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- Radioactivity and nuclear physics
- Nuclear decay and conservation
Section summary
- When a parent nucleus decays, it produces a daughter nucleus following rules and conservation laws. There are three major types of nuclear decay, called alpha
beta
and gamma
. The
decay equation is
- Nuclear decay releases an amount of energy
related to the mass destroyed
by
- There are three forms of beta decay. The
decay equation is
- The
decay equation is
- The electron capture equation is
-
is an electron,
is an antielectron or positron,
represents an electron’s neutrino, and
is an electron’s antineutrino. In addition to all previously known conservation laws, two new ones arise— conservation of electron family number and conservation of the total number of nucleons. The
decay equation is
is a high-energy photon originating in a nucleus.
Conceptual questions
Star Trek fans have often heard the term “antimatter drive.” Describe how you could use a magnetic field to trap antimatter, such as produced by nuclear decay, and later combine it with matter to produce energy. Be specific about the type of antimatter, the need for vacuum storage, and the fraction of matter converted into energy.
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What conservation law requires an electron’s neutrino to be produced in electron capture? Note that the electron no longer exists after it is captured by the nucleus.
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Neutrinos are experimentally determined to have an extremely small mass. Huge numbers of neutrinos are created in a supernova at the same time as massive amounts of light are first produced. When the 1987A supernova occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, visible primarily in the Southern Hemisphere and some 100,000 light-years away from Earth, neutrinos from the explosion were observed at about the same time as the light from the blast. How could the relative arrival times of neutrinos and light be used to place limits on the mass of neutrinos?
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Problems&Exercises
In the following eight problems, write the complete decay equation for the given nuclide in the complete
notation. Refer to the periodic table for values of
.
decay of
(tritium), a manufactured isotope of hydrogen used in some digital watch displays, and manufactured primarily for use in hydrogen bombs.
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decay of
, a naturally occurring rare isotope of potassium responsible for some of our exposure to background radiation.
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decay of
.
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Electron capture by
.
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decay of
, the isotope of polonium in the decay series of
that was discovered by the Curies. A favorite isotope in physics labs, since it has a short half-life and decays to a stable nuclide.
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decay of
, another isotope in the decay series of
, first recognized as a new element by the Curies. Poses special problems because its daughter is a radioactive noble gas.
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Questions & Answers
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Source:
OpenStax, College physics for ap® courses. OpenStax CNX. Nov 04, 2016 Download for free at https://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11844/1.14
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