Solutions for Homework #4

Astronomy 100, Fall 2002

Chapter 4, Review 2

What is the difference between an isotope and an ion?

To answer this question, we need to know what an isotope is and what an ion is, so this is a
question about atomic structure. In an atom there are three basic types of particles: protons (one
positive charge each), neutrons (no charge), and electrons (one negative charge each). The
electrons orbit the nucleus, a cluster of protons and neutrons. Changing the number of protons in
the nucleus changes what element you have, so what does changing the number of neutrons or
electrons do? Let�s address electrons first. Their negative charge serves to balance out the
positive charge of the protons in the nucleus, so if you have a neutral atom (one that has no net
charge) then the number of electrons in the atom is equal to the number of protons. If you change
the number of electrons, you change the net charge (more electrons than protons gives a negative
charge; fewer electrons than protons results in a positive charge). If an atom has a net charge, it
is called an ion. So, we can conclude that an ion means an atom with the same number of
protons, but a different number of electrons. This doesn�t change what element it is, just what
charge it carries. Similarly, changing the number of neutrons won�t change what element you
have, so we call this an isotope. Note that since neutrons don�t have charge, changing the
number of neutrons doesn�t change the net charge of the atom. You have to detect different
isotopes by comparing their atomic masses. Anyway, to summarize, an isotope refers to the
number of neutrons in an atom; an ion refers to the number of electrons.

For more information related to this problem, see pp. 89-90 in your book.

Chapter 4, Problem 1

Human body temperature is about 310 K (98.6° F). At what wavelength do humans radiate
the most energy? What kind of radiation do we emit?

Because humans are made mostly out of really dense matter (water, bones, etc.), we can
approximate the radiation spectrum of a person with a blackbody spectrum. This means that we
can use Wien�s Law (see By The Numbers 4-1 on p. 95 of your book) to calculate the
maximum wavelength of radiation for a human. Wien�s Law says that

This formula is written so that if you put T in Kelvin, you get back the max wavelength in
nanometers (1 nm = 10-9 m). Fortunately they gave us T in Kelvin already, so we can just plug it
in:
Looking on a diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum (like the one on p. 66 of your book, in
Figure 3-2), we see that this wavelength corresponds to infrared radiation, also known as body
heat!

Chapter 10, Review 13

Why does nuclear fusion in the Sun occur only near the center?

To answer this question let�s examine the conditions needed for nuclear fusion to occur. First
of all, to start fusion, the material needs to be very hot. Think about the definition of temperature
as the speed with which atoms and molecules in a material are moving around. The hotter the
gas, the faster the molecules are going. This is important because to overcome the force repelling
two positive hydrogen nuclei (really just two protons) so they can fuse, they need to hit each
other at huge speeds. You know about the force they have to overcome if you�ve ever tried to
force two strong magnets together with like poles facing each other � it�s the same idea with
these protons (although it�s not the same force, it varies similarly). Anyway, they have to be
really going fast in order that they can get close enough together that an even stronger, attractive
force (known creatively as the "strong force") pulls them together and they fuse into a helium
nucleus. This only works at really short range, so that any temperature below about 10 million
Kelvin means that the protons don�t have enough speed to get this close and fuse. That�s the
first condition.

The second condition is that the material has to be very dense. By making the material denser,
you increase the probability that the protons will run into each other at all. Anything less than
really dense, and the rate of fusion won�t be very high at all: remember these protons are tiny
� 1.6 x 10-15 meters in diameter (see the Critical Inquiry on p. 91 for an idea of how small this
is). So you need something really dense, with lots and lots of nuclei around, before you get
enough of them running into each other to get a reasonable rate of fusion.

So where in the Sun do these two conditions meet up? As you get closer and closer to the center
of the Sun, the amount of stuff pressing inward (due to gravity, which wants to make everything
collapse into a point at the center) gets larger and larger, so the pressure (and therefore the
density) goes up. The temperature goes up as well - based on what we know about gases,
pressure and temperature are proportional to one another. In fact, the temperature at the very
center of our Sun is only around 15 million Kelvin, so only right at the center is it hot enough
and dense enough for fusion to occur.

