A group of scientists decide to repeat the muon decay experiment (TR Section 2.7) at the Mauna Kea telescope site in Hawaii, which is 4205 m above sea level. They count 104 muons during a certain time period. Find the classical and relativistic number of muons expected at sea level and compare. Why did they decide to count as many as 104 muons instead of only 103?

Question

Physics

Jett Watts

11 June, 17:59

A group of scientists decide to repeat the muon decay experiment (TR Section 2.7) at the Mauna Kea telescope site in Hawaii, which is 4205 m above sea level. They count 104 muons during a certain time period. Find the classical and relativistic number of muons expected at sea level and compare. Why did they decide to count as many as 104 muons instead of only 103?

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Answers (1)

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Zane Craig · Answer 1

Answer:They decided to count 10000 muons because of classical predictions. When you count 1000 initial muons. they would expect only 1.5 muons

Explanation:

t = 4205/0.98 = 1.43*10^-5sec

Classically, number of surviving muons = No exp (-0.693t/t)

N=10^4exp[ (-0.694 * (1.43*10^-5) / 1.52*10-6) ]

N = 14.7=15

Relativistic time t'=t/y

t' = (1.43*10^-5) * sqrt (1 - (0.98c) ^2/c^2

t'=2.84*10^-6secs

N = 10^4exp[ (-0.693 * (3.84*10^-6) / 1.52*10^-6]

N relativistic=2739