Question

Suppose that a proton is initially at rest. The proton’s kinetic energy is increased by accelerating it through a potential difference of 1.70×10⁸ V. The mass of the proton is 938.3 MeV/c². What is the proton’s Kinetic Energy (K)? Remember that K = Work Done = qV. Give your answer in eV.

If an energy plant produces energy at a rate of 98 MW, determine how many protons must be converted to energy each second in order to do this. How many kilograms per second (kg/s) of protons are required to do this? (Is this a lot of mass?)
Calculate the proton’s speed using the Relativistic formula for Kinetic Energy. Give your answer in terms of “c”.

Calculate the proton’s speed using the Classical formula for the Kinetic Energy. Give your answer in terms of “c”.

Treating the Relativistic Speed as the accepted value, calculate the Percent Error between the Classical Speed and the Relativistic Speed (omit the % sign). Is this significant or negligible?

Answer 1

938.3 MeV/ Clasi cal 2 う , 938 2 MeV OJSc