Targets

The Alpha Particle

• consist of two protons and two
neutrons bound together into a
particle identical to a helium-4
nucleus.
• generally produced in the process of
alpha decay.
• commonly emitted by all of the
larger radioactive nuclei such as
uranium, thorium, actinium, and
radium, as well as the transuranic
elements.
 Ernest Rutherford
 30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937
 was a New Zealand-born
British physicist who came to be
known as the father of nuclear
physics.
 the greatest experimentalist
since Michael Faraday(1791–
1867)
Johannes Wilhelm "Hans" Geiger
 30 September 1882 – 24 September 1945
 was a German physicist.
 He is best known as the co-inventor of the
detector component of the Geiger counter
and for the Geiger–Marsden experiment
which discovered the atomic nucleus.
Sir Ernest Marsden
 19 February 1889 – 15 December 1970
 was an English-New Zealand physicist
 He is recognised internationally for his
contributions to science while working
under Ernest Rutherford, which led to
the discovery of new theories on the
structure of the atom.
 Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment

 A beam of -particles was

directed at a thin sheet of
gold-foil and the scattered
-particles were detected
using a small zinc
sulphide screen viewed
through a microscope in a
vacuum chamber.
Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment

 https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/rutherford-scattering/latest/rutherford-scattering_en.html
Possible paths of an α-particle near a nucleus. The nucleus and
the α-particle both experience electrostatic repulsion.
Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment
Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment
Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment
Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment
Alpha-particle Scattering Experiment
 Model of the Atom
 Protons and neutrons make up the
nucleus of the atom.
 The electrons move around the nucleus in
a cloud, some closer to and some further
from the centre of the nucleus.
 Approximate sizes

 Radius of proton – 0.80 femtometers (fm)

= fm = 1.0 x 10-15 m
 Atomic Review
• Protons & Neutrons – in nucleus (nucleons)
• Mass Number / Nucleon Number (A) = protons + neutrons
• Atomic Number (Z) = # of protons
• Neutron Number (N) = # of neutrons
• Electrons – orbit around nucleus
• A=N+Z

16

Section 10.2
Isotope – nuclei of
same element with
different number of
neutrons but the same
number of protons
 Unified Atomic Mass Unit (u)
• It is a unit of mass used to express atomic masses and molecular
masses
• defined as precisely 1/12 the mass of an atom of carbon-12.
• The carbon-12 (C-12) atom has six protons and six neutrons in its
nucleus.

g
Hydrogen - 1 = 1.007 u Carbon - 12 = 12 u
Worked Example
 Determine to three significant figures the mass in gram (g) of
1.0 mole of uranium-235 nuclei.
(Avogadro constant NA = 6.02 × 1023 mol−1.)
1 u = 1.6605 × 10−27 kg

Answer: 235 g
FUNDAMENTAL PARTICES
Fundamental Particles
 Quarks and leptons are the
elementary particles (building
blocks) of matter.
 Each particle also has an antimatter
counterpart.
 When matter collides with its
corresponding antimatter, the
particles annihilate and release
energy by mass-energy equivalence.
 Families of Particles
 Leptons are lighter particles and are not affected by strong force.
 ELECTRON
 A Muon is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric
charge of −1 e and a spin of 1/2, but with a much greater mass.
 Hadrons are the heaviest particles and are affected by strong
force
 Baryons are subatomic particles made up of three quarks.
 PROTONS & NEUTRONS
 Mesons are subatomic particles composed of one quark and one
antiquark.
 Quarks
 a type of elementary particle
and a fundamental
constituent of matter
 in 1964 Murray Gell-Mann
proposed a set of rules based
on symmetries in the
fundamental forces of nature.
• quarks have charges of less than the fundamental charge, e.
• quarks are never found outside a hadron.
• The quarks combine so that the resulting hadron will have a charge of e
or a multiple of e.
 Antiquarks are shown with a
‘bar’ on top of the letter for
the quark.
Targets
• Show an understanding of the nature
and properties of α,β and γ radiations
• describe the changes to quark
composition that take place during β–
and β+ decay
Antoine Henri Becquerel
 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908
 was a French engineer, physicist,
Nobel laureate, and the first person to
discover evidence of radioactivity.
 For work in this field he, along with
Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, received
the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.
 The SI unit for radioactivity, the
becquerel (Bq), is named after him.
 Forces in the
Nucleus
 Strong Nuclear Force -responsible
for keeping the protons and neutrons
in a atomic nucleus together (acts over
a short range of 3 fm)
 Weak Nuclear Force - responsible for
decay interactions (such as beta
decay) and interactions where
strangeness is not conserved or where
quarks change flavour (or type).
 experienced by both hadrons and
leptons.
Types of Radiation
 Alpha Radiation
• Unstable nucleus emits 
particle
• Highly ionising
• Mass of parent is greater than
mass of daughter plus 
particle
• The ‘lost’ mass has become
energy (Most of KE carried away
by  particle)
 Alpha Radiation
• Unstable nucleus emits 
particle
• Highly ionising
• Mass of parent is greater than
mass of daughter plus 
particle
• The ‘lost’ mass has become
energy (Most of KE carried away
by  particle)
 Beta Decay
• Involves conversion of proton to
neutron or vice-versa
• Involves the weak nuclear force
• KE carried away by
1
0 → 1
+ −
electron/antineutrino
n 1p e ( ) or
+
positron/neutrino
1 (v)+pair
1
1p→ 0n+ e + 
 Beta-minus Decay
• a neutron turns into a proton.
• It emits an electron and an antineutrino.
• The atomic number goes up by one and the mass number stays the same.
 Beta-plus Decay
• a proton turns into a neutron.
• It emits an positron and a neutrino.
• proton number decreases by 1; nucleon number remains the same..

quarks
Balanced Equations
 Radioactive decay processes
can be represented by
balanced equations. As with all
equations representing
nuclear processes, both
nucleon number A and proton
number Z are conserved.
Worked Example
Write balanced equations for the nucleus of radon-220
decays by α emission to form an isotope of polonium, Po.
 What happens when matter
meets antimatter?

they annihilate each other

and two gamma ray photons
are produced and the two
masses become pure energy!
Matter and antimatter particles are always produced as a pair and, if they come in
contact, annihilate one another, leaving behind pure energy (photons).
 Gamma (γ) Decay
• Gamma rays are emitted because the atom is usually in a
high energy state after emission of alpha or beta particles.
• This unstable state is made stable by emission of gamma
ray photons.
• No change in A or Z results
 Energy in β decay
 The graph shows that the β-particles
have a wide range of energies.
 (1930) Wolfgang Pauli, suggested that
another particle carries off some of the
kinetic energy. The particle was
detected 1956.
 The particle has no charge and virtually
no rest mass (much less than an
electron) and barely interacts with
matter at all.
 Electron antineutrino / neutrino
 Deflection of α, β and γ rays in electric and magnetic fields

+
Deflection in electric field Deflection in magnetic field

 α-ray shows small deflection in an upward direction;

 β-ray shows a larger deflection than that of alpha ray, and in a downward
direction;
 γ-ray shows no deflection.
 Penetrating Power
 The diagram below shows the apparatus used to deduce the
penetrating abilities of α, β and γ radiations.