Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics
Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics
10th Edition
ISBN: 9781337553292
Author: Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Chapter 44, Problem 44AP
To determine

The order of magnitude of the threshold temperature.

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You are performing work as an assistant to a cosmology professor. She asks you to estimate the temperature of the Universe at a time after the Big Bang when neutral atoms could form from the plasma and the Universe became transparent. She tells you that the energy required to excite an atom is on the order of 1 eV. She suggests you use the Boltzmann distribution function e-E/k BT to find the order of magnitude of the threshold temperature at which 1.00% of a population of photons has energy greater than 1.00 eV.
If the electrons gain this energy by collision between hydrogen atoms in a high temperature gas, find the minimum temperature of the heated hydrogen gas. The thermal energy of the heated atoms is given by 3 kB T 2, where the Boltzmann constant is 1.38 × 10-23 J/K. Answer in units of K.
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Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern ...
Physics
ISBN:9781337553292
Author:Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett
Publisher:Cengage Learning