Nuclear Instability

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Nuclear Instability

Test your knowledge of nuclear instability

What school or college do you attend? *

Element type is determined by which of the following? *

1 point

Number of protons

Number of neutrons

Number of electrons

Which of the following describes beta (minus) decay? *

1 point

A proton in the nucleus is converted to a neutron, emitting a positron and neutrino

A neutron in the nucleus is converted to a proton, emitting an electron and antineutrino

A helium nucleus is emitted from a heavier unstable nucleus

The picture shows a plot of graph of N against Z, with the green region indicating the stable nuclides. It doesn't follow the N=Z line, why do you think that is? *

1 point

The strong nuclear force acts between protons and neutrons equally but the Coulomb force only acts between the protons

The Coulomb force acts between the neutrons more than the protons

The strong nuclear force only acts between the protons.

In alpha decay, how many protons and how many neutrons are removed from the decaying nucleus? *

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Four protons and two neutrons

Four neutrons and two protons

Two protons and two neutrons

Alpha decays can be used as a fingerprint to identify decays, why is this?

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The energy and velocity of the alpha particle is characteristic of the decay

The mass of the alpha particle is characteristic of the decay

The mass and velocity of the alpha particle is characteristic of the decay

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A sequence of unstable atomic nuclei and their modes of decays, which lead to a stable nucleus, is known as what? *

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A decay chain

A radiation chain

An element chain

Which of these describes how the number of radioactive nuclei in a sample decay as a function of time? *

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Exponential growth

Logistic decay

Exponential decay

When measuring the activity of a radioactive sample it is important to observe many decays in the experiment, why is this? *

1 point

It is not possible to predict exactly when an unstable nucleus will decay, so the experiment relies on observing many decays to reduce uncertainties

So the activity is large enough to measure

The nucleus might not decay correctly each time

An experiment is being undertaken to study “proton-rich” nuclei that have an imbalance in the ratio of protons and neutrons. Which of the following decay types do you think is most likely to be observed to rectify the imbalance in the nucleons ratio? *

1 point

Gamma decay

Beta positive decay

Beta negative decay

The half-life of an unknown nuclear sample is 5 years. If there are 200grams initially in the sample, how much will be left after 15 years?

1 point

25 grams

50 grams

67 grams

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