According to which theory or law can any object with mass not travel as fast as the speed of light in empty space, that is in vacuum?
- A.Dalton law
- B.Corpuscular theory of light
- C.Theory of relativity
- D.Henry law
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, the theory of relativity. In Einstein's special theory of 1905 the energy required to accelerate a body with mass rises without limit as its speed approaches that of light, so such a body can come close to but never reach the speed of light in vacuum, which is the same for every observer. Option A is wrong because Dalton law is the law of partial pressures of gases, and Dalton is otherwise remembered for his atomic theory. Option B is wrong because the corpuscular theory, associated with Newton, treated light as a stream of particles and was replaced for most purposes by the wave and later the quantum description. Option D is wrong because Henry law states that the amount of a gas dissolved in a liquid is proportional to its pressure above the liquid. Remember also that Einstein received the Nobel Prize for the photoelectric effect, not for relativity.
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Practice Questions
View allWho discovered the electron?
- A.Ernest Rutherford
- B.J.J. Thomson
- C.James Chadwick
- D.Niels Bohr
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Thomson. Working with cathode rays in a discharge tube in 1897, he showed that the rays were a stream of negatively charged particles far lighter than any atom, and he measured their charge to mass ratio, which established the electron as the first known subatomic particle.
Read the full explanation →The neutron was discovered in 1932 by which scientist?
- A.James Chadwick
- B.Eugen Goldstein
- C.Max Planck
- D.Werner Heisenberg
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By bombarding beryllium with alpha particles he obtained a penetrating radiation that could not be bent by electric or magnetic fields, and he showed it to consist of neutral particles of about the mass of a proton, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Read the full explanation →The three laws of planetary motion were given by whom?
- A.Nicolaus Copernicus
- B.Galileo Galilei
- C.Johannes Kepler
- D.Isaac Newton
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Working on the observations of Tycho Brahe he found that a planet moves in an ellipse with the sun at one focus, that the line from the sun to the planet sweeps equal areas in equal times, and that the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube…
Read the full explanation →Hydraulic brakes in a motor car work on which principle?
- A.Archimedes principle
- B.Pascal law
- C.Bernoulli principle
- D.Hooke law
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Pressure applied to an enclosed liquid is transmitted equally and undiminished in every direction, so a small force on the narrow master cylinder of a brake creates a much larger force on the wide piston at each wheel, which is also how a hydraulic press and a hydraulic lift work.
Read the full explanation →Who is known as the father of genetics for the laws of inheritance?
- A.Charles Darwin
- B.Gregor Mendel
- C.Jean Baptiste Lamarck
- D.Hugo de Vries
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His experiments on garden pea, in which he followed single characters such as seed shape and flower colour through generations, gave the laws of dominance, segregation and independent assortment, and showed that inheritance works through discrete factors rather than a blending of parental traits.
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