What happens to an unstable particle in an accelerator?

Question

An unstable particle produced in an accelerator experiment travels at constant velocity, covering 1.00 m in 3.58 ns in the lab frame before changing ("decaying") into other particles.

Answer 1

Hi Patrick,

 

In general, any particle that is unstable will undergo a decay in order to become more stable. When a particle decays, it breaks down and becomes new particles.  

 

It seems from the question that the info about the accelerator is not relevant to finding the answer to the problem.  Many times physics problems will contain information relating to a real-world situation. It's important to focus on the concepts involved (like displacement, time, velocity, etc), and not the fact that it happenned in an accelerator. 

 

Hope that helps!

 

jan :)