Review questions from chapter 19.

1. Alpha particles are identical to A) protons. B) helium atoms. C) hydrogen

atoms. D) helium nuclei. E) electrons.

2. Beta particles are identical to A) protons. B) helium atoms. C) hydrogen

atoms. D) helium nuclei. E) electrons.

3. A radioisotope decays to give an alpha particle and Pb-208. What was the original
element? A) Se B) Bi C) Po D) Hg E) Rn

4. When atoms of beryllium-9 are bombarded with alpha particles, neutrons are produced.
What new isotope is also formed?
12 5 8 10 12
A) C B) Li C) Li D) B E) B
6 3 3 5 5

5. What is the missing symbol in this plutonium fission reaction?

239 1 97 1
Pu + n ______ + Sr + 3 n
94 0 38 0
148 0 143 91 146
A) Ba B) C) Xe D) Sr E) Ba
56 1 54 38 56

6. Radium-226 decays by alpha emission. What is its decay product?

228 222 230 226 224
A) Fr B) Rn C) Th D) Ac E) Po
87 86 90 89 84

7. Sulfur-35 decays by beta emission. The decay product is

35 34 31 34 35
A) P B) S C) Si D) Cl E) Cl
15 16 30 17 17

8. Complete and balance the nuclear equation 223

87 Fr 0
1 + ____ .

9. The mass of a nucleus is always less than the sum of the masses of the nucleons.
A) True B) False

10. What fraction of radioactive atoms remains in a sample after six half-lives? A) zero
B) 1/6 C) 1/16 D) 1/32 E) 1/64

11. If 12% of a certain radioisotope decays in 5.2 years, what is the half-life of this isotope?
A) 0.59 yr B) 1.7 yr C) 22 yr D) 28 yr E) 32 yr

12. Polonium-208 is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 2.90 years. How many milligrams of
polonium from an original sample of 2.00 mg will remain after 8.00 years? A) 0.147
mg B) 0.296 mg C) 0.725 mg D) 6.77 mg E) 1.90 mg

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 13. Carbon-11 is a radioactive isotope of carbon. Its half-life is 20.3 minutes. What
fraction of the initial number of carbon-11 atoms in a sample will remain after 81
minutes? A) 1/16 B) 1/4 C) 1/2 D) 1/32 E) 1/8

14. How old is a bottle of wine if the tritium (3H) content is 25% that of a new wine? The
half-life of tritium is 12.5 years. A) 0.25 yr B) 3.1 yr C) 25 yr D) 38 yr
E) 50. yr

15. The half-life of 14C is 5,730 yr. Assuming some charcoal from a campfire 29,000 years
old was found, what fraction of the original C14 would remain today? A) 3.0 102
B) 0.197 C) 3.51 D) 33.3 E) None of these.

16. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28.8 years. How much strontium-90 was present initially,
if after 144 years 10.0 g remain?

17. Complete and balance the nuclear equation 10

5 B + 42 He 137 N + ____ .

18. Compare nuclear reactions with chemical reactions in terms of the quantity of energy
released.

Answer Key
223
1. D 2. E 3. C 4. A 5. E 6. B 7. E 8. 88 Ra 9. A 10. E 11. D 12. B 13. A 14. C 15. A 16. 320 g
1
17. n 18. Nuclear reactions release far more energy (by a factor of 1 million or more) for
0
comparable amounts of reactants.

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