CHEM 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Ernest Rutherford, Beta Particle, Alpha Particle
Document Summary
Chem 102: general descriptive chemistry ii - lecture 25: intro to nuclear. Isotopes: two nucleons protons and neutrons, number of protons = atomic number, protons + neutrons = mass number, different number of neutrons in atoms, example, 3 naturally-occurring isotopes of uranium, uranium-234, uranium-235, uranium-238. Radioactivity: arises because some nuclei are unstable, they attempt to regain stability by emitting particles. Loss of a gamma ray: high-energy radiation that almost always accompanies the loss of a nuclear particle. Radioactive series: a helium nucleus is the same thing as an alpha particle, note: just the nucleus, not the whole atom. Large radioactive nuclei cannot stabilize by undergoing just 1 nuclear transformation: they undergo a series of decays until often they reach lead. Energy in nuclear reactions: tremendous amount of energy stored in nuclei, e = mc2, relates to calculation of this energy, c is the speed of light, m is the mass change, e is change in energy.
