Other Principles of Quantum Mechanics - AP Physics 2

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Question

A proton is confined to a one-dimensional box of length . It has an energy equal to that of a photon with a wavelength of . What excited state is the proton in? (Remember, the first excited state is where since the ground state is ).

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Answer

The energy of the quantum system in the state is given by

where is Planck's constant, is the mass of the proton and is the length of the box. The energy of a photon is given by

where is the frequency, is the speed of light and is the wavelength. Setting these equal we can solve for ,

Since the ground state is , the proton must be in the second excited state.

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