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CAIE
23. Nuclear physics
23.1 Mass defect and nuclear binding energy
- understand the equivalence between energy and mass as represented by E = mc2 and recall and use this equation
- represent simple nuclear reactions by nuclear equations of the form 7N He O H
- define and use the terms mass defect and binding energy
- sketch the variation of binding energy per nucleon with nucleon number
- explain what is meant by nuclear fusion and nuclear fission
- explain the relevance of binding energy per nucleon to nuclear reactions, including nuclear fusion and nuclear fission
- calculate the energy released in nuclear reactions using E = c 2 ∆m
23.2 Radioactive decay
- understand that fluctuations in count rate provide evidence for the random nature of radioactive decay
- understand that radioactive decay is both spontaneous and random
- define activity and decay constant, and recall and use A = λN
- define half-life
- use λ = 0.693/t 1 –
- understand the exponential nature of radioactive decay, and sketch and use the relationship x = x0e–λt , where x could represent activity, number of undecayed nuclei or received count rate