Question

3. A proton is accelerated in a Van de Graff through a potential difference of 4 million Volts.

a. What is its its total energy after acceleration?

b. What is the magnitude of its final momentum?

c. What is its velocity?

Answer 1

The charge on proton = e = 1.602 x 10^-19 C

The mass of the proton = 1.672 x 10^-27 kg

(a) The total energy of proton accelerated by a potential difference of 4 million volts is

                         

(b) The total energy of the proton is kinetic energy. And kinetic energy is given by

                            

Where m is mass, and v is velocity.

Putting all the known values in the kinetic energy equation, we get

                              

                       or,

                       or,

So, the momentum of this proton is

                             

c. The velocity of the proton is 2.77 x 10⁷ m/s.