PHY100 - More 23 - Spring 2013

PHY100 - The Magic of Physics - Spring 2013
Department of Physics, University of Toronto
Prof. Kimberly Strong

Lecture 23 - Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Chapter 14 - Sections 14.3 to 14.4

Chapter 15 - Sections 15.1 to 15.4

Radioactive decay
Half-life
Schroedinger's Cat
Nuclear fusion and fission
The nuclear energy curve

Chapter 17 (bonus material)

Chapter 17 - This material will not be on the final exam. The slides on the topics below are provided for your interest only:

The idea of a quantized field
Quantum electrodynamics and antimatter
Electroweak unification and neutrinos
Grand unification and quarks
Quantum gravity and strings

Powerpoint Slides

Note: These slides do not include all material presented in class - additional material was presented on the blackboard and in demonstrations.

PDF Format - 1 slide per page

PDF Format - 6 slides per page

Supplementary Material

Today's demonstrations: (i) alpha and beta decay observed with a cloud chamber, (ii) a radioactive "fiesta" plate.

Today's animations:

Decay of 500 radioactive atoms of "Balonium": http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/PVB/Harrison/Flash/Nuclear/Decay/NuclearDecay.html
Decay of assorted isotopes: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/isotopes/radioactive_decay3.html
Explanation of Schroedinger's Cat thought experiment: http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/SchrodCat/SchrodCat.html
Animation of hydrogen-hydrogen fusion: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/energy/site/EIZInfogr7.asp
Animation of nuclear fission: http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0702/es0702page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

Additional links that may be of interest:

Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity (American Institute of Physics): http://www.aip.org/history/curie/sitemap.htm
Marie and Pierre Curie and the Discovery of Polonium and Radium (Nobel Prize website): http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/curie/

And bonus links related to Chapter 17:

The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) Rap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=j50ZssEojtM

Discover Magazine's "String Theory in Two Minutes or Less" - winning videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvBW_8Jw8Lo&list=PLEC19A1D29048CD71&index=2

The Particle Adventure (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab): http://particleadventure.org/

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory homepage: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/

CERN - home of the Large Hadron Collider: http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html

Large Hadron Collider homepage: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html

The "Official String Theory Website": http://www.superstringtheory.com/

The Elegant Universe (NOVA): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

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Last updated April 2, 2013.