Question #6ec4f

1 Answer
Nov 21, 2016

9.90 * 10^(-39)"m"9.901039m

Explanation:

In order to calculate the astronaut's matter wave, which is referred to as the de Broglie wavelength, you need to use

  • her momentum, pp
  • Planck's constant, hh, equal to 6.626 * 10^(-34)"kg m"^2"s"^(-1)6.6261034kg m2s1

The equation that gives you the de Broglie wavelength looks like this

color(blue)(ul(color(black)(lamda = h/p))) -> the de Broglie wavelength

Here

p - the momentum of the astronaut
lamda - her matter wavelength
h - Planck's constant, equal to 6.626 * 10^(-34)"J s"

Now, the momentum of the astronaut is directly proportional to its velocity, v, which in your context can be taken to be its speed, and its mass, m

color(blue)(ul(color(black)(p = m * v)))

Plug in your values to find

p = "201 kg" * "333 m s"^(-1) = "66,933 kg m s"^(-1)

Now you're ready to calculate the de Broglie wavelength of the astronaut

lamda = (6.626 * 10^(-34)color(red)(cancel(color(black)("kg")))"m"^color(red)(cancel(color(black)(2)))color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"^(-1)))))/("66,933" color(red)(cancel(color(black)("kg"))) color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"^(-1))))) = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(9.90 * 10^(-39)"m")))

The answer is rounded to three sig figs.