PHYSICS 3

PROBLEM SET 3
4TH QUARTER SY 2012-2013
Instructions:
This is your LAST PROBLEM SET. Yey!
Read and understand the questions. Solve all the problems carefully.
Put your answers in a filler notebook
Show all pertinent computations and ENCLOSE your final answer/s in a box.
Deadline: February 19, 2013 (4:30 PM)

is measured to be 85.2 Bq. (a) Calculate the decay constant and the half-life of the
sample. (b) How many radioactive nuclei were there in the sample initially?
7. Find the Q-values for the following reactions:
a)
b)
c)

H + 2H 3H + 1H + Q

H + 3H 4H + 1H + Q

Li + n 3H + 4H + Q

8. (a) Complete the following nuclear reaction: p + ?

32
16 S

+ . (b) What is the Q-value?

9. Find the energy needed to remove a neutron from (a) 4He and (b) 7Li.
1.

Fill in the missing particles or nuclei:

a) n +

137
56 Ba

? +

b) n + 137
56 Ba

137
55 Cs

d) + 147
79Au ? + d
32
15 P +

are produced in this reaction? (b) Calculate the energy release. The atomic masses for

+?

c) d + 21H 42H + ?
e) n + ?

133
98
10. Consider the fission reaction 235
92U + n 51 Sb + 41 Nb + ? n: (a) How many neutrons

Sb and Nb isotopes are 132.915250 u and 97.910328 u respectively.

11. How much energy is released when 238
92U absorbs a slow neutron ( 0) and
becomes 239
92U?

Where d stands for deuterium

12. A typical banana contains 400 mg of potassium, of which a small fraction is the
radioactive isotope 40
19K (m = 39.963999). Estimate the activity of an average banana

2. Fill in the missing particle or nucleus and indicate the type of decay.
a)

45
20 Ca

? + e +

b)

58
29Cu

? +

c)

46
24 Cr

d)

234
94Pu

e)

239
93Np

46
23 V

9
13. (a) What is the decay constant of 238
92 whose half-life is 4.5 10 ? (b) the decay

constant of a given nucleus is 8.2 105 1 . What is its half-life?

+?

? +

due to 40
19K.

239
94Pu

14.
+?

3. Calculate the radii of the following nuclei: (a) 16 O, (b) 56 Fe , (c) 197 Au
4. A certain source gives 2000 counts/s at time t = 0. Its half-life is 2.0 min. How many
counts/s will it give after (a) 4.0 min, (b) 6.0 min, (c) 8.0 min.
5. The counting rate from a radioactive source is 8000 counts/s at time t = 0, and
10 min later the rate is 1000 counts/s. (a) What is the half-life? (b) What is the decay
constant? (c) What is the counting rate after 20 min?
6. A sample of a radioactive isotope is found to have an activity of 115.0 Bq immediately
after it is pulled from the reactor that formed the isotope. Its activity 2 h 15 min later

124
35 Cs has a

half-life of 30.8 s (a) If we have 8.8 s initially, how many Cs nuclei are

present? (b) How many are present 2.0 min later? (c) What is the activity at this time?
(d) After how much time will the activity drops to less than about 1 per second?
6
5
15. The activity of a sample of 35
16 S (t 1 = 7.55 10 s) is 2.65 10 decays per second.
2

What is the mass of the sample?

16. What fraction of a sample of 68
32 Ge, whose half-life is about 9 months, will remain after
3.0 yr?
GOODLUCK!
Prepared by: GGCalis 2/13/2013