PROJECT IN

ADVANCE
PHYSICS
TH
4 GRADING

UBMITTED BY:
hristian Alejo
IV-Marconi

U R IC
S
Y
H
P S

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that

studies the constituents and interactions of
atomic nuclei. The most commonly known
applications of nuclear physics are nuclear
power generation but the research has provided
application in many fields, including those in
nuclear
medicine and magnetic
resonance
imaging, nuclear weapons, ion implantation in
materials
engineering,
and radiocarbon
dating in geology and archaeology.
The field of particle physics evolved out of
nuclear physics and is typically taught in close
association with nuclear physics.

c
e
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c
u
N
s
u

THE ATOM
Atom composed of negatively charged particles
called electrons orbiting around a positively
charged nucleus. Inside the nucleus are positively
charged particles called protons and electrically
neutral particles called neutrons, collectively called
as nucleons. All these three particles were
discovered in England: the electron by J.J.
Thomson in 1897, the proton by Ernest Rutherford
in 1919, and the neutron by James Chadwick in
1932.

An atom is normally represented as:

Z= the atomic number, which is the

number of protons
A= the mass number, which is the
number of protons plus the number
of neutrons.

THE NUCLEUS
The nucleus is the very dense region
consisting
of protons and neutrons at
the
center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911 as
a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation
of
the
1909
GeigerMarsden gold foil experiment.
The
protonneutron model of the nucleus was
proposed by Dmitry Ivanenko in 1932. Almost
all of the mass of an atom is located in the
nucleus, with a very small contribution from
the electron cloud.

THE SIZE OF THE NUCLEUS

The size (diameter) of the nucleus is between 1.6
fm (1015 m) (for a proton in light hydrogen) to
about 15 fm (for the heaviest atoms, such as uranium
). These sizes are much smaller than the size of the
atom itself by a factor of about 23,000 (uranium) to
about 145,000 (hydrogen). The nucleus has most of
the mass of an atom, though it is only a very small
part of it. Almost all of the mass in an atom is made
up from the protons and neutrons in the nucleus
with a very small contribution from the orbiting
electrons.

ETYMOLOGY
The
term nucleus is
from
the
Latin
word nucleus, a diminutive of nux ("nut"), meaning
the kernel (i.e., the "small nut") inside a watery type
of fruit (like a peach). In 1844, Michael Faraday used
the term to refer to the "central point of an atom".
The modern atomic meaning was proposed by
Ernest Rutherford in 1912. The adoption of the term
"nucleus" to atomic theory, however, was not
immediate. In 1916, for example, Gilbert N. Lewis
stated, in his famous article The Atom and the
Molecule, that "the atom is composed of the
kernel and an outer atom or shell"

THE PROTON AND NEUTRON

Protons and neutrons are fermions, with different
values of the strong isospin quantum number, so
two protons and two neutrons can share the same
space wave function since they are not identical
quantum entities. They sometimes are viewed as two
different quantum states of the same particle, the
nucleon. Two fermions, such as two protons, or two
neutrons, or a proton + neutron (the deuteron) can
exhibit bosonic behavior when they become loosely
bound in pairs.

In the rare case of a hyper nucleus, a third baryon

called a hyperon, with a different value of the
strangeness quantum number can also share the
wave function. However, the latter type of nuclei are
extremely unstable and are not found on Earth
except in high energy physics experiments.
The neutron has a positively charged core of
radius 0.3 fm surrounded by a compensating
negative charge of radius between 0.3 fm and 2 fm.
The proton has an approximately exponentially
decaying positive charge distribution with a mean
square radius of about 0.8 fm

FORCES
Nuclei are bound together by the residual strong
force (nuclear force). The residual strong force is a
minor residuum of the strong interaction which binds
quarks together to form protons and neutrons. This
force is much weaker between neutrons and protons
because it is mostly neutralized within them, in the
same
way
that
electromagnetic
forces
between neutral atoms (such as van der Waals forces
that act between two inert gas atoms) are much
weaker than the electromagnetic forces that hold the
parts of the atoms internally together (for example,
the forces that hold the electrons in an inert gas atom
bound to its nucleus).

