Question

The amount of meat in prehistoric diets can be determined by measuring the ratio of the isotopes nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 in bone from human remains. Carnivores concentrate 15N, so this ratio tells archaeologists how much meat was consumed by ancient people. Suppose you use a velocity selector to obtain singly-ionized (missing one electron) nitrogen atoms of speed 9.35 km/s and bend them along a semicircle within a uniform magnetic field. The 14N atoms travel along a semicircle with a diameter of 21.5 cm . The measured masses of these isotopes are 2.32×10−26 kg (14N) and 2.49×10−26 kg for (15N).

Part A Find the separation of the 14N and 15N isotopes at the detector.

Answer 1