Physics for Scientists and Engineers: A Strategic Approach with Modern Physics (4th Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0133942651
ISBN 13: 978-0-13394-265-1

Chapter 36 - Relativity - Exercises and Problems - Page 1060: 42

Answer

The mass of the Higgs boson is $~~2.21\times 10^{-25}~kg~~$ which is $~~132~~$ times the mass of a proton.

Work Step by Step

The energy of a photon is $E = pc$ The total energy of both photons is $E = 2pc$ The energy of the Higgs boson is $E = mc^2$ By equating the expressions for the energy, we can find the mass of the Higgs boson: $mc^2 = 2pc$ $m = \frac{2p}{c}$ $m = \frac{(2)(3.31\times 10^{-17}~kg~m/s)}{3.0\times 10^8~m/s}$ $m = 2.21\times 10^{-25}~kg$ We can express the mass of the Higgs boson as a multiple of the proton mass: $\frac{2.21\times 10^{-25}~kg}{1.67\times 10^{-27}~kg} = 132$ The mass of the Higgs boson is $~~2.21\times 10^{-25}~kg~~$ which is $~~132~~$ times the mass of a proton.
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