PHY 9C Homework 5 (due May 15)

This HW has only 4 problems, but do not take this HW lightly because each HW will be weighted equally in the final
grade. Each problem here is generally more work than the typical problem on HW4, and they are all good practice
for the exam.

1. Five equal-mass particles (A-E) enter a region of uniform magnetic field directed
into the page. They follow the trajectories illustrated in the figure.
(a) Which particle(s) (if any) are neutral?
(b) Which particle(s) (if any) are negatively charged?
(c) Can you rank the particles on the basis of their speed using the information
given so far? Why or why not?
(d) Now assume the particles all have the same magnitude of charge, and rank them
based on their speed. There may be some ties and there may be some particles that
cannot be ranked.
(e) What if I had started this problem by saying that all particles had equal charge
rather than equal mass? Explain which trajectories are impossible in this scenario,
assuming most of the trajectories are correct. Of the ones that are possible, rank
them by mass assuming the speeds are equal, and rank them by speed assuming
the masses are equal.

2. The figure at right shows a mass spectrometer. An ion of mass m and charge q
is initially stationary at potential V . The magnetic field is pointing at you.
(a) With what speed v does the ion exit the electric-field region? Show your work!
(b) We measure the radius of the orbit in the magnetic-field region, R, by measuring
where the ion hits the screen. What is the mass-to-charge ratio of the ion, m q , in
terms of the R and the other given parameters?
(c) Now assume all the ions have the same charge. Sketch the black line representing
the screen and label it in terms of where different relative masses would hit. Assume
a mass of 1 would hit 1 cm down from the top: where would a mass of 2 hit? A
mass of 3? A mass of 10? A mass of 0.5?

This basic setup is how we know about atomic isotopes (atoms of the same element having different masses due to
different numbers of neutrons) and how we analyze many samples of unknown chemicals, such as you may see on CSI
and other shows.

3. The figure at right shows a conducting cube of length a moving through a uniform
magnetic field. Mobile electrons in the cube will be pushed in a certain direction.
(a) Toward which face will electrons be pushed?
(b) Electrons can only be pushed until they reach this face; they cannot be pushed
off the cube entirely. Therefore, a charge density (t) builds up over time. What
happens on the opposite face?
(c) Compute the electric field (including direction) set up by this charge distribution.
Clearly state what approximation you use, if any. What effect does this electric field
have on the net force on the mobile electrons in the bulk of the cube?
(d) Eventually, will get large enough to completely cancel the magnetic force on
the mobile electrons in the bulk of the cube. Find this final value of and the
potential difference between the cube faces. Specify which faces have this potential
difference.
(e) What, if anything, would change if the mobile charges were positive?
4. You are building a device that allows ions to exit only if they have a specific
velocity v0 . In the diagram, the electric field ensures that all ions will accelerate up
or down and fail to follow the straight path required to exit through the slit.
(a) What magnetic field should you add to the device to allow ions with velocity v0
to follow a straight path? Specify magnitude and direction.
(b) Notice that the charge and mass of the particle do not affect whether a particle
follows a straight path! To figure out what the charge and mass do affect, lets
consider the range of velocities allowed through the slit. If the length of the electric-
field region is L and the slit has a height h from its center to its upper edge, what
is the maximum vertical acceleration a particle can experience in the device while
still just exiting the slit?
(c) Find how the vertical acceleration depends on |v v0 |, and give the maximum value of |v v0 | that is allowed through
the slit. For high selectivity (small |vmax v0 |) would you want to use particles with large or small charge? Large or small
mass? Long or short electric field region? Explain why these results make sense conceptually.