Recent content by leehufford

So does this mean that a an electric dipole would have a dipole field and a monopole field? Is the type of field just literally dependent on the number of charges? Why (physically) do the terms change in significance at larger distances? (It's mathematically obvious). I just don't see where...

There is a principle of superposition in electrostatics, which means fields of different charges can be added together (vectorially) to get the resultant field.

I'm still a little confused. So do all electric fields have all the terms of the expansion? Wouldn't a single point charge only have a monopole term? I guess I don't understand the use of "harmonics" in this context. Thanks for the reply, Lee

Hello, I was hoping someone could help make the concept of electric multipole/ magnetic multipole expansions clearer. I think my most fundamental question is: Are dipole, quadrupole and up fields just a shortcut to using the superposition principle on a charge distribution in space or do they...

Yes. You got me moving in the right direction. I reasoned that the word "could" in the original problem meant total power output. I simply multiplied (decays/sec) and (energy) to get energy/sec, converted to joules and got the correct answer (its in the back of the book) of 0.57 Watts. Thank you...

Whoops. Looks like I inverted the grams per mole. Inverting back gives 2.529x10^21 nuclei, with a total energy of 1.418x10^22 MeV. Thanks for the catch. Any advice on the time aspect? Thanks again, Lee

Homework Statement A radioactive source is to be used to produce electrical power from the alpha decay of 238 Pu (half life of 88 years). a) What is the Q value for the decay? b) Assuming 100% conversion efficiency, how much power could be obtained from the decay of 1.0 g of 238 Pu? Homework...

Thanks for all the replies, I got it now.

I have also tried plugging in the two different radii separately and subtracting them, but I also got the wrong answer there. Again, I am not looking for the answer, I am looking for the concept. Thanks again, Lee

Sorry about that. P(r) dr = r2|(2/a03/2)e(-r/a0)|2dr I just realized I was substituting delta r for both dr and r, which can't be right. The probability has to depend on the distance from to nucleus, not just the difference in the distances. So my earlier method was completely, fundamentally...

Homework Statement I know this question has been asked before, but I am looking for a different kind of answer than the other poster. Bear with me here. Problem: For a hydrogen atom in the ground state, what is the probability to find the electron between the Bohr radius a0 and (1.01)a0...

Just noticed I got moved, I didn't think homework problems from a modern physics class where considered introductory physics, but I guess I will post all of my questions here from now on. Sorry about that.

I'm not 100% clear on what you mean.. I've never actually taken a statistics class yet. The formula my book uses is delta p = sqrt((p2)avg - (pav)2). If the average momentum is zero, and the formula reduces to: sqrt(p2)avg, would I just use the momentum I found with relativistic dynamics...and...

Homework Statement An electron is trapped in a one-dimensional well of width 0.132 nm. The electron is in the n = 10 state. a) What is the energy of the electron? b) What is the uncertainty in the momentum? c) What is the uncertainty in the position? Homework Equations En = h2n2/8mL2...

DrClaude - thank you for the reply. I noticed i forgot to square the (3/4), so my final equation is now (15/16a5)(9/16)a4(0.010a) = 0.005 = 0.5 percent chance.