Beta decay

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Flashcards on Beta decay, created by lthistlewood2013 on 29/07/2014.
lthistlewood2013
Flashcards by lthistlewood2013, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by lthistlewood2013 over 10 years ago
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Question Answer
What are the two largest forces acting on the particles in a nucleus? The strong nuclear force (between all nucleons) and electromagnetic force (protons only).
What is the range of repulsion of the strong nuclear force? The strong nuclear force becomes repulsive when nucleons are separated by less than 0.5 fm.
What is the range of attraction of the strong nuclear force? The strong nuclear force is attractive for particle separations of between 0.5 fm and 3 fm.
Explain how we know there must be a strong nuclear force. The forces that we know about from our experience of the world (gravitation and electromagnetism) cannot hold the protons together in the nucleus together because gravitation, although attractive, is tiny in comparison to the extremely large repulsion due to the electromagnetic force.
Sketch a graph to show how the strong nuclear force changes with nucleon separation, marking on any key distances.
What is a beta minus particle also known as? An electron
Why does a nucleus undergo nuclear decay? Nuclei are likley to decay if they are unstable.
How do the nucleon and proton numbers of a nucleus change in alpha decay? During alpha decay, the nucleon number decreases by 4, and the proton number decreases by 2.
What particles are emitted during beta minus decay? An electron and an electron antineutrino.
What type of nuclei will undergo beta minus decay? Nuclei are likely to undergo beta minus decay if they have too many neutrons compared with stable nuclides of the same element. (Having too few neutrons makes the nucleus likely to undergo beta plus decay.)
Describe the changes in the nucleus of an atom when it undergoes beta-minus decay. During beta minus decay, a neutron decays into a proton, electron and antineutrino. The proton remains within the nucleus, increasing its proton number by one. The nucleon number of the nucleus is unchanged. The electron and antineutrino are emitted from the nucleus.
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