When you have completed this chapter you should be able to: 1. Discuss the connection between the Rutherford experiment and the modern picture of atomic structure.
2. Distinguish between nucleon and nuclide and between atomic number and mass number.
3. State in what ways the isotopes of an element are similar and in what ways they are different.
4. Describe the various kinds of radioactive decay and explain why each occurs.
5. Define half-life.
6. Discuss the sources and hazards of the ionizing radiation we are exposed to in daily life.
7. Explain the significance of the binding energy of a nucleus.
8. Draw a graph of binding energy per nucleon versus mass number and indicate on it the location of the most stable nucleus and the range of mass numbers in which fusion and fission can occur.
9. Discuss nuclear fission and the conditions needed for a chain reaction to occur.
10. Describe how a nuclear reactor works.
11. Discuss the good and bad features of nuclear reactors as energy sources.
13. Describe nuclear fusion and identify the conditions needed for a successful fusion reactor.
14. Compare a particle with its antiparticle.
15. Describe the process of annihilation and pair production.
16. List the four fundamental interactions and identify the aspects of the universe that each governs.
17. Distinguish between leptons and hadrons and discuss the quark model of hadrons.