Particles and Radiation Flascards

Some flashcard with basic key facts relating to Particles and Radiation, part of the AQA AS Physics unit one.

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  • Created by: Bethany
  • Created on: 30-04-13 18:00
What makes up an atom?
Protons, Neutrons and Electrons. Protons and Neutrons are known as nucleons. Orbiting this core are electrons.
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What are the relative charges of protons, neutrons and electrons?
Proton - Positive +1, Neutron - Neutral 0, Electron - Negative -1
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What are the relative masses of protons, neutrons and electrons?
Relative mass of protons and neutrons = 1, electrons = 0.005
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What is an isotope?
Atoms with the SAME number of protons but DIFFERENT numbers of neutrons
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What does changing the number of neutrons do to an atom's chemical properties?
It doesn't affect the chemical properties but does affect the stability of the nucleus.
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At what distances is the strong nuclear force repulsive?
Very small seperations of nucleons (under 0.5fm)
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When does the strong nuclear force become attractive?
As nuclear seperation increases past about 0.5fm. Reaches a maximum and falls rapidly towards zero at 3fm.
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When does alpha emission occur?
In very big atoms with more than 82 protons (e.g. Uranium, radium)
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Why does alpha emission occur?
The nuclei of these atoms are just too big for the strong nuclear force to keep them stable.
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What happens when an alpha particle is emitted?
The proton number decreases by two, and the nucleon number decreases by fours
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What is beta-minus decay?
Emission of the electron from a nucleas along with an anti-neutrino
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In what type of isotope does beta decay occur?
Neutron rich isotopes (too many more neutrons than protons in their nucleus)
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What happens when a nucleus ejects a beta particle?
One of the neutrons is changed into a proton. The proton number increases by one, the nucleon number stays the same.
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What are hadrons?
Particles that feel the strong nuclear force. Also they are not fundamental (made up of quarks)
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What are the two types of hadrons?
Mesons and Baryons
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What do all baryons exept the protons decay into? Are they stable or unstable?
They are all unstable (exept protons) and all decay into protons (exept protons)
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What is the baryon number?
The number of baryons in an interaction. Baryons have baryon number +1, antibaryons -1. Other particles B=0. The total baryon number in an interaction never changes .
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What are leptons?
Fundamental particles that don't feel the strong nuclear force. They only really interact with other particles via the weak interaction.
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What types of lepton are there?
Electrons (very stable) and muons and taus ( just like heavy electrons). Muons and taus are unstable, eventually decaying into electrons.
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What are quarks?
The 'building blocks' of hadrons and mesons.
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What types of quarks are there?
Up, down and strange. You will find their charge, baryon number and stangeness on the data sheet. You only need two types of quark (u and d) to make protons and neutrons.
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What are anti-quarks?
Opposite properties to the corrosponding quark (e.g strange Charge = -1/3, anti-strange Charge = +1/3.
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What quarks are baryons made up of?
Baryons are made from THREE QUARKS. Proton = uud. Neutron = udd
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What quarks are mesons made up of?
Mesons are made up of a quark and and antiquark. Pions are made up of combinations of up, down, anti-up and anti-down quarks. Kaons have strangeness so include a strange (or anti-strange) quark as well.
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What can change the quark type?
The weak interaction. In beta minus decay a neutron is changed into a proton, so udd changes into udd. This means changing a d quark into a u quark.
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What four properties are conserved in particle interactions?
Always charge and baryon number. Strangeness is also conserved during strong interactions. The three type of lepton number also have to be conserved seperately.
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What is a gauge boson?
Gauge bosons are exchange particles. The repulsion between two protons is caused by the exchange of virtual photons, which are the gauge bosons of electromagnetic force. The only exist for a very short time.
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What are the guage bosons for each of the four fundamental forces?
Strong - gluon (affects hadrons only), electromagnetic - photon (charged particles only), weak - W+, W-, Z^0 (all types), gravity - graviton? (all types).
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What are the relative charges of protons, neutrons and electrons?

Back

Proton - Positive +1, Neutron - Neutral 0, Electron - Negative -1

Card 3

Front

What are the relative masses of protons, neutrons and electrons?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is an isotope?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What does changing the number of neutrons do to an atom's chemical properties?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

Comments

jacky2

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Thank you for this post. Keep up the good work. קבוצת גבאי

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