- #1
StonedPhysicist
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Here is the question, I was able to complete part a and b but c has beaten me!
A pi meson has rest mass 131 MeVc-2 and total energy 1.000 GeV
a) What is its momentum, expressed in MeVc-1
For this I obtained 991 MeVc-1 using the equation E2=c2p2+M2c4
b) By how much is its speed less than c?
Using γ=E/mc2 i got a value of γ = 7.63 so therefore this system is highly relativistic then subbed this into γ=1/√(1-v2/c2) to get an answer of 2.57x106 ms-1 less than c.
c) This is the one i am stuck on: The pi meson decays in flight into two photons. Find the maximum and minimum energies (in MeV) possible for the photons in the coordinate system (or reference frame) of the observer who measures this total energy, and the minimum and maximum wavelengths corresponding to these energies.
I do not quite understand what it means by or how to get the maximum and minimum energies. I would of assumed both photons get half the total energy and half the total momentum each.
A pi meson has rest mass 131 MeVc-2 and total energy 1.000 GeV
a) What is its momentum, expressed in MeVc-1
For this I obtained 991 MeVc-1 using the equation E2=c2p2+M2c4
b) By how much is its speed less than c?
Using γ=E/mc2 i got a value of γ = 7.63 so therefore this system is highly relativistic then subbed this into γ=1/√(1-v2/c2) to get an answer of 2.57x106 ms-1 less than c.
c) This is the one i am stuck on: The pi meson decays in flight into two photons. Find the maximum and minimum energies (in MeV) possible for the photons in the coordinate system (or reference frame) of the observer who measures this total energy, and the minimum and maximum wavelengths corresponding to these energies.
I do not quite understand what it means by or how to get the maximum and minimum energies. I would of assumed both photons get half the total energy and half the total momentum each.