Atom Basics
.0005 amu
What is the mass of an electron?
Stored energy
Type of circuit in which electrons have multiple pathways to follow.
What is a parallel circuit?
Matter and energy given off from the nucleus of an unstable atom.
What is nuclear radiation?
The time it takes for half of a sample of a radioactive isotope to transmutate into an isotope that is no longer radioactive.
What is half-life?
Potassium-19 and potassium-20
What are isotopes?
Energy of motion
What is kinetic (or mechanical) energy?
The flow of electrons in an electrical circuit.
What is current?
Alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays.
What are the 3 types of nuclear radiation?
The act of one large radioisotope splitting into two smaller isotopes.
What is nuclear fission?
An atom has a mass of 32 and an atomic number of 16. How many neutrons does it have?
What is 16?
Some energy almost always leaves an energy system in this form.
What is heat?
Used to open and close circuits.
What is a switch?
Can be stopped by a sheet of paper.
What are alpha particles?
Two smaller isotopes combining to form one larger isotope.
What is nuclear fusion?
Atoms that lose electrons make these.
What are cations (or positive ions)?
Gravitational, chemical, and elastic are all types of this category of energy.
What is potential energy?
The potential difference between positive and negative charges that makes electricity flow.
What is voltage?
The process of radioisotopes decaying into non-radioactive isotopes.
What is transmutation?
Process that produces heat in nuclear power plants.
What is nuclear fission?
An atom that gains 3 electrons will have this charge.
What is negative 3?
The total kinetic and potential energy in a system.
What is mechanical energy?
A solution of water and dissolved ionic compounds that will conduct electricty.
What is an electrolyte?
If a radioisotope goes through alpha decay, this will happen to it's atomic mass and atomic number.
What is decrease by 4 and decrease by 2.
When the 3 neutrons that are given off in a nuclear fission reaction cause other radioactive atoms in the sample to split, it can result in this happening.
What is a nuclear chain reaction?