Chapter 11, Review 5

Why does the luminosity of a star depend on both its radius and its temperature?

This question is best addressed by examining the formula found in By the Numbers 11-3 on p.
258 of your book:
This formula is also known as the Stefan-Boltzmann Law. Each pair of parentheses encloses a
meaningful unit of this formula. The first one is the surface area of the star; the second is the
energy per unit area per unit time emitted by a blackbody. Also remember that the word
"luminosity" refers to the total energy output of the star, per unit time. So first, if we say (with
good reason) that a star emits blackbody radiation (as discussed back in chapter 4), then we can
say that the energy it emits per unit area, per unit time, is T4.  ("sigma") is a constant that
varies depending on what units T and the energy are given in. That�s where the temperature
dependence comes from. Then we want to multiply this by the total area that is emitting that
energy per unit time � the surface area of the star, which we assume is a sphere, so we can write
the surface area as 4R2. That�s where the radius dependence comes from. Another way to
think about this is:

Chapter 11, Problem 9

Find the luminosity and spectral type of a 5-M main-sequence star.

Since this star is on the main sequence, we can use the mass-luminosity relation given in By the
Numbers 11-5 on p. 271 of your book to calculate the luminosity:

as long as the mass and luminosity are given in terms of the solar mass and luminosity. In other
words, if you plug in a mass as a number of solar masses, you get out a luminosity as a number
of solar luminosities. In this case, our star has 5 times the solar mass, so plug in M=5:

So our star has 280 times the luminosity of the Sun! Once we know this, we can use the
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram to get its spectral class, since the diagram arranges stars by their
spectral class (or temperature) and luminosity (or magnitude). In this case we want to find what
the spectral class is of stars on the main sequence with 280 times the luminosity of the Sun.
Figure 11-10 on p. 259 in the book is an H-R diagram; it shows that main-sequence stars
between about 100 and 10,000 times the luminosity of the Sun are classified as B stars, so this
star, with L = 280 L , is of spectral class B.
The displacement law states that at any temperature T the black body spectrum reaches its peak
at a wavelength given by the displacement law. If you happen to plot the Rayleigh-Jeans
formula, you'll find there is no maximum. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the spectral
power. This is known as the "ultra-violet catastrophe" and, in the search of a "cure", Planck came
up with his famous proposal. Actually, Planck developed his work as a refinement of Wien's law
and was not attempting to solve the Ultra-violet catastrophe problem. In fact I believe his work
(which included what is now know as Planck's constant) before or right around the same time as
Rayleight-Jeans proposal.

Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/quantum-physics-rayleigh-jeans-wiens-
law.396534/
 Originally Posted by Cesc1
Hi! I don't know much about stadistics, so I hope you can help me with this problem.

Consider the following numbers: 2, 3, 3, 4, 1, 2, 2, 1, 0 representing the number of hits garnered

by each member of the Baltimore Orioles in a recent outing. (a) Calculate directly the average
number of hits per man. (b) Let x be a variable signifying the number of hits obtained by a man,
and let f(x) be the number of times the number x appears.

Show that the average number of hits per man can be written as:

The average number of hits per man is 2, am I right? However I don't know how to show part b).
Thanks in advance.

Yes the average number of hits per man is 2 (18 total hits divided by 9 players). For part b) x is a
variable which can take on the values of the number of hits obtained by a man. The smallest x
can be is 0. So when x is 0, the question is what is f(x), i.e. how many players had 0 hits?
Looking at the list the number is clearly 1. Similarly, 2 hitters got 1 hit, so when x=1 then we
know f(x)=2.

The average of x is equal to the total number of hits divided by the number of players. To show
the quotient of the summations equals this, you should show that the numerator equals the total
number of hits and the denominator equals the total number of players.