PHYS114 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Cathode Ray Tube, Flerovium, Particle Beam
25 Dec 2018
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Document Summary
A lot of the elements on the table aren"t naturally occurring, or are almost impossible to find. Much of this is due to heavy elements having highly radioactive isotopes that decay incredibly fast. Superheavies are made by colliding a beam of atoms (usually a noble gas) into a target of heavy atoms like lead, in the hope that the nuclei of the atoms will fuse and form a superheavy. Electron microscopes and scanning probe microscopes can actually be used to see" atoms (see slide 11 of section 4 notes). Nuclear shell theory , a field pioneered by glenn seaborg, looks to predict the stability of elements based on the number of protons and neutrons in an element. This theory predicted an island of stability , right about where element 114 would be on the periodic table, where there would be an element that was not only superheavy, but also had a super-stable nucleus.
