Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/paper-1/section-a/4/solution

A conventional body-centred cubic cell contains two atoms, so its edge obeys . Taking gives . The neighbour shells of a body-centred cubic lattice have eight nearest neighbours that are at ; the six next-nearest neighbours lie along the cell axes. Thus the next-nearest-neighbour distance is .

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