University of the Philippines

College of Science

Physics 73
Second Long Problem Set
Second Semester, AY 20152016

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Second Long Problem Set

Second Semester, AY 20152016

Physics 73

Instructions: Choose the letter of the best answer to each of the following questions. To
change your answer, cross (X) out the shaded letter and supply your new answer with your
signature beside the item. Any form of cheating in examinations or any act of dishonesty in
relation to studies, such as plagiarism, shall be subject to disciplinary action.
USEFUL CONSTANTS
Speed of light in vacuum: c = 3 108 m/s
Plancks constant: h = 6.626 1034 J s
USEFUL CONVERSION FACTOR
1 eV = 1.602 1019 J
Hour 17
1. Frame Master. Which of the following is an inertial reference frame?
A. Freely falling debris
B. Powered spacecraft
C. Space station near a massive planet
D. Plane on earths atmosphere
2. Natural Momentum. What is 5.00 1021 kg-m/s of momentum in natural units?
A. 7.81 1039 kg
B. 4.39 103 eV
C. 1.67 1029 kg
D. 3.12 102 eV
3. Survive. Which of the following ideas from Newtonian dynamics survived after Einsteins
postulates?
A. simulteneity
B. causality
C. absolute time
D. velocity transformation

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Hour 18
4. Spam. In a lab frame, events A and B occur at the same time at locations xA = 2 m and
xB = 11 m, respectively. If the same events occur at times t0A = 1 m and t0B = 8 m in a
rocket frame, what is the space separation of the two events in the rocket frame?
A. 5.60 m

C. 11.4 m

B. 32.0 m

D. 130 m

5. Relative speed. An observer in a lab frame observes two events that occur at the same
location but separated in time by 6.00 s. If the same events are separated in time by 9.00 s
in a rocket frame, what is the speed of the rocket frame relative to the lab frame?
A. 0.67

C. 0.35

B. 0.41

D. 0.75

6. Traveller. Consider a space traveller leaving Earth bound for Alpha Centauri, on a spaceship that is moving with velocity 0.6. Alpha Centauri is 4.2 light-years away from Earth.
What is the proper time between the event that the space traveller has left Earth and the
event that the space traveller has reached Alpha Centauri?
A. 2.52 y
B. 4.20 y
C. 5.60 y
D. 11.67 y
7. Extreme. An event occurs at (t, x) = (5 m, 3 m) in some lab frame. At what speed of the
rocket frame will this event have the largest time separation with respect to the common
origin of the inertial frames?
A. 3/4
B. 4/5
C. 3/5
D. 1

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Hour 19
8. Affected. Consider events AD and O in the spacetime
diagram. Which of the following statement(s) is (are)
TRUE?
I. Event O can affect event A by particle emission.
II. Event C could have been affected by event D by
light-ray emission.
III. Event D can affect event O by particle emission.
A. I and II only

C. I and III only

B. II only

D. III only

9. e-World Line. Which of the following represents a world line of an electron through spacetime?

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10. Longest. Which of the following particle worldlines have the greatest proper time?

Hour 20
11. Velocity. Disintegration of a particle occurs at (4.0 m, 3.0 m) in the lab frame. If this
event is observed at (7.0 m, 2.0 m) in the rocket frame, what is the velocity of the rocket
frame relative to the lab frame?
A. +0.59
B. 0.59
C. +0.85
D. 0.85
12. Missing Link. In frame S, event O occurs at (0.00 m, 2.50 m). This same event is also
observed in frame S 0 (which moves at a constant velocity of 0 > 0 relative to frame S)
and frame S 00 (which moves at a constant velocity of 00 = +0.68 relative to frame S 0 )
upon coincidence of the origins of the three frames. If event O occurs at time t00 = 4.00 m
in frame S 00 , what are the coordinates of event O in frame S 0 ?
A. (9.81 m, 10.12 m)
B. (9.81 m, 1.07 m)
C. (10.12 m, 9.81 m)
D. (1.07 m, 9.81 m)

