Physics/Chem 229& 100 Final Exam 2009

Due Monday, Dec 14 at midnight

Open book, but no discussion with anyone except me. You may use any packages that seem
helpful. Provide clear commentary in text cells so that I can follow your reasoning.
grads do all problems
undergrads get extra credit for problems marked (grads)
Name:

Ÿ 1a). Are the vectors v1={1, -2, 3, 4} , v2= {-2, 0, 3, 6}, v3= {4, -4, 3, 2} linearly independent? Why or why not?

Ÿ b) Find a set of vectors that span the hyperplane w - 2.3 x- 2 y- 3.4z == 6

Ÿ 2. Find the solution to the equations

2x+3y+2z=10
5x-2y+7z=0

which has minimum length x2 + y2 + z2 .

Ÿ 3. Find all solutions to z 7 + 2 z 5 - 3 z 2 + 5 z + 1 Š 0 Make a plot which shows the location of the roots in the
complex plane.

2Π Sin@ ΘD2
Ÿ 4. Calculate the value of the integral Int = Ù0 â Θ using residues ( use of Residues[...] is OK).
5+3 Cos@ ΘD
Specify the contour you are using by drawing a sketch. Explain your reasoning.

Ÿ 5. Two identical masses are attached to three springs between two fixed walls, as shown in the figure
below.

k1 k2 k1
m m

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2 Final09-1.nb

Ÿ a) Construct the Lagrangian , and set up the equations of motion for this system

Ÿ b) Calculate the normal mode frequencies for the vibrations of this system.

Ÿ 6. Consider the differential equation y'' [x]/5 - x 2 y ' @xD- y[x]=0

a) Find a power series approximation to the initial value problem y[0]=3 , y'[0]=1/2 .

Ÿ b) Construct a plot of the solution to the boundary value problem y[0]=1, y[2]=1 ( Although you could use
a shooting method, there is an easier way.)

Ÿ c) what are the possible types of asymptotic behavior as x -> ¥ for solutions of this equation?

Ÿ 7. Gravitational stability of 3 masses. Consider three objects of unit mass which are constrained to move
1
in a plane and interact via an attractive inverse square force law with a potential V(r)= - , where r is the
r
distance between the masses. The initial condition is that all the masses are stationary, and mass #1 is at
{0, 0} , mass#2 is at {0,-1} and mass#3 is at { 3,0} .
a) write the Lagrangian for this system.

Ÿ a) Write the equations of motion. What is the total energy of the system?

Ÿ b) Solve the equations for the given initial conditions and make an animation of the motion. (Watch out for
extra curly brackets.) Use different colored dots to represent the objects. Play the animation at 20
frames/second. An interesting question that you are invited to speculate on is : will the particles ever
become separated by an infinite distance?

Ÿ 8. (grads) An electron is confined to a spherical cavity of radius R. ( This is actually a realistic model for
Ñ2
electrons in some liquids). The equation for its stationary energy states is - 2 m Ñ2 Ψ Š E Ψ. The wave
function must vanish at the boundary and be finite at the origin.
a) Using dimensional reasoning , predict the dependence of the ground state energy on the radius of the
cavity.

Ÿ b) For the case of no angular dependence, find the lowest 3 energy levels and the corresponding radial
wave functions. Normalize the wave functions and plot them ( let R->1). Do this problem analytically, not
numerically.

Ÿ 9. A potential is zero for Abs[x]>1 and for Abs[x]<1, it has a triangular form as shown in the figure.

Ÿ The Schrö dinger equation in reduced units for this potential is -Ψ''[x]+V[x] Ψ[x] = e Ψ[x] . For bound states,
¥
Ψ must be normalizable : Ù-¥ Ψ* Ψ â x = 1.
a) for the case V0=5, estimate the ground state energy.

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 Final09-1.nb 3

The Schrö dinger equation in reduced units for this potential is -Ψ''[x]+V[x] Ψ[x] = e Ψ[x] . For bound states,
¥
Ψ must be normalizable : Ù-¥ Ψ* Ψ â x = 1.
a) for the case V0=5, estimate the ground state energy.

Ÿ b) estimate the value of V0 which leads to exactly 2 bound states.

Ÿ 10.Buffon needle problem. Consider a sheet of lined paper with parallel lines one unit apart. Drop a stick
one unit in length at random where random means random orientation angle and random position. Do this
many times. What is the probability that the stick does not intersect a line? Answer this question with a
simulation. Write a function called Buffon[ntry_,maxgraph_] which will generate ntry sticks whose
center position is a random number between 0 and 1, and whose orientation angle is a random number
between 0 and 2 Π. Display a picture of two red parallel lines one unit apart, and the first maxgraph black
line segments ( the sticks); plotting them all leads to a messy black porcupine, so keep maxgraph around
50 or 70. Keep track of the number of line segments which cross either of the parallel lines. Run the
simulation with ntry=5000 or so times and estimate the probabilities of intersection and non-intersection.

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