BINDING ENERGY
Nuclear binding energy is the energy required to
split a nucleus of an atom into its component parts:
protons and neutrons, or, collectively, the nucleons.
The binding energy of nuclei is always a positive
number, since all nuclei require net energy to
separate them into individual protons and neutrons.

MASS DEFECT

Nuclear binding energy accounts for a noticeable

difference between the actual mass of an atom's
nucleus and its expected mass based on the sum of
the masses of its non-bound components.

Recall that energy (E) and mass (m) are related by

the equation:
E=mc2
Here, c is the speed of light. In the case of nuclei,
the binding energy is so great that it accounts for a
significant amount of mass.
The actual mass is always less than the sum of the
individual masses of the constituent protons and
neutrons because energy is removed when when the
nucleus is formed. This energy has mass, which is
removed from the total mass of the original particles.
This mass, known as the mass defect, is missing in
the resulting nucleus and represents the energy
released when the nucleus is formed.

Mass defect (Md) can be calculated as the

difference between observed atomic mass (mo) and
that expected from the combined masses of its
protons (mp, each proton having a mass of 1.00728
amu) and neutrons (mn, 1.00867 amu):

Md=(mn+mp)mo

NUCLEAR BINDING ENERGY

Once mass defect is known, nuclear binding
energy can be calculated by converting that mass to
energy by using E=mc2. Mass must be in units of kg.
Once this energy, which is a quantity of joules for
one nucleus, is known, it can be scaled into pernucleon and per-mole quantities. To convert to
joules/mole, simply multiply by Avogadro's
number. To convert to joules per nucleon, simply
divide by the number of nucleons.

Nuclear binding energy is also used to determine

whether fission or fusion will be a favorable process.
For elements lighter than iron-56, fusion will
release energy because the nuclear binding energy
increases with increasing mass. Elements heavier
than iron-56 will generally release energy upon
fission, as the lighter elements produced contain
greater nuclear binding energy. As such, there is a
peak at iron-56 on the nuclear binding energy curve.

NUCLEAR BINDING ENERGY CURVE

SAMPLE PROBLEM

Calculate
the
average
binding energy per mole
of
a
U-235isotope. Show your
answer in kJ/mole.

First, you must calculate the mass defect. U-235

has 92 protons, 143 neutrons, and has an observed
mass of 235.04393 amu.
Md=(mn+mp)mo
Md = [92(1.00728 amu)+143(1.00867 amu)] - 235.04393 amu

Md = 1.86564 amu

Calculate the mass in kg:

1.86564 amu x

1 kg
= 3.09797 x 10-27 kg
6.022141026 amu

Now calculate the energy:

E = mc2
E = 3.09797 x 10-27 kg x (2.99792458 x 108ms)2
E =2.7843 x 10-10 J

Now convert to kJ per mole:

2.78431010 Joules 6.021023 atoms 1kJ =

atom
mole
1000joules

1.6762 x 1011 kJ/mole

ADIOACTIV

DECAY

Radioactive
decay is
the
spontaneous breakdown of an
atomic nucleus resulting in the
release of energy and matter
from the nucleus.

Radioactive Elements
Element

Most Stable Isotope

Technetium
Promethium
Polonium
Astatine
Radon
Francium
Radium
Actinium
Thorium
Protactinium
Uranium
Neptunium
Plutonium
Americium
Curium

Tc-91
Pm-145
Po-209
At-210
Rn-222
Fr-223
Ra-226
Ac-227
Th-229
Pa-231
U-236
Np-237
Pu-244
Am-243
Cm-247

Half-life
of Most Stable Istope
4.21 x 106years
17.4 years
102 years
8.1 hours
3.82 days
22 minutes
1600 years
21.77 years
7.54 x 104years
3.28 x 104years
2.34 x 107years
2.14 x 106years
8.00 x 107years
7370 years
1.56 x 107years

Berkelium
Californium
Einsteinium
Fermium
Mendelevium
Nobelium
Lawrencium
Rutherfordium
Dubnium
Seaborgium
Bohrium
Hassium
Meitnerium
Darmstadtium
Roentgenium
Copernicium
Ununtrium
Flerovium
Ununpentium
Livermorium
Ununseptium
Ununoctium

