Chap 20 : Nuclear Physics Flashcards
What is a nucleon?
Proton or neutron in a nucleus.
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What is Nucleon Number / Mass Number?
Total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.
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What is Proton Number / Atomic Number?
Number of protons in the nucleus.
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What is a nucleus?
Small massive positively charged core of an atom.
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What is a nuclide?
Particular type of nucleus with specific number of protons and neutrons.
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What are isotopes?
A set of nuclides with the same proton number but different numbers of neutrons.
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What is mass defect?
The difference between the sum of the rest masses of the constituent nucleons of a particular nucleus and the mass of the nucleus itself.
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What is binding energy (of a nucleus)?
Amount of work needed to take all its constituent nucleons apart so that they are separated an infinite distance from one another.
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What is binding energy per nucleon?
Obtained by dividing the binding energy of the nucleus by the total number of nucleons.
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Why is radioactive decay spontaneous?
Because the decay is not triggered by external factors (e.g. temperature, pressure, electric fields, magnetic field, etc).
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Why is radioactive decay random?
Because it is impossible to predict which nucleus in the sample will decay next. However, the fraction of nuclei of the sample will decay after a certain length of time can be determined.
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What is background radiation?
Refers to the ionising radiation emitted from a variety of natural and artificial radiation sources.
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What is activity?
Rate of nuclear disintegration.
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What is decay constant?
Probability of decay per unit time of a nucleus.
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What is half life?
Time taken for «a quantity» to reduce to half its initial value.
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