Unit 3 - Energy

Question 1

What is Mechanical Work?

Answer 1

In science, mechanical work is done when a force displaces an object

Question 2

Is there such things as positive and negative work?

Answer 2

Yes, negative work is done when it opposes the work that is being done (like friction)

Question 3

How do you graph work on a position-time graph?

Answer 3

The amount of work done is the area of the shape

Question 4

What is Kinetic Energy?

Answer 4

the amount of energy that is possessed by moving objects

Question 5

What is the Work-Energy Principle?

Answer 5

the amount of work that is done on an object is equal to it’s change in energy

Question 6

What is Gravitational Potential Energy?

Answer 6

the energy that is stored in on object due to it’s position on Earth

Question 7

What is Thermal Energy?

Answer 7

the total amount of motion of the particles in a substance

Question 8

What is the Law of Conservation of Energy?

Answer 8

energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is simply absorbed or distributed

Question 9

What is Energy Efficiency

Answer 9

the amount of useful energy produced in contrast to the total amount of energy that is put into the system

Question 10

What is Nuclear Fission vs. Nuclear Fusion?

Answer 10

Nuclear Fission is making the nuclei of an atom smaller, Nuclear Fusion is making two nuclei into a larger nucleus

Question 11

What is Power?

Answer 11

the rate at which energy is transformed

Question 12

What is Temperature vs. Thermal Energy

Answer 12

Thermal energy is the total amount of energy (kinetic and potential), temperature is the average amount of kinetic energy in particles

Question 13

What is the Kinetic Molecular Theory?

Answer 13

states that all particles in a substance are in motion, it relates temperature of a substance to the magnitude of particle motion

Question 14

What is Conduction?

Answer 14

thermal energy transfer through direct contact, moving particle bump into each other

Question 15

What is Convection?

Answer 15

thermal energy transfer through a convection current

Question 16

What is Radiation?

Answer 16

thermal energy transfer through electromagnetic waves, these waves can go through anything (even in a vacuum)

Question 17

What is Heat capacity?

Answer 17

the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1kg of substance by 1ºC

Question 18

What is the Principle of Thermal Energy Exchange?

Answer 18

thermal energy is always transferred from the substance with more thermal energy to the substance with less thermal energy

Question 19

What is Latent Heat vs. Specific Latent Heat

Answer 19

Latent heat is the amount of energy absorbed or released when a substance changes state. Specific Latent Heat is a fixed number

Question 20

Why is Water pretty special?

Answer 20

ice floats in water, this is because cold water molecules form themselves into a lattice structure and cause the ice to expand a little

Question 21

What are Isotopes

Answer 21

isotopes of the same element have different number of neutrons

Question 22

What is Radioactivity

Answer 22

when the nucleus of an atom spontaneously disintegrates

Question 23

What are Radioisotopes

Answer 23

unstable isotopes that could change it’s nuclear structure without notice

Question 24

What is Radioactive Decay

Answer 24

the process of a radioactive atom’s nucleus breaks apart and forms different atoms

Question 25

What's Transmutation

Answer 25

when the parent atom is different from the daughter atom in a nuclear decay process

Question 26

What is Alpha Decay

Answer 26

an isotope emitting an alpha particle (helium nucleus with 2 protons and 2 neutrons)

Question 27

What is Beta-Positive Decay

Answer 27

a protons will split into a neutron and positron and the positron will be released into the wild (the beta particle)

Question 28

What is Beta-Negative Decay

Answer 28

a neutron will split into an electron and proton and the electron will be released into the wild (the beta particle)

Question 29

What is Electron Capture?

Answer 29

a form of beta decay where an electron is absorbed into the nucleus and combines with a proton into a neutron

Question 30

What is Gamma Decay?

Answer 30

a photon (high energy gamma ray) is emitted from the nucleus while the atom is in an excited state

Question 31

What is Carbon Dating?

Answer 31

calculating the mass of carbon -14 and carbon-12 to find out how old a substance is

Question 32

Why use Carbon-12 and Carbon-14?

Answer 32

they are the most common isotopes found in plants, and thus flow through the good chain

Question 33

What is a Mass Defect?

Answer 33

the calculated mass of an atom is different from the actual mass

Question 34

What is the Law of Conservation into Mass-Energy

Answer 34

mass can transform into energy and energy into mass, the total mass-energy will remain constant

Question 35

What is Binding Energy?

Answer 35

the energy used to hold a nucleus together

Question 36

How does a CANDU Reactor work?

Answer 36

uses natural uranium which is mostly U-328 but 0.72%U-235.

Question 37

What is a Proton-Proton Chain?

Answer 37

occurs in smaller stars, four protons fuse to form a helium-4 atom. 2 protons become a neutron and positron

Question 38

What is the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen Cycle?

Answer 38

occurs in larger tars, a carbon -12 atom undergoes many reactions to form carbon-12 and helium-4

Question 39

What is Nuclear Stability?

Answer 39

nuclear stability tells us that the optimal conditions for nuclear fusion to occur are with very light nuclei.