Download Topic 7 Atomic and Nuclear Physics

Topic 7 Atomic and Nuclear Physics
Glossary of terms:
Nuclide:
A particular combination of protons and
neutrons that form a nucleus.
Isotope:
Nuclei with the same number of protons but
different numbers of neutrons.
Nucleon:
A particle found in the nucleus (i.e. a proton
or neutron).
Nucleon number (A)
The number of protons plus neutrons in a
nucleus
Proton number (Z):
The number of protons in a nucleus.
Neutron number (N):
The number of neutrons in a nucleus.
Radioactive half-life:
The time taken for half the original nuclei in
a sample to decay.
Artificial (induced) transmutation:
The change of a nucleus from one form to
another due to the bombardment of a
material with high energy particles.
Unified atomic mass unit:
One atomic mass unit is defined as being
one twelfth the mass of a carbon-12 atom.
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2
(1amu = 1.66 x 10 kg = 931.5 MeV/c )
Mass defect:
The difference between the rest mass of an
atomic nucleus and the sum of the rest
masses of its individual nucleons in the
unbound state.
Binding energy:
The amount of work required to pull apart
the constituent particles in a nucleus.
Binding energy per nucleon:
The binding energy of a nucleus divided by
nucleon number of the nucleus. The
binding energy per nucleus gives the
average energy lost by each nucleon when
brought together to form the nucleus. Topic 13 Quantum & Nuclear Physics (SL Option B)
Glossary of terms:
Decay constant:
The probability of a specified nucleus decaying in
one second.
Equations SL:
Equations AHL (SL opt B):