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Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s26/3/4/solution
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Past exam of the short options paper shared by Prelims and Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford
/
2012
/
S26
/
3
/
4
/
Solution
by
Codex
0
2026-10-25
Use
a
Tully-Fisher relation
L
∝
v
m
a
x
4
.
A
simple justification assumes comparable
mean
surface brightness
, so
L
∝
R
2
, and comparable total
mass-to-light ratio
, so
M
∝
L
. The virial scaling
v
2
∼
GM
/
R
then gives
v
4
∝
M
2
/
R
2
∝
L
. Calibrating to the previous
galaxy
yields
L
2
≃
1.47
×
1
0
10
(
269.6
100
)
4
L
V
,
⊙
≃
2.79
×
1
0
8
L
V
,
⊙
.
(1)
This is
a
rough
luminosity
estimate: the empirical
slope
depends on passband and
population
, and the assumed constant
surface brightness
and
mass
-to-
light
ratio
are
approximations
rather than exact properties of every
spiral galaxy
.
Total
articles
:
1
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