Lesson: Identifying Particles in Detectors Physics • 9th Grade

In this lesson, we will learn how to determine the charge and mass of particles from the paths that they follow through particle detectors.

Lesson Plan

Students will be able to

identify the direction of the force experienced by a charged particle moving in a magnetic field,
use for a charged particle moving in a magnetic field to find the charge-to-mass ratio of the particle,
use data about the charge-to-mass ratio of different particles to identify unknown particles based on information about their paths in a magnetic field,
interpret diagrams of the path of a charged particle in a magnetic field to determine properties such as the charge-to-mass ratio and the charge of a particle.

Lesson Video

Lesson Worksheet

Q1:

A muon has a mass of . What is the minimum energy of a photon that can produce a muon and an antimuon via pair production? Give your answer in mega-electron volts.

Q2:

An electron has a mass of . What would the energy of a photon that was produced from the annihilation of an electron and a positron be? Assume that the kinetic energy of the two particles is negligible. Give your answer in kilo-electron volts.

Q3:

A tauon has a mass of and a muon has a mass of . What is the ratio of the mass of a tauon to the mass of a muon? Give your answer to two decimal places.