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Chapter 11: Q8CQ (page 517)

Certain nuclei with half-lives between days and a few years are found in nature in small abundances that do not change at all over many, many years. How is this possible? (Hint: Natural uranium and thorium have very long half lives.)

Short Answer

Expert verified

The nuclei quickly decay because of their short half-lives, there could exist other heavier nuclei with high abundance.

Step by step solution

01

Given data

Unchanged abundance nuclei with half-lives between days and a few years.

02

Concept of   particle

Alpha particles are composite particles consisting of two protons and two neutrons tightly bound together.

03

Explanation of the unchanged abundance nuclei

Although these certain nuclei quickly decay because of their short half-lives, there could exist other heavier nuclei with high abundance, such as uranium and thorium decaying into them during long period of time to replenish their abundance and thus keep their abundance stable for a long time

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Most popular questions from this chapter

In electron spin resonance, incoming electromagnetic radiation of the proper (resonant) frequency causes the electron’s magnetic moment to go from its lower-energy, or “relaxed,” orientation, aligned with the external field, to its higher-energy anti-aligned state. MRI is analogous. A quantity commonly discussed in MRI is the ratio of the frequency of the incoming radiation to the external magnetic field. Calculate this ratio for hydrogen. Note that the proton gyromagnetic ratio, gp, is 5.6 .

The binding energy per nucleon is helium-3 is 2.57 MeV/nucleon. Assuming a nucleon separation of 2.5 fm, determine (a) the gravitational potential energy per nucleon, and (b) the electrostatic energy per proton between the protons. (c) What is the approximate value of the internucleon potential energy per nucleon? (d) D these results agree with the table11.2?

The semi empirical binding energy formula predicts the binding energies of neon-20, iron- 56, and uranium-238 within about 1\%. Make a 3×9 table whose rows are the three isotopes, whose first four columns are numerical values of the four tennis in the formula, whose next four columns are each of these terms divided byA, and whose final column is the sum of the preceding four. Discuss in some detail what the table reveals.

Exercise 19 notes that the energy needed to remove a neutron fron helium-4 is 20.6 MeV

(a) Show that the energy required to remove a proton is 19.8 MeV.

(b) Why do these values disagree with the BE/nucleon value shown for helium-4 in Figure 11.14?

Two deuterons can fuse to form different products. Although not the most probable outcome, one possibility is helium-4 plus a gamma particle. Calculate the net energy released in this process.
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