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Quiz 8 Name(s):

Naturally radioactive species can emit particles or photons. When they do, because of conservation of momentum, they recoil, i.e. they acquire a momentum equal and opposite to that of the emitted particle. Suppose that a nucleus of tex2html_wrap_inline38 (mass tex2html_wrap_inline40 ) emits a gamma ray (electromagnetic radiation) of energy tex2html_wrap_inline42 . Calculate the momentum of this photon. Then calculate the kinetic energy acquired by the iron nucleus as a result of this process.

Data: tex2html_wrap_inline44 , tex2html_wrap_inline46

Formula: tex2html_wrap_inline48 , tex2html_wrap_inline50 , tex2html_wrap_inline52 , p = mv, tex2html_wrap_inline56

Note: This principle is the basis of Mössbauer spectroscopy, a technique which yields information on chemical environment similar to that obtained by NMR.


Marc Roussel
Thu Nov 12 11:15:46 MST 1998