Re: Question about the De Broglie Wavelength
- From: Hontas Farmer <hfarmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 06:44:42 +0000 (UTC)
Jenius wrote:
Let me start out by saying that I am a High School student presently
enrolled in AP Physics, therefore my understanding not as expansive as
many of your's. We just recently learned about the De Broglie
wavelength, which states that anything with mass and velocity has a
wavelength. We were also tought that velocity is all relative.
Here's a simple example. I'm standing in the middle of a room and you
are standing 10 feet in front of me. I walk towards you, with a
positive velocity compared to you. I have a positive wavelength. Ok,
this is all good. Now, I start walking backwards, with a negative
velocity compared to you. Do I have a negative wavelength, and
therefore a negative frequency? Last example. I walk towards you at 2
feet per second while you walk away at 2 feet per second. My velocity
relative to you is 0, but I am none the less in motion. Do I have a
wavelength?
In your high school physics class you must have learned that velocity is a
vector quantity. You are assuming that the velocity in the DeBroglie
formula is a vector. Perhaps the book you were reading was misprinted. In
this formula the velocity V is a scalar (it should not have an arrow over
it, or whatever your book does to denote a vector.) So the direction of
travel would not make a difference. So the answer to your question is no.
There would be no negative wavelength.
Debroglie's postulate
P=hf=h/mv
f=frequency
(Maybe this should be posted in the relativity group?) I thought that
no matter what frame of reference you are in, all events happen. If in
one frame of reference I have a wavelength, and in another frame I
don't, this can't be true. What am I to make of all this confusion?
All help is greatly appreciated.
--Jenius
All they would tell you is the following. The theory of relativity predicts
that objects in one reference frame will seem to have a different total
energy in a different inertial frame. This agree's with Debroglie's
postulate the frequency will alter in accord with Doppler shift.
--
"...we advanced from the telegraph to telephones to e-mail?" -Mr ef'n
conductor- George Carlin. www.geocities.com/hontasfx
.
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