Bk-247
Cf-251
Es-252
Fm-257
Md-258
No-259
Lr-262
Rf-265
Db-268
Sg-271
Bh-267
Hs-269
Mt-276
Ds-281
Rg-281
Cn-285
Uut-284
Fl-289
Uup-289
Lv-293;
Unknown
Uuo-294

1380 years
898 years
471.7 days
100.5 days
51.5 days
58 minutes
4 hours
13 hours
32 hours
2.4 minutes
17 seconds
9.7 seconds
0.72 seconds
11.1 seconds
26 seconds
29 seconds
0.48 seconds
2.65 seconds
87 milliseconds
61 milliseconds

1.8 milliseconds

ARBON DATIN

Carbon dating is a variety of

radioactive
dating which
is
applicable only to matter which was
once living and presumed to be in
equilibrium with the atmosphere,
taking in carbon dioxide from the air
for photosynthesis.

As soon as a living organism

dies, it stops taking in new
carbon. The ratio of carbon-12 to
carbon-14 at the moment of
death is the same as every other
living thing, but the carbon-14
decays and is not replaced. The
carbon-14 decays with its halflife of 5,700 years, while the
amount of carbon-12 remains

By looking at the ratio of carbon12 to carbon-14 in the sample and

comparing it to the ratio in a living
organism, it is possible to determine
the age of a formerly living thing
A formula
to calculate how old a sample
fairly
precisely.
is by carbon-14 dating is:
t = [ ln (Nf/No) / (-0.693) ] x t1/2
t = [ ln (Nf/No) / (-0.693) ] x
t1/2
where ln is the natural logarithm,
Nf/Nois the percent of carbon-14 in the
sample compared to the amount in living

So, if you had a fossil that had 10

percent carbon-14 compared to a
living sample, then that fossil would
be:
t = [ ln (0.10) / (-0.693) ] x
5,700 years
t = [ (-2.303) / (-0.693) ] x
5,700 years
t = [ 3.323 ] x 5,700 years
t = 18,940 years old

Because the half-life of carbon-14

is 5,700 years, it is only reliable for
dating objects up to about 60,000
years old. However, the principle of
carbon-14 dating applies to other
isotopes as well. Potassium-40 is
another
radioactive
element
naturally found in your body and
has a half-life of 1.3 billion years.

Other useful radioisotopes for

radioactive dating include Uranium
-235 (half-life = 704 million years),
Uranium -238 (half-life = 4.5 billion
years), Thorium-232 (half-life = 14
billion years) and Rubidium-87 (halflife = 49 billion years).
The use of various radioisotopes
allows the dating of biological and
geological samples with a high
degree
of
accuracy.
However,
radioisotope dating may not work so

Anything that dies after the

1940s,
whenNuclear
bombs,
nuclear
reactors
and
open-air
nuclear tests started changing
things, will be harder to date
precisely.

NUCLEAR
REACTION

Kinetic energy may be released

during the course of a reaction
(exothermic reaction) or kinetic
energy may have to be supplied for
the
reaction
to
take
place
(endothermic reaction). This can be
calculated by reference to a table
of very accurate particle rest
masses,[4]as follows: according to
the
reference
tables,
the6
3Linucleus has arelative atomic
massof
6.015atomic
mass

 Total rest mass on left side =

6.015 + 2.014 = 8.029 u
Total rest mass on right side = 2
4.0026 = 8.0052 u
Missing rest mass = 8.029
8.0052 = 0.0238 atomic mass
units.

In
a
nuclear
reaction,
the
total(relativistic) energy is conserved.
The "missing" rest mass must therefore
reappear as kinetic energy released in
the reaction; its source is the
nuclearbinding
energy.
Using
Einstein'smass-energy
equivalenceformulaE=mc,
the
amount of energy released can be
determined. We first need the energy
equivalent of oneatomic mass unit:

1uc=(1.660541027kg)(2.997921
08m/s)=1.492421010kg(m/s)=1.492
421010J(Joule
)(1MeV/1.602181013J)=931.49MeV,s
o1uc=931.49MeV.
Hence, the energy released is 0.0238 931
MeV = 22.2MeV.
Expressed differently: the mass is
reduced by 0.3%, corresponding to 0.3%
of 90PJ/kg is 300TJ/kg.

