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Nuclear Physics
Most commonly known for its applications in nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, Nuclear Physics also has applications in medicine and archaeology. This category is for questions about the branch of physics that deals with the study of the forces, reactions, and internal structures of atomic nuclei, Nuclear Physics.
3,164 Questions
No two different elements will have the?
No two different elements will have the exact same atomic number. Each element has a unique number of protons in its nucleus, which determines its atomic number and distinguishes it from other elements.
What 2 types of particles exist within atomic nucleus?
It depends in where you want to end your search. The "larger" particles are protons and neutrons.
These in turn are made up of quarks - Protons are made of two Up and one Down quark. The neutron is made of two Down and one Up quark. The difference is that Up quarks have a 2/3 positive charge and the Down has a 1/3 negative charge. The two types of quarks are your two basic particles.
At the present time no proposal has been made for quark building blocks,
How much does it cost to make a nuclear weapon?
A absolutely gigantic amount! First you need to mine hundreds of tons of uranium ore, then you need to purify it, by conversion to uranium hexaflouride. I will not go into the detail of this process, but the resulting uranium hexaflouride is VERY toxic. THen the uranium hexaflouride needs to go through one of two processes: gaseous diffusion of ultra-high speed centrifuging. The first dydtem is the one used for bulk U-235 (the resulting weapons grade uranium) during the Manhattan project. It uses baffles and filters (made of things like tungsten-zirconium alloys) to separate the U-238 (the depleted uranium that makes up 95% of the uranium ore) form the U-235. The second process is centrifuging, where the uranium hexafluoride is spun at 500 MPH until the heavier U-238 is separated. The uranium is the only really expensive part in a gun-type weapon, but the big weapons,fusion bombs use plutonium which production is to complicated to go over here.
Will gamma radiation pass through plastic wrappers?
- Yes, Gamma rays can pass through a metal sheet.
- Gamma rays are the most penetrating of the radiations.
- Gamma rays are highly energetic waves.
- It cannot be said that a particular thickness of a material can absorb all gamma radiation.
- Many centimeters of lead or many meters of concrete are required to absorb high levels of gamma rays.
Protons stay together in the nucleus due to the strong nuclear force, otherwise known as binding energy. This force is the fundamental glue, so to speak, in everything. It overshadows the electromagnetic force by several orders of magnitude, so that the protons do not fly apart due to like charges repelling each other.
The first (or smallest measurement) you would see is the hash marking millimeters, which is written as "mm". 1mm equals the thickness of a dime. The unit of measure that is most often displayed on a metric ruler would be centimeters written "cm". 10mm equals 1cm and 2.5cm is about equal to 1 inch. Centimeters are displayed for viewing like inches are, marked on the ruler in increments of 1, 2, 3, 4... and so on. Usually to 30cm which is slightly less than 12 inches
Why do some isotopes decay while others do not?
Some isotopes are unbalanced in certain ways, and some have unnecessary, extra energy. Decaying lets these isotopes balance themselves out to a more-stable, lower-energy state. Once a certain state of energy is hit, it becomes energetically unfavorable for the atom to decay further, so they don't.
All three main types of radioactive decay can be thought of as stabilizers.
Alpha decay stabilizes nuclear size:
As nuclei get bigger and bigger, electromagnetic repulsion between the protons begins to overtake the strong nuclear force's hold on the nucleons, so the isotope spits out a helium nucleus to compensate.
Beta decay stabilizes the ratio of protons to neutrons:
This is done by effectively turning a neutron into a proton through the emission of an electron. This is needed because neutrons by themselves are unstable so they have to be constantly exchanging a particle called a gluon with the surrounding protons to stick together. If there's too many neutrons, some won't be able to do this.
Gamma radiation stabilizes the overall nuclear energy:
They do this by reducing the nucleus to a lower energy eigenstate through the release of a high-energy photon.
How much of a radioactive substance remains after 24 hours if its half life is 5 hours?
Using the formula Nt = N0*(1/2)t/t1/2 where Nt is the amount of stuff remaining after an amount of time, t, and t1/2 is the half-life, you get Nt = .036N0.
So about 3.6% of the radioactive stuff is left.
Ype the letter that represents the formula that will balance this beta decay equation?
An alpha decay equation consists of the nucleus of an atom splitting into two parts: an alpha particle (He atom) and the resulting atom. To balance this equation, make sure that the amount of protons and neutrons are even on both sides.
What is the best definition of half-life for a radioactive substance?
It indicates how long it takes for the material to decay.
Show you the blueprint of II puc board physics syllabus?
I'm unable to display the blueprint of the II PUC Board Physics syllabus as it is copyrighted material. However, I can provide a brief overview of the topics covered in the II PUC Board Physics syllabus if that would be helpful to you.
What is the ratio of parent to daughter isotopes after eight half lives?
100(.50)^.5 = 70.71%.
.50 represents the 50% remainder per half-life, taken to the power of .5 or the number of half-lives that pass, all multiplied by 100 to make the answer a percentage.
What is the mass number of reactants of fission and fusion?
