nuclear physics Flashcards
four fundamental forces
electromagnetic
strong nuclear force
weak nuclear force
gravitational force
how does the alpha-scattering experiment provide evidence for a dense nucleus
few alpha particles bounce back
what is an atom made of
protons
neutrons
electrons
what letter is typically associated with proton number
Z
what is a nucleon
a particle that makes up the nucleus
what is an isotope
atoms of an element with same number of protons and a different number of neutrons
what is the strong nuclear force
force which holds the nucleus together. must overcome electrostatic repulsive force between protons
range of strong force
repulsive up to 0.5fm
attractive up to 3fm
true or false, every particle has an anti-particle
true
difference between particle and anti-particle
charge
similarity between particle and anti-particle
mass
antiparticle of electron
positron
what is a hadron
type of particle effected by the strong nuclear force
what are hadrons made of
quarks
what are the two classes of hadrons
baryons
mesons
two examples of baryons
protons and neutrons
what are leptons
fundamental particles which aren’t subject to the strong nuclear force
2 examples of leptons
muon
neutrino
three types of quarks
up
down
strange
quark composition of protons
uud
quark composition of neutrons
udd
what is beta minus decay
when a neutron turns into a proton, the atom releases an electron and an anti-electron neutrino
what quantities must be conserved during the decay of particles
charge
mass
baryon and lepton numbers
what features of a nucleus might cause it to radioactively decay
too heavy
too much energy
order alpha beta gamma in order of the most ionising
alpha
beta
gamma
in beta plus decay, how does the atomic number change
it decreases
what is the activity of a source
number of radioactive decays per second (measured in becquerels).
what happens when a particle and its corresponding anti-particle meet
annihilate each other and release two gamma rays in order to conserve momentum
what is pair production
when a gamma ray has enough energy to produce a particle and its anti-particle
what is binding energy
energy required to split a nucleus into its constituent parts
what is a chain reaction
when exactly one neutron from each decay goes on to cause another decay
how is nuclear waste disposed of
first stored in cooling ponds
