A particle in a box is a billiard ball ($m = 0.20$ kg) and the box has a width of $1.3$ m, the size of a billiard table. (Assume that the billiard ball slides without friction rather than rolls; that is, ignore the rotational kinetic energy.) What is the difference in energy between the $n=2$ and $n=1$ levels? Are quantum­ mechanical effects important for the game of billiards?

When a hydrogen atom undergoes a transition from the $n=2$ to the $n=1$ level, a photon with $\lambda =122$ nm is emitted.

(a) If the atom is modeled as an electron in a one-­dimensional box, what is the width of the box in order for the $n=2$ to $n=1$ transi­tion to correspond to emission of a photon of this energy?

(b) For a box with the width calculated in part (a), what is the ground­ state energy? How does this correspond to the ground ­state energy of a hydrogen atom?

(c) Do you think a one­-dimensional box is a good model for a hydrogen atom? Explain. (Hint: Compare the spacing between adjacent energy levels as a function of $n$.)

Let ${\psi }_1$ and ${\psi }_2$ be two solutions of Eq. ($40.23$) [$-\frac{h^2}{2m}\frac{d^2\psi \left(x\right)}{d{x}^2}+U\left(x\right)\psi \left(x\right)=E\psi \left(x\right)$] with energies $E_1$ and $E_2$ respectively, where $E_1\ne E_2$. Is $\psi =A{\psi }_1+B{\psi }_2$, where $A$ and $B$ are nonzero constants, a solution to Eq. ($40.23$)? Explain your answer.

A proton is in a box of width $L$. What must the width of the box be for the ground­-level energy to be $5.0$ MeV, a typi­cal value for the energy with which the particles in a nucleus are bound? Compare your result to the size of a nucleus — that is, on the order of ${10}^{-14}$ m.

(a) Find the lowest energy level for a particle in a box if the particle is a billiard ball ($m=0.20$ kg) and the box has a width of $1.3$ m, the size of a billiard table. (Assume that the billiard ball slides without friction rather than rolls; that is, ignore the rotational kinetic energy.)

(b) Since the energy in part (a) is all kinetic, to what speed does this correspond? How much time would it take at this speed for the ball to move from one side of the table to the other?

An electron in a one­-dimensional box has ground ­state energy $2.00$ eV. What is the wavelength of the photon absorbed when the electron makes a transition to the second excited state?

Consider a wave function given by $\psi \left(x\right)=Asinkx$, where $k=2\pi /\lambda$ and $A$ is a real constant.

(a) For what values of $x$ is there the highest probability of finding the particle described by this wave function? Explain.

(b) For which values of $x$ is the probability zero? Explain.