Nuclear Physics

Really, it is the whole thing.

An atom decays because the nucleus is unstable. The nucleus contains protons and neutrons, and only certain combinations of the numbers of each are stable.

When a radioactive atom decays, it can do a number of different things. Best known by ordinary people, possibly, is nuclear fission, in which the whole atom breaks apart to become two atoms. In the process various pieces of the atom also are released.

Sometimes an atom decays by emitting an alpha particle, which means that two neutrons and two protons, combined in a single package, are emitted. This also implies that two electrons are somehow lost. In the process, the atom changes to a different element, with an atomic number reduced by two, and with an isotope number reduced by four.

Sometimes an atom undergoes a beta-negative emission. This means that the number of electrons and protons in the atom is increased by one, but the number of neutrons is reduced.

Sometimes an orbital electron is captured, to combine with a proton in the nucleus to make a neutron. When this happens, the atomic number is reduced by one, so the atom is of a different element, but the isotope remains the same.

There is a type of decay called an "isomeric transition," in which an atom emits a gamma ray (type of photon) but keeps both its atomic number and its isotope number. The notation of the isotope number before the has an "m" attached (indicating an excited meta state), which is gone after the transition has taken place. For example, zinc-69m decays to zinc-69.

These are just examples illustrating how the whole atom is affected. There are a number of others.

The radiocarbon method was developed by a team of scientists led by the late Professor Willard F. Libby of the University of Chicago after the end of World War 2. Libby later received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for the radiocarbon discovery. Libby made his first test before 1960.

As is asked, the half-life of the cesium-135 is 2035.3333... years (or 2035 1/3 years). We'll walk through the process to show you how to calculate it using an "easy" method. But before we launch, the half-life of cesium-135 is actually on the order of 2.3 million years, just so you know. Now let's look at the math. To make the calculations, we'll use a 2-step process to avoid some sophisticated "nastiness" and mathematical hair-pulling. First we'll need to find the number of half-lives, and we know that 7/8ths are gone in 6106 years. That means 1/8th is left. Since we're dealing with half-lives (or 1/2-lives) we'll need an expression to get from the "start" to end up with 1/8th of the substance remaining. Here's the equation: 1/2n = 1/8 [the n is the number of 1/2-lives it takes for a given amount of decay to occur] The 1/2 is the rate of decay, and that's because half-life means half goes away at every interval of time. This is for all applications involving radioactive decay. (We might have other applications in something like business where things like sales or production decay by 1/3rd or 1/4th or something else.) If you solve for n here, you'll get 3, 'cause it takes 3 half-lives for 7/8th of the material to decay and for 1/8th to be left. (The sequence is 1/2, 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/16th, 1/32nd, ..., and you knew that already.) We now take the number of half-lives and divide it into the time it took for the decay of 7/8th of the material to occur and 1/8th to be left, and here's that expression: t1/2 = t / n t1/2 = half-life of the substance under investigation t = time elapsed for a given amount of decay to occur n = number of half-lives that elapse in a given period of decay t1/2 = t / nt1/2 = 6106 / 3 = 2035.3333... years Simple and easy. Use a scientific calculator to solve the first equation or just do some repetitions to run down the number of half-lives. We have some other expressions we could use to pull everything together, but they're a little more complex. Links can be found below to citations and explanations, and you're a mouse click away from those higher order mathematical expressions to make the calculations. The object here was to make the math accessable to almost any student. No, we're not selling you short, but giving you a stepping stone to the "bigs" with this avenue to a solution. (If you're really adept, you can take the information here and derive your own equation! Never said you weren't challenged in addition to being informed!)

Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Dubna, Russia in 2006, by:

Iuri Ţolakovici Ohanessian, V.K. Utionkov, Iuri V. Lobanov, F.Ş. Abdulin, A.N. Poliakov, I.V. Şirokovski, Iuri S. Ţiganov, Gheorghi G. Gulbekian, Serghei L. Bogomolov, Boris N. Gikal, A.N. Mezenţev, S. Iliev, V.G. Subbotin, A.M. Suhov, O.V. Ivanov, German Vladimirovici Buklanov, A.A. Voinov, K. Subotic, Mihail Grigorievici Itkis, V.I. Zagrebaev,

R.N. Sagaidak, G.K.Vostokin

(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Russian Federation)

and

Ken J. Moody, John F. Wild, Mark A. Stoyer, Nancy J. Stoyer, Dawn A. Shaughnessy, Joshua B. Patin, Ronald W. Lougheed, P. A. Wilk, J. M. Kenneally, J. H. Landrum

(University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA)

The largest nuclear power plant in the world is the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, with an electrical generating capacity of 8212 MW.