This is a large amount of energy for a

nuclear reaction; the amount is so high
because the binding energy pernucleon
of the helium-4 nucleus is unusually
high, because the He-4 nucleus is
"doubly magic". (The He-4 nucleus is
unusually stable and tightly bound for
the same reason that the helium atom
is inert: each pair of protons and
neutrons
in
He-4
occupies
a
filled1snuclear orbitalin the same way
that the pair of electrons in the helium
atom
occupy
a
filled1selectron

The energy released in a nuclear

reaction can appear mainly in one
of three ways:
kinetic energyof the product
particles
emission of very high
energyphotons, calledgamma
rays
some energy may remain in the
nucleus, as ametastableenergy
level.
When

the

product

nucleus

is

A small amount of energy may

also emerge in the form ofX-rays.
Generally, the product nucleus has
a different atomic number, and
thus the configuration of
itselectron shells is wrong. As the
electrons rearrange themselves
and drop to lower energy levels,
internal transition X-rays (X-rays
with precisely definedemission
lines) may be emitted.

RADIATION
AND YOU

Radiationis the emission or

transmission ofenergyin the form
ofwavesorparticlesthrough space
or through a material medium. This
includeselectro-magnetic
radiationsuch
asradio
waves,visible
light,
andxrays,particle radiationsuch as,,
andneutron
radiationandacousticradiation such
asultrasound,sound,
andseismic

Uses of radiation
In medicine
Radiation and radioactive substances are used
for diagnosis, treatment, and research. X-rays,
for example, pass through muscles and other
soft tissue but are stopped by dense materials.
This property of X-rays enables doctors to find
broken bones and to locate cancers that might
be growing in the body.Doctors also find certain
diseases by injecting a radioactive substance and
monitoring the radiation given off as the
substance moves through the body.Radiation
used for cancer treatment is called ionizing
radiation because it forms ions in the cells of the
tissues it passes through as it dislodges
electrons from atoms. This can kill cells or
change genes so the cells cannot grow. Other

In Communication
All modern communication systems use forms
of electromagnetic radiation. Variations in the
intensity of the radiation represent changes in
the sound, pictures, or other information being
transmitted. For example, a human voice can be
sent as a radio wave or microwave by making the
wave vary to correspond variations in the voice.
Musicians have also experimented with gamma
sonification, or using nuclear radiation, to
produce sound and music.

In Science
Researchers
use
radioactive
atoms
to
determine the age of materials that were once
part of a living organism. The age of such
materials can be estimated by measuring the
amount of radioactive carbon they contain in a
process calledradiocarbon dating. Similarly,
using other radioactive elements, the age of
rocks and other geological features (even some
man-made objects) can be determined; this is
calledRadiometric
dating.
Environmental
scientists use radioactive atoms, known astracer
atoms, to identify the pathways taken by
pollutants through the environment.
Radiation is used to determine the composition
of materials in a process calledneutron
activation analysis. In this process, scientists

RISK of RADIATION
If we consider the risk connected with ionising
radiation it is sensible to think first about the
risks which are more familiar to us. Almost every
activity brings some risk, sometimes even
deadly. In general terms we would quantify the
risk as something proportional to the probability
of a given accident and the result of the
accident expressed on a (0, 1) scale. In order to
make the situation simple, let us consider the
extreme case only: the risk of deadly sickness or
a death in an accident. We cross the road, drink
alcohol, smoke cigarettes, work in dangerous
conditions - in all cases there is some probability
of death. According to physicist Georg Marx, it
is convenient to use the termmicrorisk- the risk
that among 1 million people subjected to a given

Amicroriskis equivalent to:

travelling 2500 km by train
flying 2000 km by plane
travelling 80 km by bus
cycling 12 km
riding 3km on a motorbike
smoking one cigarette
spending two weeks in a room with a smoker
inhaling polluted air for 3 to 10 days
drinking half a litre of wine
working 1-5 weeks in a factory
climbing 1-5 minutes on high mountains
The risks we assume also depend on the places
we work. Working one year in a commercial
trade you encounter 10 microrisks, in a factory up to 100, in the transport industry - 400, in a