TOPIC 9 Nuclear and Particle Physics (1st hour)

1. Which of the atomic particles has the least mass?

• electron
• proton
• neutron
• nucleon

2. The binding energy of a nucleus is contributed to

• radioactivity.
• alpha decay.
• too many neutrons.
• mass defect.

3. The binding energy per nucleon

• increases steadily as we go to heavier elements.
• decreases steadily as we go to heavier elements
• is approximately constant throughout the periodic table, except for very light nuclei.
• has a maximum near iron in the periodic table.

4. When an alpha particle is emitted from an unstable nucleus, the atomic mass number of the nucleus

• increases by 2
• decreases by 2.
• increases by 4.
• decreases by 4

5. In radioactive dating, carbon-14 is often used. This nucleus emits a single beta particle when it decays. When this happens, the resulting nucleus is

• still carbon-14.
• boron-14
• nitrogen-14.
• carbon-15.

6. In all three types of radioactive decay, what value is conserved in addition to electric charge, energy, and momentum?

• atomic number
• neutron number
• nucleon number
• none of the given answers

7. A proton is an example of

• a lepton.
• a meson.
• a baryon.
• a gauge boson.

8. What happens to the cyclotron frequency of a charged particle if its speed doubles?

• It triples.
• It doubles.
• It halves
• It does not change.

9. Hadrons are divided into two subgroups called

• baryons and leptons.
• leptons and mesons.
• mesons and baryons.
• nucleons and gauge bosons.

10. A quark is

• a constituent of a nucleon.
• a constituent of a hadron
• an elementary particle.
• all of the given answers