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13. Nyan Cat and Doge. Nyan Cat moves with speed 0.800 relative to Doge. Doge observes
an event occurring at coordinates (1.50 m, 0.900 m). What are the coordinates according
to Nyan Cat?
A. (0.500 m, 1.30 m)
B. (1.30 m, 0.500 m)
C. (3.70 m, 3.50 m)
D. (3.50 m, 3.70 m)
14. Relative. Two astronauts, one at a lab frame and another on a rocket frame moving at some
velocity with respect to the lab frame, both possessing identical metersticks. The astronaut
in the lab frame observes that the meterstick on the rocket frame is a bit shorter than the
one in lab frame. What will the astronaut in the rocket frame observe about the length of
the lab frame meterstick compared to the rocket frame meterstick?
A. Shorter
B. Longer
C. Shorter if approaching, longer if receding
D. Shorter if receding, longer if approaching
Hour 21
15. Javelin Throw. You threw a meterstick such that it moves at a constant speed of 0.500
with respect to you. How long is the stick as measured in your reference frame?
A. 1.00 m
B. 1.15 m
C. 0.866 m
D. 0.750 m
16. TGIF. Hobbes, while at rest, is holding a 10- m long tree branch. Calvin, who is moving, measures the branchs length to be 4 m only. What is Calvins speed with respect to
Hobbes?
A. 0.9
B. 2.7
C. 1.1
D. 0.8

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17. Bad blood. Taylor heared two consecutive explosions at a time interval of 3.0 m. If Taylor
is moving at 0.75 relative to Selena, what would be the time interval between the two
explosions according to Selena?
A. 4.5m
B. 2.0m
C. 1.5m
D. 3.0m
18. Marvin the relativistic metal man. Marvin running at 0.62 moves across the length of
a big rectangular metal sheet with length 100 m and width 70 m. What is the area of the
rectangular metal sheet according to Marvin?
A. 7000 m2
B. 5492 m2
C. 4309 m2
D. 8922 m2
Hour 22
19. Same position or same time? Consider the t-x axes of an inertial observer O, and the
events plotted on the diagram shown. Which of the following is correct regarding the
marked events?

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A. There exists an inertial observer moving to the right such that E and G are
simultaneous.
B. There exists an inertial observer moving to the left such that F and G occur at
the same position.
C. There exists an inertial observer moving to the left such that E and F occur at
the same position.
D. There exists an inertial observer moving to the right such that G and H are
simultaneous.
20. Spacetime diagram. Two spaceships, each of proper length L, pass near each other heading in opposite directions. Events P, Q, R, and S are defined as follow.

Which of the following correctly depicts the two-observer spacetime diagram of the problem?

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Physics 73

21. Esmes Pets. Consider the given two observer spacetime diagram, where (t0 , x0 ) denote rocket
frame coordinates and (t, x) denote lab frame coordinates. The rocket frame is moving with
respect to the lab frame. Which of the following events does the rocket frame observe to happen
at the same place as event P?

A. ELK
B. CAT
C. DOG
D. FOX

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22. Ti-prime, Ex-prime. Which of the following shows the correct time and space axes of a
rocket moving at = 1/3 to the left relative to the lab frame, assuming that their origins
coincide?

Hour 23
23. At Last I See It. Rapunzel is at rest in a rocket which is moving with a constant velocity
0.50 according to a lab frame. If Rapunzel measures a particle which has travelled a distance of 25. m during a time 25. m, what is the speed of the particle as measured by the lab
frame?
A. 0.40

C. 0.80

B. 0.60

D. 1.0

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24. -0 ,. Shown in the table below are the rapidity measurements by the lab and rocket frames
for a particle moving at constant velocity. What is the velocity of the rocket frame as
measured by the lab frame?
Reference Frame Rapidity
Lab
6.52
Rocket
5.15
A. 0.879
B. 0.879
C. 0.999
D. 0.999
25. Doge chase cate. Two dogs, Pluto and Scooby are chasing a cat, Hello Kitty. If Pluto sees
Hello Kitty running away from him at 0.50 and Scooby running towards him at 0.25, how
fast is Hello Kitty according to Scooby? (Assume all motion are in one line.)
A. 0.67
B. 0.29
C. 0.86
D. 0.75
Hour 24
26. E! A 3.1 1027 kg-particle is travelling at 0.5. What is its energy?
A. 1.2 1027 kg
B. 5.7 1027 kg
C. 3.6 1027 kg
D. 9.8 1027 kg
27. Super bird. A super bird flying at relativistic speed is measured to have a total energy of
30 MeV and a momentum of 13 MeV. What is the speed of the bird?
A. 0.48
B. 0.43
C. 0.39
D. 0.52

