Homework Handout #6

6.01:  (a) How many neutrinos are produced in the Sun every second by the first reaction of the proton-proton chain?  (You may want to use your answer to handout problem 5.01 to save some work.)

(b) Show that 6.4 x 1010 of these neutrinos pass through each square cm of your body every second!  You can see that neutrinos are truly ghostly particles, leaving almost no trace of their numbers.  Every star in the universe is producing neutrinos at a similar rate.

6.02: Given the surface temperature and luminosity changes over the Sun's history, as indicated by Fig. 11.2 of the text, (a) by how many magnitudes has the Sun changed?

(b) Over what range of color magnitudes has the Sun changed?

(c) Sketch an H-R diagram showing the evolutionary path of the Sun (you should be able to use a B-V range of 0.6 to 0.7, and an absolute magnitude range of 5.5 to 4.5 on your diagram).  Does your evolutionary path follow the main-sequence?