Question 1
3 pts
The nucleus of a particular atom as a diameter of 7.1 x10-15 m. For an electron to be
confined within this region, the de Broglie wavelength for the electron would have to have to
be smaller than this diameter. Assuming that the de Broglie wavelength was equal to the
nucleus diameter, what would be the kinetic energy of the electron in kJ/mol?
Reminder: to specify large values (e.g. a billion) use scientific notation like so: 1e9
Note: required precision is 2%.
Sanity check: The expected answers should be between: 6e11 and 8e13. The energy required to
keep an electron confined to a nucleus is crazy large, this is why electrons don't reside in the
nucleus to be near the protons.
Fig: 1