrm{d} V\,,$$

then functions $f_{,T}$ and $f_{,V}$ obey the necessary condition for the existence of entropy, that is

$$\frac{\partial f_{,T}(T, V)}{\partial V} = \frac{\partial f_{,V}(T, V)}{\partial T} $$