2. Stable and Unstable Nuclei Flashcards
What are the four forces that affect the nuclues?
Gravitational, Strong Nuclear Force, Weak Nuclear Force and Electromagnetic
How does the Electromagnetic force affect the nucleus
The electromagnetic force has an infinite range, and is responsible for the attraction of Electrons to a positive nucleus, however it also repels protons from each other, so another force is needed to balance this out.
How does the Strong Nuclear Force affect the nucleus?
The strong nuclear force has a range of around 3fm (3*10^-15), but it has two properties, at a distance of around 0.5fm the SNF will instead have a repulsive force, keeping the atom from imploding on itself, while at a range from 3fm, it will have an attractive force, keeping the atom together, It is responsible for the stability of an atom.
How does the Gravitational Force affect the nucleus
The gravitational force counteracts the Electromagnetic force, and attracts all the nucleons together due to their mass.
What is Nuclear Decay?
Nuclear decay is the process of unstable nuclei emitting particles to become more stable
where does Alpha decay occur?
Alpha decay occurs in very big atoms, more than 82 protons are needed for this to occur
Why does Alpha decay occur only in big atoms?
Alpha decay happens only in big atoms due to the range of the Strong Nuclear force being too small to be able to keep the atom together.
How does Alpha decay occur?
When a nucleus undergoes Alpha decay, it will emit an alpha particle, a radioactive particle which contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons
What is Beta-minus decay?
Beta-minus decay is the emission of an electron from the nucleus along with an antineutrino particle.
Where do Beta-minus decays occur?
Beta-minus decays occur in “neutron rich” isotopes, which are isotopes which have too many neutrons compared to protons in their nucleus.
What occurs in the process of Beta-minus decay?
In Beta-minus decay, an electron with an antineutrino is emitted from an atom, but during this process a neutron changes into a proton, causing the nucleus to gain one to its proton number while keeping the same nucleon number.
