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EXERCISE 7
Particle accelerators can cause collisions of atomic nuclei that generate superdense, super-energetic states of matter for tiny fractions of a second. How much energy would such states of matter contain? (a) How many times denser than water would result if Earth were squeezed into a cube 30 feet on a side? How many times denser than a proton would this be? (b) What is the rest mass energy of a proton? Express your answer in units of Joules and electron volts. (c) How much energy would be contained in a proton-sized piece of the superdense material from Part (a)? (d) At the heart of an exploding atomic bomb, about 100 billion Joules (10^11 J) are produced in a volume of about one cubic meter. How does the energy density at the center of such a nuclear explosion compare to the energy density of the superdense material from Part (a)? |