In a nuclear reaction, the mass numbers of the particles play an important part. The relationship between the mass numbers of the reactants and those of the products is that, they should be the same.
Which form of radioactive decay consists of photons?
Gamma decay consists of the emission of gamma rays, which are high-energy photons. This type of radioactive decay occurs when an unstable nucleus releases excess energy in the form of gamma rays to become more stable.
At the time the rock is created, the radioactive isotope is present in that rock in a ratio of 1 to zero with regard to the stable daughter. After one half-life, which is 10,000 years, the isotope to daughter ratio is 1 to 1. After another half-life, which is another 10,000 years, the ratio is 1 to 3. The rock is 20,000 years old.
To see it another way, after the first half-life is complete, half the material is the original isotope, and half is the daughter. That's a 1 to 1 ratio. After another half-life (another 10,000 years) has passed, half the original isotope that was left has become the daughter. That's one quarter more of the daughter that will be added to the quantity of the daughter existing after the first half-life. That means that one quarter of the original isotope will be left after 2 half-lives, and the rest (the other 3/4ths of the material) will be the daughter. The ratio of the original isotope to the daughter after 2 half-lives (20,000 years) is 1 to 3.
What is the minimum gamma ray energy needed to produce a positron?
The minimum photonic energy required to create an electron-positron pair is 1.022 MeV. This energy is the equivalent of the rest masses of the pair of particles created. There is a bit more to this, as conservation of momentum must be observed. Pair production will occur, when it occurs, in the vicinity of an atomic nucleus when a high energy gamma ray zips in. The nucleus provides some "help" to "balance the equations" that describe the event, and that atomic nucleus will allow symmetry to be preserved. Specifically, that atomic nucleus acts in the conservation of momentum. That's why pair production won't occur as gamma rays are flying through the vacuum of space; there are (virtually) no atoms out there to facilitate the event. It may sound complex, but it's not all that difficult to get a handle on the phenomenon. A link is provided to our friends at Wikipedia. Knowledge there is free, and pair production isn't all that tough to understand. The article is brief and readable, and the complex equations that might have been posted are absent. Check it out.
How many protons and electrons and neutrons is in krypton?
There are 46 protons 34 neutrons and 12 electrons
There are 36 protons and 48 neutrons in the most abundant isotope of krypton, krypton-84. To find the number of protons, just find the atomic number. This is the same as the number of protons. To find the number of neutrons, take the mass number and subtract the atomic number. For example, carbon-12 has an atomic number of 6 and a mass number of 12. Carbon-12 has 6 protons and 6 neutrons. There are isotopes that have different numbers of neutrons.
What is the fastest decaying element?
Many elements decay fast. All the elements after 92 are man made and decay, and all the ones over 104 decay rapidly, some with a half-life in the millionths of a second.
Element 118, ununoctium, has a half-life of 0.89 mili-seconds.
What does strong nuclear force hold together?
The strong nuclear force holds together protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. It is one of the fundamental forces in nature that overcomes the electromagnetic repulsion between positively charged protons, binding them together in a stable nucleus.
What is the reveal the force that holds the nucleus together?
The force that holds the nucleus together is the strong nuclear force. This force is mediated by particles called gluons, and it is responsible for binding protons and neutrons together in the nucleus.
What two elements would result from the alpha decay of plutonium 238?
First off, it's better to be more careful in regards to the word element. What you actually mean is isotope. The difference is subtle, but important. If I had a large rock of Uranium ore that was just mined, you could say I had the element Uranium. However, the element is made up of a certain percentage of isotopes, those being a nucleus that has the same number of protons, 92 in this case, but different numbers of neutrons.
Secondly, alpha decay is defined as the spontaneous emission of a helium 4 nucleus from an isotope, so one of your two resulting elements when alpha decay is involved is always going to be helium. The other element is found by simply subtracting 2 from Pu's atomic number, which is 94, giving you the resulting element's atomic number, which is 92, otherwise known as uranium, specifically, the isotope U 234.
Write a nuclear equation for the indicated decay of Uranium 234?
The equation for the alpha decay of 234U is:
92234U --> 90230Th + 24He
representing the alpha particle as a helium nucleus.
234U also decays by spontaneous fission, but the results are somewhat unpredictable, so there is no standard equation.
Why do some nuclei found in nature give off alpha particles?
Some nuclei found in nature are unstable and undergo radioactive decay, where they emit alpha particles to become more stable. This process helps the nucleus reach a more balanced state by releasing excess protons and neutrons in the form of an alpha particle, which consists of two protons and two neutrons.
What is the mass and charge of alpha particles?
Alpha particles are helium nuclei and consist of two protons and two neutrons. Their electric charge is +2 (+1 from each proton), and their mass number is 4, one for each proton and neutron. To describe their mass in other ways, it is 4.001506179125 atomic mass units, or 6.64465675 x 10-25 kg.
What is the half life of the Radioisotope Fe55?
The half-life of the radioisotope Fe55 is approximately 2.7 years. This means that after 2.7 years, half of the original amount of Fe55 will have decayed into other elements.
