Unit 15 · Modern Physics

Chapter 15.2

Photons, Compton Scattering, and Matter Waves

Fire X-rays at electrons and they bounce off like billiard balls, losing exactly the energy and momentum a particle would. Then de Broglie asked the reverse question: if light is a particle, is an electron a wave?

in preparation · lesson 25 of 27

By the end

  1. 01Describe a photon: massless, uncharged, with energy set by frequency and momentum set by wavelength
  2. 02Analyze Compton scattering as a two-dimensional collision conserving energy and momentum
  3. 03Compute the wavelength shift from the scattering angle
  4. 04Compute a de Broglie wavelength and explain why bound systems have quantized energies

In unit 15

  1. 15.1Light Comes in Lumps: Blackbody Radiation and the Photoelectric Effect
  2. 15.2Photons, Compton Scattering, and Matter Waves
  3. 15.3The Bohr Atom and Spectra
  4. 15.4The Nucleus: Radioactive Decay, Fission, and Fusion
RELUE© MMXXVI

AP® is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this content.