plumiRelativistic particle lifetimes: Edexcel International A Level Physics questions
Edexcel International A Level Physics past-paper questions on 4.5.2.2 Relativistic particle lifetimes, 2019–2025, with mark schemes and examiner’s reports where available.
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All 11 questions on Relativistic particle lifetimes, as a list
- June 2025, Unit 4, Q4 (1 mark): In the upper atmosphere, high‑energy cosmic rays collide with molecules of air to produce muons. The average speed of these muons is v. The average lifetime of
- October 2024, Unit 4, Q13(a) (2 marks): A muon is travelling at 98.0% of the speed of light. Show that the distance travelled by the muon in 2.20 μs is about 650 m. (2)
- October 2024, Unit 4, Q13(b) (3 marks): Some muons are produced 15 000 m above the ground and travel vertically downwards. Explain why most of these muons reach the ground before decaying. (3)
- June 2024, Unit 4, Q16(a) (3 marks): The high energy electrons produced will have energy 60 GeV. Show that these electrons will be travelling at relativistic speeds. (3)
- October 2023, Unit 4, Q21(d) (2 marks): When at rest, pions have an average lifetime of 26 ns. When produced in the upper atmosphere, high-energy pions have a speed of up to 0.99 c. Explain how the av
- January 2023, Unit 4, Q18(c) (2 marks): Most types of quark form hadrons on a timescale of 10 −25 s. form hadrons because its lifetime is only 10 A student suggests that, if the top quarks travelled a
- October 2022, Unit 4, Q13(c) (2 marks): Z bosons produced by high energy collisions can have a range of lifetimes. The Z bosons with the longest lifetimes are those that were moving very fast. Explain
- June 2022, Unit 4, Q7 (1 mark): Muons can travel at speeds close to the speed of light. At these speeds the lifetime and mass of a muon are different from those of a stationary muon. Which row
- January 2022, Unit 4, Q17(d)(iii) (2 marks): Stationary muons are unstable and have a mean lifetime of a few microseconds. Explain why muons in the ring are observed to have a much greater mean lifetime. (
- October 2021, Unit 4, Q16(c) (3 marks): Most of the particles detected in the spark chamber are muons. The muons were created in the upper atmosphere. Muons normally have a very short lifetime and sho
- January 2021, Unit 4, Q14(a) (5 marks): Explain whether these observations are consistent with ideas from relativity. Your answer should include a calculation. (5)
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