If a charged pion that decays in
1
0
−
8
seconds in its own rest frame is to travel
3
0
m
in the laboratory before decaying, what must the pion's speed be at least? SJPO 2010, Q42
Use Special Relativity to solve this.
Type your answer in
m
s
−
1
.
Round your answer to 3 significant figures.
Take the speed of light to be
2
9
9
7
9
2
4
5
8
m
s
−
1
This question is part of my set SJPO Practice Questions
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"Congratulations, you just earned 1 mark upon 50 in SJPO first round!" Why do you love to suan people so much?
The question does not state to write the answer in scientific notation. The answer would be 298306687.628 m/s...
Yeah I wrote a precise answer and it said I was wrong.
L = 3 0 t ′ = 1 − c 2 v 2 t 0 = 1 − c 2 v 2 1 0 − 8 Combining the two, t ′ L = v v = 1 0 − 1 8 3 0 1 − c 2 v 2 Solving, v ≈ 2 9 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 m / s
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Since the time taken for the pion to decay is measured in the frame of the pion, it would be the dilated time. Therefore:
Δ t p = 1 0 − 8 s
Expressing the 30m measured in the laboratory in terms of the speed v of the pion and the dilated time, and also in terms of the speed v of the pion and the proper time, it comes down to:
Δ t p 3 0 = 1 − c 2 v 2 v
Solving the equation, you get:
v = [ 1 + [ Δ t p 3 0 ] 2 [ c 2 1 ] ] [ Δ t p 3 0 ] 2 = 2 . 9 8 ∗ 1 0 8 ( 3 s . f )
Congratulations, you just earned 1 mark upon 50 in SJPO first round!