Physical constants (speed of light, Planck) in SciPy - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

Calculate energy of a photon using Planck's constant and frequency

Given the frequency of a photon as 5e14 Hz, what is the energy of this photon using Planck's constant from scipy.constants?

SciPy

from scipy.constants import h
frequency = 5e14
energy = h * frequency
print(energy)

A 1.5e-19

B 6.626e-34

C 3.313e-19

D 9.11e-31

💡 Hint

Energy of a photon is Planck's constant times frequency.

Energy = h * frequency. Using h = 6.62607015e-34 J·s and frequency = 5e14 Hz, energy = 3.313e-19 J.

❓ data_output

intermediate

Retrieve and display speed of light and Planck constant values

Using scipy.constants, what are the values of the speed of light and Planck constant printed as a tuple (speed_of_light, planck_constant)?

SciPy

from scipy.constants import c, h
print((c, h))

A (3.14e8, 6.626e-34)

B (3e8, 6.626e-34)

C (299792458, 1.602e-19)

D (299792458.0, 6.62607015e-34)

💡 Hint

Use scipy.constants.c and scipy.constants.h for exact values.

The exact speed of light is 299792458 m/s and Planck constant is 6.62607015e-34 J·s in scipy.constants.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

Understanding units of Planck constant and speed of light

Which of the following correctly describes the units of Planck constant and speed of light?

A Planck constant: Joule seconds (J·s), Speed of light: meters per second (m/s)

B Planck constant: meters per second (m/s), Speed of light: Joule seconds (J·s)

C Planck constant: kilograms (kg), Speed of light: seconds (s)

D Planck constant: Newtons (N), Speed of light: meters (m)

💡 Hint

Think about what Planck constant and speed of light physically represent.

Planck constant measures energy-time product, so units are Joule seconds. Speed of light is a velocity, so meters per second.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Identify the error in this code using scipy.constants

What error does the following code produce? from scipy.constants import speed_of_light print(speed_of_light)

SciPy

from scipy.constants import speed_of_light
print(speed_of_light)

A ImportError: cannot import name 'speed_of_light'

B NameError: name 'speed_of_light' is not defined

C AttributeError: module 'scipy.constants' has no attribute 'speed_of_light'

D No error, prints 299792458.0

💡 Hint

Check the exact name of the constant in scipy.constants.

The correct name is 'c' for speed of light, not 'speed_of_light'. Importing 'speed_of_light' causes ImportError.

🚀 Application

expert

Calculate wavelength from photon energy using scipy.constants

Given a photon energy of 4e-19 Joules, calculate the wavelength in meters using Planck constant and speed of light from scipy.constants. Which option is the correct wavelength?

SciPy

from scipy.constants import h, c
energy = 4e-19
wavelength = (h * c) / energy
print(wavelength)

A 7.50e-07

B 4.97e-07

C 1.24e-06

D 3.31e-19

💡 Hint

Use wavelength = (Planck constant * speed of light) / energy.

Wavelength = (h * c) / energy = (6.62607015e-34 * 299792458) / 4e-19 ≈ 4.97e-07 meters.