Section 1 - Particles

Question 1

What are nucleons?

Answer 1

The term protons and neutrons are known as.

Question 2

What is the relative charge of an electron?

Answer 2

-1

Question 3

What is the relative charge of a proton?

Answer 3

+1

Question 4

What is the relative charge of a neutron?

Answer 4

0

Question 5

What is the relative mass of a proton?

Answer 5

1

Question 6

What is the relative mass of an electron?

Answer 6

0.0005

Question 7

What is the relative mass of a neutron?

Answer 7

1

Question 8

What is the proton number also called?

Answer 8

The atomic number

Question 9

What symbol does the proton number have?

Answer 9

Z

Question 10

What symbol does the atomic number have?

Answer 10

Z

Question 11

What does Z represent?

Answer 11

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom

Question 12

What is another term for the mass number?

Answer 12

Nucleon number

Question 13

What is the symbol for the nucleon number?

Answer 13

A

Question 14

What is another term for the nucleon number?

Answer 14

Mass number

Question 15

What is the symbol for mass number?

Answer 15

A

Question 16

What does A represent?

Answer 16

The number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus

Question 17

What is the number of nucleons the same as?

Answer 17

The atom’s relative mass

Question 18

What does the nuclide notation of an element show?

Answer 18

It summarises info about its atomic structure

Question 19

What is an isotope?

Answer 19

An atom with the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.

Question 20

What effect does changing an element’s number of neutrons have on its chemical properties?

Answer 20

There is no effect

Question 21

How does changing the number of neutrons affect the nucleus of an atom?

Answer 21

Has no effect on chemical properties but affects stability of nucleus

Question 22

What may unstable nuclei do?

Answer 22

It may be radioactive and deay over time into different nuclei that are more stable

Question 23

Comparatively, how much carbon do all living things contain?

Answer 23

All living things contain the same % of radioactive carbon-14

Question 24

What happens to carbon when something dies?

Answer 24

The amount of carbon-14 inside them decreases over time as it decays to stable elements.

Question 25

How can scienetists use carbon-14 to calculate the approximate age of archaelogical finds?

Answer 25

They use isotopic data to find the % of radioactive carbon-14 that’s left in the object.

Question 26

What is the specific charge of a particle?

Answer 26

The ratio of of its charge to its mass.

Question 27

What is the unit for the specific charge of a particle?

Answer 27

Coulombs per kilogram (C kg^-1)

Question 28

What is the calculation for specific charge?

Answer 28

Specific charge = charge / mass

Question 29

When do alpha emissions happen?

Answer 29

Only in very big nuclei like uranium and radium

Question 30

Why does alpha emission only happen in big nuclei?

Answer 30

Because the atoms are too massive for the strong nuclear forces to keep them stable.

Question 31

What happens to the atom when an alpha particle is emitted?

Answer 31

Proton number goes down by 2, nucleon number decreases by 4

Question 32

How can alpha’s range be observed?

Answer 32

Using a cloud chamber and observing the tracks left by the alpha

Question 33

What is beta-minus?

Answer 33

(AKA Beta) is the emission of an electron from teh nucleus along with an antineutrino

Question 34

When does beta decay happen?

Answer 34

In isotopes that are unstable due to being ‘neutrino rich’ and having too may more neutrons than protons.

Question 35

What happens when a nucleus ejects a beta particle?

Answer 35

One of the neutrons in the nucleus changes into a proton.

Question 36

What happens to the proton number when a beta particle is ejected?

Answer 36

It increases by 1.