At very low temperature, the de Broglie wavelengths of the atoms in a gas can become larger than the distance between atoms, which leads to new states of matter. In an early study, a gas of 23Na was cooled to 200 nK. What is the de Broglie wavelength of the sodium atoms at this temperature? To get a sense of scale, at everyday temperatures and pressures, the distance between air molecules is about 3 nm. How does the de Broglie wavelength compare to this distance? (The gas in the study was much more diffuse than this, but the atoms were close enough for some overlap.)

College Physics
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ISBN:9781285737027
Author:Raymond A. Serway, Chris Vuille
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Chapter27: Quantum Physics
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At very low temperature, the de Broglie wavelengths of the atoms in a gas can become larger than the distance between atoms, which leads to new states of matter. In an early study, a gas of 23Na was cooled to 200 nK. What is the de Broglie wavelength of the sodium atoms at this temperature? To get a sense of scale, at everyday temperatures and pressures, the distance between air molecules is about 3 nm. How does the de Broglie wavelength compare to this distance? (The gas in the study was much more diffuse than this, but the atoms were close enough for some overlap.)

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