Course:ENPH257/Archive/2017St1/Assignments/01

Assignment #1 for marking

1. Code up the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution in MATLAB so you can calculate mean speeds for any gas and temperature.
(a) Calculate the root mean square velocity of an air molecule at 273 K. Take the mean molecular mass of air to be 29.
(b) Make a properly labelled* plot of the velocity distribution function f(v) for He, Air, Xe.
(c) What is the probability of an air molecule travelling over twice the rms velocity?
MY EXCEL FILE
2. Tutorial question 2 from Tuesday 16th. SOLUTIONS

^* variable names and units given on both axes, e.g. v (m/s), and lines for the different gases identified with the MATLAB legend command (or equivalent).

Make sure that you indicate your answers appropriately, e.g. "The RMS velocity of air at 273K is v_rms = ... ".

Email your homework to mailto:enph257@phas.ubc.ca
Submit ONE pdf file, named ENPH257_A1_yourfamilyname.pdf by 08:30am Tuesday 23rd.
If you are one of the Lins or Wilsons, append the initial of your given name to the filename.