nuclear physics

Question 1

four fundamental forces

Answer 1

electromagnetic
strong nuclear force
weak nuclear force
gravitational force

Question 2

how does the alpha-scattering experiment provide evidence for a dense nucleus

Answer 2

few alpha particles bounce back

Question 3

what is an atom made of

Answer 3

protons
neutrons
electrons

Question 4

what letter is typically associated with proton number

Answer 4

Z

Question 5

what is a nucleon

Answer 5

a particle that makes up the nucleus

Question 6

what is an isotope

Answer 6

atoms of an element with same number of protons and a different number of neutrons

Question 7

what is the strong nuclear force

Answer 7

force which holds the nucleus together. must overcome electrostatic repulsive force between protons

Question 8

range of strong force

Answer 8

repulsive up to 0.5fm
attractive up to 3fm

Question 9

true or false, every particle has an anti-particle

Answer 9

true

Question 10

difference between particle and anti-particle

Answer 10

charge

Question 11

similarity between particle and anti-particle

Answer 11

mass

Question 12

antiparticle of electron

Answer 12

positron

Question 13

what is a hadron

Answer 13

type of particle effected by the strong nuclear force

Question 14

what are hadrons made of

Answer 14

quarks

Question 15

what are the two classes of hadrons

Answer 15

baryons
mesons

Question 16

two examples of baryons

Answer 16

protons and neutrons

Question 17

what are leptons

Answer 17

fundamental particles which aren’t subject to the strong nuclear force

Question 18

2 examples of leptons

Answer 18

muon
neutrino

Question 19

three types of quarks

Answer 19

up
down
strange

Question 20

quark composition of protons

Answer 20

uud

Question 21

quark composition of neutrons

Answer 21

udd

Question 22

what is beta minus decay

Answer 22

when a neutron turns into a proton, the atom releases an electron and an anti-electron neutrino

Question 23

what quantities must be conserved during the decay of particles

Answer 23

charge
mass
baryon and lepton numbers

Question 24

what features of a nucleus might cause it to radioactively decay

Answer 24

too heavy
too much energy

Question 25

order alpha beta gamma in order of the most ionising

Answer 25

alpha beta gamma

Question 26

in beta plus decay, how does the atomic number change

Answer 26

it decreases

Question 27

what is the activity of a source

Answer 27

number of radioactive decays per second (measured in becquerels).

Question 28

what happens when a particle and its corresponding anti-particle meet

Answer 28

annihilate each other and release two gamma rays in order to conserve momentum

Question 29

what is pair production

Answer 29

when a gamma ray has enough energy to produce a particle and its anti-particle

Question 30

what is binding energy

Answer 30

energy required to split a nucleus into its constituent parts

Question 31

what is a chain reaction

Answer 31

when exactly one neutron from each decay goes on to cause another decay

Question 32

how is nuclear waste disposed of

Answer 32

first stored in cooling ponds