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CAIE A-Level Physics 11.1.6 Conservation in Nuclear Processes

Practise conserving nucleon number and electric charge to check or complete nuclear equations, decay chains and missing particles or products.

Syllabus
2028–2030
Course
Physics 9702
Level
AS

Exam points

  • apply conservation of nucleon number and charge to check or complete a nuclear process
  • use conserved proton and nucleon numbers to identify missing particles or products in a nuclear equation

11.1.6—Nucleon number and charge are conserved in nuclear processes question 1

[Maximum number: 1]

Two vertical metal plates are separated by a distance d in a vacuum, as shown in Fig. 7.1.

Fig. 7.1 (not to scale)

Fig. 7.1 (not to scale)

The potential difference (p.d.) between the plates is V. A nucleus with charge +q is initially at rest on plate X . The nucleus is accelerated by the uniform electric field from plate X along a horizontal path to plate Y .

The nucleus is carbon- 14(614C)14\left({ }_{6}^{14} \mathrm{C}\right). This nucleus decays to form a new nucleus by releasing a β−\beta^{-}particle and only one other particle of negligible mass.

Calculate the nucleon number and the proton number of the new nucleus.

 nucleon number =  proton number = \begin{aligned} & \text { nucleon number = } \\ & \text { proton number = } \end{aligned}
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