Let us list some of the factors, which could possibly influence the speed of wave propagation:
(i) Nature of the source.
(ii) Direction of propagation.
(iii) Motion of the source and/or observer.
(iv) Wave length.
(v) Intensity of the wave.
On which of these factors, if any, does
(a) The speed of light in vacuum,
(b) The speed of light in a medium (say, glass or water), depend?
(a) Speed of light in vacuum is an absolute constant, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity. It does not depend upon any of the factors listed above or any other factor.
(b) The speed of light in a medium like water or glass
(i) does not depend upon the nature of the source.
(ii) does not depend upon the direction of propagation, when the medium is isotropic.
(iii) does not depend upon motion of the source w.r.t the medium, but depends on motion of the observer relative to the medium.
(iv) depends on wavelength of light, being lesser for shorter wavelength and vice-versa.
(v) does not depend upon intensity of light.
Monochromatic light of wavelength 589 nm is incident from air on a water surface. What are the wavelength, frequency and speed of
(a) reflected, and
(b) refracted light? Refractive index of water is 1.33.
What is the shape of the wavefront in each of the following cases:
(a) Light diverging from a point source.
(b) Light emerging out of a convex lens when a point source is placed at its focus.
(c) The portion of the wavefront of light from a distant star intercepted by the Earth.
In double-slit experiment using light of wavelength 600 nm, the angular width of a fringe formed on a distant screen is 0.1o. What is the spacing between the two slits?
Light of wavelength 5000 Å falls on a plane reflecting surface. What are the wavelength and frequency of the reflected light? For what angle of incidence is the reflected ray normal to the incident ray?
A beam of light consisting of two wavelengths, 650 nm and 520 nm, is used to obtain interference fringes in a Young’s double-slit experiment.
(a) Find the distance of the third bright fringe on the screen from the central maximum for wavelength 650 nm.
(b) What is the least distance from the central maximum where the bright fringes due to both the wavelengths coincide?
Estimate the distance for which ray optics is good approximation for an aperture of 4 mm and wavelength 400 nm.
In Young’s double-slit experiment using monochromatic light of wavelength λ, the intensity of light at a point on the screen where path difference is λ, is K units. What is the intensity of light at a point where path difference is λ /3?
In a Young’s double-slit experiment, the slits are separated by 0.28 mm and the screen is placed 1.4 m away. The distance between the central bright fringe and the fourth bright fringe is measured to be 1.2 cm. Determine the wavelength of light used in the experiment.
A parallel beam of light of wavelength 500 nm falls on a narrow slit and the resulting diffraction pattern is observed on a screen 1 m away. It is observed that the first minimum is at a distance of 2.5 mm from the centre of the screen. Find the width of the slit.
What is the Brewster angle for air to glass transition? (Refractive index of glass = 1.5.)
Answer the following questions regarding earth's magnetism:
(a) A vector needs three quantities for its specification. Name the three independent quantities conventionally used to specify the earth's magnetic field.
(b) The angle of dip at a location in southern India is about 18º.
Would you expect a greater or smaller dip angle in Britain?
(c) If you made a map of magnetic field lines at Melbourne in Australia, would the lines seem to go into the ground or come out of the ground?
(d) In which direction would a compass free to move in the vertical plane point to, if located right on the geomagnetic north or south pole?
(e) The earth's field, it is claimed, roughly approximates the field due to a dipole of magnetic moment 8 x 1022 J T-1 located at its centre. Check the order of magnitude of this number in some way.
(f ) Geologists claim that besides the main magnetic N-S poles, there are several local poles on the earth's surface oriented in different directions. How is such a thing possible at all?
(a) Two stable isotopes of lithium 6Li3 and7Li3 have respective abundances of 7.5% and 92.5%. These isotopes have masses 6.01512 u and 7.01600 u, respectively. Find the atomic mass of lithium.
