Special Relativity - Particle Acceleration/ Muon Decay (David Young)This is a featured page

Unit: Special Relativity
Grade:12, IB HL Physics
Established Goals (Standards)
IB HL Physics Syllabus
Determine the total energy of an accelerated particle.
Explain why no object can ever attain the speed of light in a vacuum.
Solve problems related to the muon decay experiment.

NETS - Standards for Students Addressed
1. Creativity and Innovation (parts c. and d.)
2. Communication and Collaboration (part a.)
3. Research and Information Fluency (part d.)
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making (part b.)
Enduring UnderstandingsEssential Questions
  • the speed of light is constant for all reference frames, other properties such as mass, time and length are relative.
  • despite the difficulties in letting go of traditional Newtonian physics principles, Einstein is correct.
  • why is it impossible to travel at the speed of light?
  • how do we know special relativity is a valid theory?
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
GRASPS TaskSix Facets of Understanding
Goal: Use a spread sheet to create a data based model to simulate one of the following situations. Decide on the parameters for your simulation and present methodology and results in appropriate scientific format to your classmates.

1. acceleration of an alpha particle to near light speed in an electric field
- mass and energy changes with respect to position in the field
- velocity and energy changes with respect to position in the field
2. Muon decay experiment simulation (detectors 10 km apart)
- what non-relativistic mechanics predicts
- what relativistic mechanics predicts for an Earth bound observer
- what relativistic mechanics predicts from the muon's perspective

Role: You are to put yourself in the position of a theoretical physicist and produce expected data if theory matches experiment. In other words, if you could conduct the experiment, what would you expect to observe?

Audience: Fellow classmates

Situation: You will work in groups of two. Your modeling/simulation should be done using spreadsheet software (MS Excel or similar).

Product: You will need to produce digital output and a summary suitable for posting on the class WIKI. A brief presentation to the rest of the class is required.

Resources:
Class WIKI page @ http://www.isb-ibphysics-dawghouse.wikispaces.com
Your notes (class wiki for electronic versions)
Physics Data Booklet




Extension: 		(Explain, Apply, Interpret, Perspective, Self-Knowledge, Empathize)
Predominant focus on the first 4 (although I am sure I could provide examples of empathize and self-knowledge)

  • explain : through presentation, present justification for the assumptions made and methods chosen to determine parameters and calculated values in models/simulations
  • interpret — through graphs the effects of high velocity on internal clocks of sub-atomic particles (ie muons) and/or particle mass and subsequent effects on velocity change and limits
  • apply — effectively use and adapt what they know in diverse contexts
  • have perspective — critique and comment collaboratively on other's work and put the individual project pieces together to form a comprehensive picture.
Lesson Notes:
Handouts presented in class as part of unit packet (also available online on WIKI).
Probably better to assign topics to groups to ensure even distribution.
Graphing will be tricky for electric field data. Suggest hint hint logarithms might be useful.
Resource websites (mental note: learn to use Diigo for this) are as follows :
Class WIKI - see this for relativity links on time dilation, mass dilation, length contraction
Muon Experiment 1
More about Muons
Hyperphysics Muon Simulation



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djyoung 		Latest page update: made by djyoung , Mar 1 2009, 7:28 AM EST (about this update About This Update djyoung Edited by djyoung

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