Radioactivity and Nuclear Physics
This pathway explores radioactivity and nuclear physics including the structure and properties of a nucleus and the forces that govern the behavior of the nucleus, including the weak force and the strong force. This explains that interactions can be described by forces, such as the strong force between nucleons holding the nucleus together. The pathway also discusses the conservation laws associated with nuclear physics, such as conservation of energy, conservation of charge, and conservation of nucleon number and the processes that can be described using conservation laws. Also explored in this pathway are the consequences of charge conservation during radioactive decay and during interactions between nuclei, and how conservation of nucleon number determines which nuclear reactions can occur. Types of nuclear radiation, radioactivity, and the binding energy of a nucleus are explained. In addition, the pathway explores how probability can describe the behavior of quantum mechanical systems and the process of radioactive decay, which can be described by probability theory. Examples demonstrating spontaneous radioactive decay as a probabilistic statistical process are provided, making a connection between modeling matter with a wave function and probabilistic description of the microscopic world.
Topics
- radioactivity and nuclear physics
- radioactivity
- nuclear physics
- nuclear radioactivity
- radiation detection
- radiation detectors
- substructure of the nucleus
- nuclear decay
- conservation laws
- half-life and activity
- half-life
- binding energy
- tunneling