Unit I: Quantum Physics

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1. Find the de Broglie wavelength of (a) an electron with speed 1 * 10 m/s & 2 * 10 m/s
(b) 40 keV electron used in a microscope (c) 1 mg grain of sand blown by the wind at a
speed of 20 m/s.
2. Find the kinetic energy of an electron whose de Broglie wavelength is the same as that of
a 100 keV x-ray.
3. The position and momentum of a 1 keV electron are simultaneously determined. If its
position is located to within 0.1 nm, what is the percentage of uncertainty in its
momentum?
4. An electron is in a box 0.1 nm across, which is the order of magnitude of atomic
dimensions. Find its permitted energies.
5. An electron is confined in an infinite potential well of length L = 10-10 m. Calculate the
zero point energy of the electron.
6. Calculate the uncertainty in wavelength of a light emitted when an atom undergoes
transition from an excited state that lasts for 10-3 second.
7. In a Compton experiment, the frequency of an incident photon is 5 * 1016 Hz. Calculate
the de Broglie wavelength of the scattered electron when the scattering angle of the
photon is (a) 90° and (b) 180°.
8. A particle is known to be in the ground state of an infinite square well with length L.
Calculate the probability that the particle will be found in the middle half of the well, that
is, between x = L/4 and x = 3L/4.
9. A small object of mass 1 mg is confined to move between two rigid walls separated by 2
cm. (a) Calculate the minimum speed of the object. (b) If the speed of the object is 4
cm/s, find the corresponding value of ‘n’.
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10. An x-ray photon of initial frequency 3 * 10 Hz collides with an electron and is scattered
through 90°. Find its new frequency.
11. A particle moving with kinetic energy equal to its rest mass energy has a de Broglie
wavelength of 1.78 * 10-6 Å. If the kinetic energy doubles, what is the new de Broglie
wavelength?
12. The speed of the bullet (m = 50g) and the speed of an electron ( m = 9.1 * 10-28g) are
measured to be the same, namely 300 m/s, with an uncertainty of 0.01%. With what
fundamental accuracy could we have located the position of each, if the position is
measured simultaneously with the speed in the same expt.?
13. Calculate the uncertainty ΔE in the energy of the excited state of an atom. (Given lifetime of
excited state = 10-8 s)
14. Show that if the uncertainty in the location of a particle is about equal to its de Broglie
wavelength, then the uncertainty in its velocity is about equal to one tenth its velocity.
15. An electron and a photon each have a wavelength of 2 Å. What are their momenta and total
energies?
16. An electron is confined to a 1-D box of length L. When the electron makes a transition from
its first excited state to the ground state, it emits a photon of energy 0.20eV. (a) What is the
ground state energy in eV of the electron in the box? (b) Sketch the wave function of the
electron in the third excited state. (c) If the boxes were made longer, how would the
electrons new energy level spacing compare with its old ones? Would they be greater,
smaller or same?
17. Suppose that an STM scans a surface at a distance of a=1 nm. Take the height of the
potential energy barrier to be U0-E = 2 eV. If the distance between the surface and the STM
tip decreases by 0.010nm, estimate the percentage of change in the tunneling current.
18. A Photon of energy 240 KeV is scattered by a free electron. If the recoil electron has a
Kinetic energy of 190 KeV, what is the wavelength of the scattered photon?
19. What is the probability of electron to emerge on the other side of the barrier? (b) How
different it would be if the barrier is twice the wide?
20. Electrons with energies of 0.4 eV are incident on a barrier 3 eV high and 0.1 nm wide. Find
the approximate probability for the electrons to penetrate the barrier.
21. A beam of electrons is incident on a barrier 6 eV high and 0.2 nm wide. Find the energy
they should have if 1% of them are to get through the barrier.
22. The wave function of a certain particle is ψ = A cos x for - π /2 < x < π /2. (i) Find the value
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of A. (ii) Find the probability that the particle be found between x = 0 and x = π/4.

23. At a given temperature, λmax = 6500 Å for a blackbody cavity. What will λmax be if the
 temperature of the cavity walls is increased so that the rate of emission of spectral radiation
is doubled?
24. Through what angle must a 0.2 MeV photon be scattered by a free electron so that it loses
10% of its energy?

25. If Δλ/λ = 10 for a photon, what is the simultaneous value for Δx for λ = 5 Å and 5000 Å.
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