Nuclear physics involves understanding atoms through experiments like Rutherford's gold foil experiment which showed that atoms have a small, dense nucleus surrounded by empty space. Radiation like alpha, beta, and gamma rays is used in applications such as cancer treatment, electricity generation, and radiocarbon dating which relies on the radioactive decay of carbon-14 to determine the age of ancient materials.

1. Nuclear Physics

2. Shortcut to AtomicBombTest

3. RADIATION ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION NUCLEAR RADIATION RADIO LIGHT IR UV X ray ALPHA particles BETA particles GAMMA rays

4. Using Nuclear Radiation

5. Cancer Therapy

6. Electricity Production

7. Smoke Detectors

8. Sterilisation

9. Radiocarbon Dating

10. Radioactive Tracers

11. Thickness Monitoring

12. Understanding Atoms Our understanding of what’s inside atoms has developed in the last 200 years……..

13. The Dalton Model In about 1810, James Dalton decided that matter was made of tiny, solid , spherical particles called atoms.

14. He introduced the idea of atoms as elementary particles.

15. Electron microscope picture of Carbon Atoms

16. Thomson’s Model of the Atom In 1897, JJ Thomson discovered electrons, and suggested that the atom was a solid sphere of positive charge with electrons stuck in it like plums in a plum pudding.

17. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2–19 Rutherford's Experiment On α-Particle Bombardment of Metal Foil Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2–19 Rutherford's Experiment On α-Particle Bombardment of Metal Foil Thomson’s Model

18. The Rutherford Model

19. Rutherford’s Experiment In 1909, Ernest Rutherford wanted to carry out an experiment to test Thomson’s Model. We can’t see inside an atom with our eyes, but he wanted to “see” inside.

20. “ Seeing” inside things……

21. “ Seeing” inside things……

23. “ Seeing” inside things……

24. He managed to “look inside” the atom by firing tiny particles called alpha particles at a thin gold foil to see how the alpha particles were deflected by the atoms of gold. Alpha particles are the same as Helium nucleii, they are emitted from some radioactive atoms.

25. detector Rutherford’s Gold Foil Experiment

26. What they expected to happen: GOLD FOIL

27. What did happen: GOLD FOIL

28. This is what they expected to happen Thomson Model They expected to see small or no deflection of the alpha particles This is what did happen Rutherford model

29. Expected Results Actual Results

30. Rutherford’s Experiment (1911) Results: Most particles go straight through. Some particles are deflected from straight path. A few even go backwards Interpretation: Most of the atom is empty space. nucleus must be positive , very dense , more massive than alpha particles. Negative electrons orbit the nucleus, but are much lighter

31. Rutherford’s Atom

32. Scale of the atom. If an atom was enlarged to the size of a stadium, the nucleus would be the size of a plum . The electrons would be the size of match heads wizzing around the stands. The rest is empty space

33. Size of the Atom An atom is roughly 10 -10 m in diameter This means a full stop is roughly ten million atoms across. A small nucleus is roughly 10 -15 m in diameter This is 1/100,000 ths the diameter of the atom

34. Fundamental Forces What are the only two Fundamental Forces you are familiar with? Gravity Electric

35. How Do You Make An Atom? Why don’t the electrons fall into the nucleus?

36. Physicists realised the nucleus was made of two types of nucleons . Protons and Neutrons. What stops them flying apart? The strong nuclear force!!! extension… Now we’ll look closer at the nucleus

37. Nuclear Notation A nucleus can be described by two numbers: Atomic or charge number (number of protons) ( Z ) Determines the nature of the atom and the element Mass or nucleon number (Number of protons plus neutrons) ( A ) e.g.

38. Isotopes : Atoms of an element with different number of neutrons e.g.

39. Radioactive Decay Nuclei that have too much energy are unstable. They become more stable by firing out some nuclear radiation There are three types of radioactive decay……

41. Write the equation for the alpha decay of Radium to Radon Alpha Decay

42. Beta Decay

43. Beta Decay Write the equation for the beta decay of radium into actinium This is what causes beta decay beta decay is when a nucleus fires out an electron…

45. Gamma Decay Write the equation for the gamma decay of…… A gamma ray is a high energy photon emitted from a nucleus

46. Ionisation When alpha particles collide with atoms, they can knock electrons off. This will produce a positive ion and a free electron.