There is probably no theoretical maximum, since the number of reactors is rather arbitrary. I have provided a link to the Wikipedia article below.

sub-atomic particle: which makes up an atom: which makes up molecules: which makes up DNA: which make up organelles (cell parts): which makes up cells: which makes up tissues: which makes up organs: which makes up organ systems: which makes up organisms.

Yes, an alpha radiation particle is 2 protons and 2 neutrons so for every alpha particle emitted the radioactive nuclide loses 2 protons.

The electron, the proton and the neutron are the "building blocks" of the atom. Protons have a positive electrical charge (p+), and neutrons which have about the same mass, are electrically neutral, or have no electrical charged (n0). Electrons, which are much less massive than protons - only about 1/1836th as heavy - have a negative electrical charge (e-). All atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons, though most hydrogen (1H1) has just the proton in its nucleus and a lone electron in orbit.

Black because it absorbs all the heat whereas white reflects the heat away so black is a better heat insulator.

Help this helps :)

The time depends on the isotope. The half life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years.

The half life is the amount of time during which any given atom of the isotope has a 50% chance of undergoing decay.

Seen another way, the half life is the time it takes for half the atoms of an isotope in a mass of that isotope to undergo decay.

The half-life is 700 million years !

4 from the alpha. Betas have negligible mass and gammas have no mass.

It is the moderator in a nuclear reactor that is used to slow neutrons down in a thermonuclear reactor. The moderator, which is often water, slows the neutrons by providing a "target" for the neutron to slam into. The resulting collision (called a scattering event) will allow the moderator to absorb some of the kinetic energy from the neutron, and that neutron will come away at a lower velocity than it did coming in. The hydrogen in water (it's H2O) has, in most cases, a single proton in its nucleus. As the proton in a hydrogen nucleus has approximately the same mass as a neutron, there will be, in general, a larger amount of energy stripped from the neutron in a given scattering event. (If you consider, say, a scattering even between a golf ball and a bowling ball, the golf ball won't lose much energy to the bowling ball. But if the golf ball undergoes scattering with another golf ball, there is a "better" result and more slowing of the neutron.)

In addition to the use of water (both light and heavy water) as a moderator, we also find that graphite (an allotrope of carbon -- pencil lead) and liquid metals are also used as moderators. The same idea applies, and the moderator, whatever one it is, provides a target for higher energy neutrons to slam into. The result of the scattering events is that the neutrons are slowed in the process.

We know that gamma rays are electromagnetic energy, and they'll occupy a place on the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. You can locate gamma rays right at the top end of the EM spectrum because their frequencies are so high (or their wavelengths are so short, if you prefer).

No nuclear particle has a relative mass of 4. However, the alpha particle which is emitted by one of the radioactive iodine isotopes, has a relative mass of 4. An alpha particle is emitted from the nucleus but not referred to as a nuclear particle because it is made up of 4 nuclear particles - 2 neutrons and 2 protons.

The greatest mass loss to a nucleus undergoing decay by emission happens through alpha radiation. In this case, the atomic mass is reduced by approximately 4. Emission of a neutron (rare) or proton produces a loss of about 1. Other emissions cause smaller losses.

Increasing temperature causes particles to gain energy and move faster, increasing their kinetic energy. On the other hand, decreasing temperature decreases the energy of particles, causing them to move slower. This relationship is governed by the kinetic theory of matter, stating that temperature is directly related to the average kinetic energy of particles.

e- is the symbol for an electron, aka a beta particle. It has a unit negative charge.

A Nuclear Power Station is facility for producing electricity using Nuclear Power.

It uses the principle of "Nuclear Fission" of the radioactive element Like Uranium, plutonium etc by bombardment of "Neutron" on them. Nuclear fission disintegrates the nucleus of a radioactive atom in to two parts, with release of huge amount of heat energy. This energy is used to produce steam & thus power / electricity by turbine principle.

The mass of a positron is approximately 9.1093826(16) × 10−31 kg. The positron and the electron are anti-particles of each other, and you can find out more about the positron at the Wikipedia article on that subject. A link to their post can be found below. There is also a link to a related question on the nature of the positron. That's down there, too.

No it does not. There are various types (isotopes) of plutonium. Plutonium 238, the weapons grade material, has a half life of 88 years. Meaning after 88 years half of the material has transforms into another element through radioactive decay.

Plutonium-240 has a half life of ~80 Million years.

But eventually all types of plutonium will decay into other elements.

All radioactive elements will eventually decay into non-radioactive atoms given enough time.

Atomic nuclei that are unstable and decaying are said to be radioactive. Radioactive decay involves alpha, beta and gamma particle emissions.