In a particle accelerator, you accelerate an electron. Afterwards, you measure it's energy to be 350 keV. Tell my why you can't find the speed from this energy using your knowledge of classical mechanics.

In order to see what the problem is, I will attempt to find this speed. 350keV=5.6110-14 J Ek=1/2 * mv2 =>  v=sqrt(2Ek/m) By plugging in numbers, we find that the velocity of the electron, v=3.51108. This velocity is bigger then the speed of light c=3108, and it is a known fact that nothing can travel faster than light. This means that relativistic effects must've taken place, which prevented the particle from reaching the speed of light, but allowed it to have such a high energy.

CP

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

Compare and contrast elastic and inelastic collisions


Why is the sky blue?


calculate the resistivity in a 1.2m length of cylindrical wire with radius 1cm. The resistance of the wire is 0.01 kilo Ohms


A pendulum of mass m is released from height h with a speed v at the bottom of its swing. a) What is the gravitational potential energy at height h and the kinetic energy at the bottom of its swing? b) Use conservation of energy to define the speed v.