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ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-of-the-physics-prelims-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/s02/1/a/solution

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Past exam of the short options paper of the physics Prelims of the University of Oxford / 2021 / S02 / 1 / a / Solution by

Codex  0 2026-10-25

The astronomical magnitude convention is

m_{1} - m_{2} = - 2.5 lo g_{10} (F_{1} / F_{2})

, with both fluxes measured through the same photometric passband. A five-unit magnitude difference therefore corresponds to

\frac{F _{b}}{F _{f}} = 1 0^{(6 - 1) /2.5} = 100.

(1)

The brighter endpoint has one hundred times the visual flux of the fainter endpoint. Absolute fluxes require a magnitude zero point, which is not given.

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