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28. Photon momentum. What is the momentum of a photon with frequency 3.41 1016 Hz
moving to the right?
A. 2.51 1034 kg
B. 2.26 1017 kg
C. 7.53 1026 kg
D. 1.75 1033 kg
Hour 25
29. Doppler Frequency. A photon with frequency 2.00 MHz is emitted at an angle of 60.0
with respect to the x-axis of a lab frame. What is the measured frequency of this photon in
a rocket frame moving at a velocity 0.50 with respect to the lab frame?
A. 2.89 MHz

C. 1.34 MHz

B. 1.73 MHz

D. 2.00 MHz

30. Run to you. Your friend holding a monochromatic light of wavelength 670 nm is running
towards you at a speed of 0.45. What will be your perceived wavelength of the light?
A. 1088 nm
B. 972 nm
C. 369 nm
D. 413 nm
31. What Rocket? A particle was observed by the lab frame to have a total energy of 7 kg and
momentum of 5 kg. A rocket frame measures the total energy of this particle to be zero.
What is the velocity of this rocket frame relative to the lab frame?
A. 2/3

C. 1/4

B. 5/7

D. No such rocket frame exists

32. Energy. Consider a particle moving with velocity = 0.8 along the +x-direction relative
to an inertial observer O. The measured energy of the particle is 15.00 MeV, relative to O.
Another inertial observer O is moving with some unknown velocity 0 relative to O. If the
energy of the particle as measured by O is 41.00 MeV, what is 0 ?
A. -0.2

C. 0.6

B. 0.4

D. -0.8

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33. Momenergy. According to a lab frame, the momentum and energy of a particle is measured as 7.0 kg and 25 kg respectively. Relative to the lab frame, a rocket frame moves
with a velocity 0.60. What are the momentum and energy of the particle as measured by
the rocket frame?
A. E = 26 kg, p = 10. kg
B. E = 26 kg, p = 10. kg
C. E = 30 kg, p = 18 kg
D. E = 30 kg, p = 18 kg
Hour 26
34. April 29. The energy and momentum of a particle in the lab frame is 4.0 kg and 2.0 kg,
respectively. In a rocket frame where the particle has energy of 9.0 kg, what is its magnitude
of momentum?
A. 3.0 kg
B. 5.0 kg
C. 8.3 kg
D. 6.9 kg
35. When photons collide. Two photons with energies E and 2E in the lab frame are on a
head-on collision. What is the total mass associated with this system?

A. 2 2E
B. 3E
C. zero

D. E 2
36. Dont rest yet! A particle with kinetic energy K moves with speed 0.600. What is the
particles rest mass?
A. 4K

C. 35 K

B. 23 K

D. 45 K

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37. System Mass. Consider a particle of mass 2m and total

energy 4m non-interacting with a photon with energy 6m
shown in the
figure. What is the mass of this system?
A. 2 23m
B. 52m

C. 2 13m
D. 2m
Hour 27
38. Bang Bang. A particle with rest mass m and kinetic energy 3m collides with a stationary
particle with the same rest mass, forming a single moving particle. What is the rest mass
of the resulting particle?

A. 5m

B. 10m

C. 15m

D. 20m
39. Positronium Gaming. A positronium of mass m and initial energy E = 2m decays into
two photons that move in opposite directions. What is the momentum of the photon that
moves in the same direction as the initial particle?
A. m
B. (1 + 23 )m

C. (1

D.

3
2 )m

3
2 m

40. To p or not to p. A particle of mass M decays from rest into two particles that move in
opposite directions. One particle has mass m and the other particle is massless. What is
the velocity of particle m?
A. 1
m2
B. 2
M + m2
M m
C.
M +m
M 2 m2
D. 2
M + m2
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