A beam of particles contains protons, alpha particles and muons with Ekin = 2 GeV. Calculate their respective energy loss dE/dx in a gas with Z/A = 0.5 and I = 60eV.How can the ionisation loss of a particle be used to determine its electical charge z?Update:Reg. Meg's answer - I know the Bethe-Bloch formula is needed, but i have no idea how to apply it here given the beam contains protons, alpha particles and muons.......... Created by Cameron L. science-mathematics-en - physics-en

I would use the Bethe-Bloch formula. "The ionization energy loss is to a good approximation proportional to the electron density in the medium and to the square of the projectile charge, and otherwise depends mainly on the projectile velocity."seehttp://rkb.home.cern.ch/rkb/PH14pp/node62.html