1The Palo Verde nuclear power generator of Arizona has three

1.The Palo Verde nuclear power generator of Arizona has three reactors that have a combined generating capacity of 3.937 × 109 W. How many years would it take the Palo Verde nuclear power generator to produce the same amount of energy as the Sun does in one day? ________years.

2.If a sunspot has a temperature of 3700 K and the photosphere of the Sun has a temperature of 5780 K, how many times brighter per unit area is the photosphere than the sunspot? _______times

Solution

1.

Energy Produced by the sun in one hour is 3.8*10²⁶ watts ,so energy produced by sun in one day is

P=24*3.8*10²⁶ =9.12*10²⁷ W

Time taken by palo verde nuclear plant to produce the same energy produced by sun in one day is

t=9.12*10²⁷/3.937*10⁹

t=2.316*10¹⁸ days =6.35*10¹⁵ years

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2.

Luminosity is directly proportional to the 4th power of the temperature

L_ss/L_ph = (T_ss/T_ph)⁴

L_ph =(5780/3700)⁴L_ss

L_ph =6L_ss

So answer is 6 times