Physics 12 MODERN PHYSICS: AN INTRODUCTION

 QUOTE AND CLIP OF THE DAY:

 Bodies and forces, especially Newton's laws of motion and the principles of mechanics based on them  Physics that does not make use of quantum mechanics or the theory of relativity.  But many theories in classical physics break down when applied to extremely small objects such as atoms or to objects moving near the speed of light.  At the end of the 19th century it looked as if Physics was pretty well “wrapped up”!? CLASSICAL PHYSICS

 Since roughly 1900, new discoveries have caused significant paradigm shifts  Includes the advent of quantum mechanics (QM) and of Einsteinian relativity (ER).  Physics that incorporates elements of either QM or ER (or both) is said to be modern physics. MODERN PHYSICS:

 Modern physics is often encountered when dealing with extreme conditions.  Quantum mechanical effects tend to appear when dealing with "lows" (low temperatures, small distances)  Relativistic effects tend to appear when dealing with "highs" (high velocities, large distances)  The "middles" being classical behaviour. MODERN PHYSICS:

 Special Theory of Relativity  General Theory of Relativity  Quantum Theory MAJOR MODERN PHYSICS THEORIES

EINSTEIN

 Perimeter Institute  Everyday Einstein: GPS and Relativity  Complete WS # 3 and 4 A PRACTICAL APPLICATION:

 are just a way of saying that sometimes different people will say different things about the motion of the same object  me_reference.html me_reference.html  There are two types of frames of reference often referred to in physics:  Inertial and Non Inertial (Inertia: resistance of an object to change its state of motion) KEY CONCEPT: FRAMES OF REFERENCE

 Non accelerating  Newton’s 1st law and other laws of physics are valid  For example:  Inside a bus moving at constant velocity with a ball inside INERTIAL FRAME OF REFERENCE

 Accelerating  Newton’s 1st law does not hold  For example:  If you are in the bus when it starts to slow down (accelerating backward) the ball seems to be accelerating forward inside the bus. No external force has acted on the ball so how can it be accelerating?  There appears to be an external force because we see it from an accelerated frame of reference inside the bus (non inertial frame). NON-INERTIAL FRAME OF REFERENCE

 Einstein  Physical theory of space and time developed based on the postulates that all the laws of physics are equally valid in all frames of reference moving at a uniform velocity and that the speed of light from a uniformly moving source is always the same, regardless of how fast or slow the source or its observer is moving.  Introduced a new way to view:  Space  Time  Simultaneity SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

 Once upon a time…… FIRST A BIT OF BACKGROUND:

MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS:  Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space in the form of waves at the speed of light in 1865  When scientists (other than Maxwell) were originally looking at electric and magnetic fields generated by charges (in a vacuum), they came up with some equations to predict the strength and direction of these fields. It turned out that some constants were required in the equations to get the field strengths right.  Maxwell came along and (in addition to fixing one equation), he put them together and realized that combining the equations resulted in two "wave equation" which predicted that the electric and magnetic fields were waves.

Maxwell continued….  The important idea is that the speed of light is independent of the velocity of the sources of light!

 Prior to experiments by Michelson and Morley, it was assumed that light needed a medium to propagate through  This medium was called the “luminiferous ether” and Michelson and Morely set out to test for the presence of this ether  They used an interferometer, which is a device designed to measure wavelengths of light MICHELSON-MORLEY EXPERIMENT

 Prevailing theories held that ether formed an absolute reference frame with respect to which the rest of the universe was stationary.  It would therefore follow that it should appear to be moving from the perspective of an observer on the sun-orbiting Earth.  As a result, light would sometimes travel in the same direction of the ether, and others times in the opposite direction.  The interferometer consists of a:  Light source  Beam splitter (half silvered mirror)  Mirrors (one fixed, one adjustable)  Screen  The goal was to observe interference patterns between light waves INTERFEROMETER

 Michelson and Morley set the apparatus so that one beam was travelling parallel to the ether and the other was travelling perpendicular to the ether  They then rotated the apparatus and attempted to measure changes in the interference patterns  Unfortunately, they were unable to observe a change in interference patterns that they expected due to the motion of the earth  Michelson and Morley’s results remained a mystery until Einstein published his special theory of relativity MICHELSON-MORLEY RESULTS

 In 1905 Albert Einstein proposed that we accept the fact that the speed of light was the same in all reference systems  Einstein’s theory of special relativity requires giving up some long held “common sense” ideas about space and time that we have held over the centuries.  But it had the advantage that it embodies both theory (Maxwell) and experimental results (Michelson and Morley) in rejecting an absolute reference frame. ENTER EINSTEIN: 1905

 Based on his consideration of Maxwell’s lack of a frame of reference, Einstein proposed his special theory of relativity based on two postulates: 1.All physical laws must be equally valid in all inertial (non- accelerated) frames of reference 2.The speed of light through a vacuum will be measured to be the same in all inertial frames of reference THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Time Dilation:  The term time dilation applies to situations in which time intervals appear different to observers in different inertial frames of reference.  It is only when an object approaches speeds on the order of 30,000 km/s (1/10 the speed of light) that time dilation becomes important.

 As a result, we end up with two times:  Δt – dilated time (seconds)  Δt 0 – proper time (seconds)  v – velocity of moving frame of reference (m/s)  c – speed of light (m/s) TIME DILATION The proper time could be thought of it as the “rest time,” where the event is at rest, although this term is not generally used. Another way to picture it is as the “one-point” time, the time for an observer who sees the clock as staying at only one point.

Example 1:  A rocket speeds past an asteroid at c. If an observer in the rocket sees 10.0 s pass on her watch, how long would that time interval be as seen by an observer on the asteroid? Proper time!

Lorentz Factor:  Is the factor by which time, length, and "relativistic mass" change for an object while that object is moving  is often written as gamma to SAVE TIME!!!  This number is determined by the object's speed in the following way: Note: that for small speeds, γ is approximately 1 thus, no time dilation

So…..

 Page 819  Questions 1-3 TRY IT :

Another Relativistic Effect: Length Contraction  In a way that is similar to time changes depending on the frame of reference, length is also affected  An observer at rest (relative to the moving object) would observe the moving object to be shorter in length.

Length Contraction:  om/mmedia/specrel/lc.cfm om/mmedia/specrel/lc.cfm Note: only affects distances parallel to motion!

Muon  is an elementary particle similar to the electron  On Earth, most naturally occurring muons are created by cosmic rays, which consist mostly of protons, many arriving from deep space at very high energy  About 10,000 muons reach every square meter of the earth's surface a minute; these charged particles form as by-products of cosmic rays colliding with molecules in the upper atmosphere.  These particles are created about 9000m above the surface of the Earth and travel at about 0.998c

Example: Muon  The muon is an unstable subatomic particle with a mean lifetime of 2.0 µs (measured from earth). These particles travel at about 0.998c. What distance does the muon travel over its lifetime?  According to time dilation, the muon’s half-life should be 30μs in the muon’s frame  As a result, the muon can travel a.998c for 30μs covering a distance of 9000m

Example: Muon  According to length contraction, the distance that the muon needs to move through (measured in the frame of reference of the Earth) should be 600m in the muon’s frame.  Use the info from the previous slide to prove this!  Thus, the Earth rushes towards the muon at.998c for 2μs covering a distance of 600m

Try it  Page 824  Questions 4-6

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