47. Positive ion

48. Sorting by Absorption Paper 1mm Lead

49. Sorting with a Magnetic Field Identify each type of radiation

50. Half Life The half life of an isotope is the time taken for half of a sample to decay into another isotope. OR, the time taken for the activity of a sample to halve. The shorter the half life, the less stable it is. e.g. Uranium 238: 4,500 MY Radon 218 0.04 s link to half life 1

51. Radioactivity and Probability Radioactivity is all about chance. You can’t say when a certain nucleus will decay, but it might have a 1 in 10 chance of decaying in the next 5 seconds. For the example above: 1000 nuclei  100 decays in 5s 100 nuclei  10 decays in 5s

52. This means there are more decays when there are more nuclei. A shorter half life means a greater probability of a decay occurring

53. e.g Beryllium 11 decays to Boron 11 with a half life of 14 s So If you have 16g of Beryllium 11 now , after 14 s you will have 8g etc. link to half life 2 8g 4g 2g 1g 56 42 28 14 16g 0 Amount of B Time(s)

54. Berillium amount Time 16 g Now 8 g after one half life 4 g after two half lifes 1 HL 2 HL 3 HL 4 HL Boron amount

55. Note that the total mass of the sample is about the same , because as the Beryllium decays, it doesn’t disappear, it changes into Boron. The Boron is still there.

56. Sample Question. A radioactive isotope has a half life of 3 years. A 5 g sample of the isotope produces 30 decays per sec. What will the decay rate of a 1 g sample be in 9 years time?

57. Carbon Dating This image shows the Shroud of Turin. It was supposedly the cloth that Christ was buried in. Is it real or a medieval fake???

58. In the Atmosphere, cosmic rays hit Nitrogen 14 changing it to Carbon 14. The Carbon 14 decays with a half life of 6300 years. So a small fraction of CO 2 molecules contain Carbon 14. This is taken in by plants, and hence animals. When the organism dies, The Carbon 12 stays the same, the Carbon 14 decays. By measuring the ratio of C14 to C12, the time since it was alive can be calculated

59. Back to the shroud. The ratio of C14 to C12 showed it was about 800 years old!!! Final question. A wooden axe handle has a ratio of C14 to C12 that is 1/8 times the ratio for new wood. How old is it?

60. NCEA type question Describe the Dalton model of the atom Explain the evidence for the Thomson model Explain the evidence for the Rutherford model

61. (a) Cobalt-60 undergoes radioactive decay.. Show how the decay of cobalt-60 ( ) results in nickel-60 ( ).

62. (a) A smoke detector contains radioactive americium  241 which emits radiation. Complete the following equation to identify the radiation emitted. Explain why the radiation given out by the americium is unlikely to do any harm to the people living inside the house.

63. The alpha particles ionise atoms in the air. Explain what this means.

64. Estimate the half-life of americium-241.

65. (b) Radon-212 ( ) is a radioactive gas. Show that when radon-212 undergoes alpha decay, polonium is formed. Radon-212 decays with a half-life of 24 minutes. If you start with 96 mg of radon-212, find the approximate mass of polonium-208 two hours later. Why is the actual mass less than your calculation?

66. State what an alpha particle is. 12 years beta particle hydrogen-3 24 minutes beta particle uranium-239 less than 1 second alpha particle polonium-213 138 days alpha particle polonium-210 74 days gamma ray iridium-192 6 days gamma ray technetium-99 Half-life Type of radiation emitted Isotope

67. Two isotopes of polonium are given in the table. How do the nuclei of these two isotopes differ? 12 years beta particle hydrogen-3 24 minutes beta particle uranium-239 less than 1 second alpha particle polonium-213 138 days alpha particle polonium-210 74 days gamma ray iridium-192 6 days gamma ray technetium-99 Half-life Type of radiation emitted Isotope

68. A doctor needs to monitor the blood flow through a patient’s heart. She injects a radioactive isotope into the patient’s bloodstream. Explain why she would choose technetium-99 instead of the other isotopes listed in the table above. 12 years beta particle hydrogen-3 24 minutes beta particle uranium-239 less than 1 second alpha particle polonium-213 5 seconds gamma ray Strontium 91 74 days gamma ray iridium-192 6 days gamma ray technetium-99 Half-life Type of radiation emitted Isotope