(b) Boron has two stable isotopes, 10B5 and 11B5 . Their respective masses are 10.01294 u and 11.00931 u, and the atomic mass of boron is 10.811 u. Find the abundances of 10B5 and 11B5.
A small candle, 2.5 cm in size is placed at 27 cm in front of a concave mirror of radius of curvature 36 cm. At what distance from the mirror should a screen be placed in order to obtain a sharp image? Describe the nature and size of the image. If the candle is moved closer to the mirror, how would the screen have to be moved?
Figure 8.6 shows a capacitor made of two circular plates each of radius 12 cm, and separated by 5.0 cm. The capacitor is being charged by an external source (not shown in the figure). The charging current is constant and equal to 0.15 A.
(a) Calculate the capacitance and the rate of charge of potential difference between the plates.
(b) Obtain the displacement current across the plates.
(c) Is Kirchhoff’s first rule (junction rule) valid at each plate of the capacitor? Explain.
What is the force between two small charged spheres having charges of 2 x 10-7 C and 3 x 10-7 C placed 30 cm apart in air?
Two charges 5 x 10-8 C and -3 x 10-8 C are located 16 cm apart. At what point(s) on the line joining the two charges is the electric potential zero? Take the potential at infinity to be zero.
In an experiment on photoelectric effect, the slope of the cut-off voltage versus frequency of incident light is found to be 4.12 × 10−15 V s. Calculate the value of Planck’s constant.
Two long and parallel straight wires A and B carrying currents of 8.0 A and 5.0 A in the same direction are separated by a distance of 4.0 cm. Estimate the force on a 10 cm section of wire A.
A magnetic needle free to rotate in a vertical plane parallel to themagnetic meridian has its north tip pointing down at 22º with the horizontal. The horizontal component of the earth's magnetic field at the place is known to be 0.35 G. Determine the magnitude of the earth's magnetic field at the place.
In a Van de Graaff type generator a spherical metal shell is to be a 15 x 106 V electrode. The dielectric strength of the gas surrounding the electrode is 5 x 107 Vm-1. What is the minimum radius of the spherical shell required? (You will learn from this exercise why one cannot build an electrostatic generator using a very small shell which requires a small charge to acquire a high potential.)
In half-wave rectification, what is the output frequency if the input frequency is 50 Hz. What is the output frequency of a full-wave rectifier for the same input frequency.
A monoenergetic (18 keV) electron beam initially in the horizontal direction is subjected to a horizontal magnetic field of 0.04 G normal to the initial direction. Estimate the up or down deflection of the beam over a distance of 30 cm (me= 9.11 x 10-19C). [Note: Data in this exercise are so chosen that the answer will give you an idea of the effect of earth's magnetic field on the motion of the electron beam from the electron gun to the screen in a TV set.]
Two concentric circular coils X and Y of radii 16 cm and 10 cm, respectively, lie in the same vertical plane containing the north to south direction. Coil X has 20 turns and carries a current of 16 A; coil Y has 25 turns and carries a current of 18 A. The sense of the current in X is anticlockwise, and clockwise in Y, for an observer looking at the coils facing west. Give the magnitude and direction of the net magnetic field due to the coils at their centre.
A myopic person has been using spectacles of power −1.0 dioptre for distant vision. During old age he also needs to use separate reading glass of power + 2.0 dioptres. Explain what may have happened.
In a chamber, a uniform magnetic field of 6.5 G (1 G = 10-4 T) is maintained. An electron is shot into the field with a speed of 4.8 x 106 m s-1 normal to the field. Explain why the path of the electron is a circle. Determine the radius of the circular orbit. (e = 1.6 x 10-19 C, me= 9.1 x 10-31 kg)
A spherical conducting shell of inner radius r1 and outer radius r2 has a charge Q.
(a) A charge q is placed at the centre of the shell. What is the surface charge density on the inner and outer surfaces of the shell?
(b) Is the electric field inside a cavity (with no charge) zero, even if the shell is not spherical, but has any irregular shape? Explain.