Show Menu
Cheatography
  1. Home >
  2. Education >

A-Level Physics - Nuclear Physics Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

AQA A-Level Physics Topic 8 - Nuclear Physics

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Rutherford scattering

This experiment demons­trated the existence of a small, dense and positi­vel­y-c­harged nucleus
Alpha particles were fired at thin gold foil, and a detector recorded how many particles are deflected at different angles
Alpha particles are the nucleus of a helium atom and are positively charged
Most of the particles went straight through = atom is mainly empty space
Some particles were deflected at different angles = positive nucleus at the centre
A small number were deflected straight back = the nucleus is small and is where the mass/c­harge of an atom is concen­trated

History of the atom model

Atomism - Democritus (All matter made of small indivi­sible particles called atoms)
Sphere model - Dalton (Atoms of the same element are identical, cannot be broken down and rearrange during reactions)
Plum Pudding Model - J.J. Thomson (Atom is a positive sphere with negative charges embedded in it)
Nuclear Model - Rutherford (Electrons orbit a positive nucleus in set, predic­table paths)
Planetary Model - Bohr (Electrons are arranged in specific orbits around the nucleus)
Quantum Model - Schröd­inger (An atom is surrounded by an cloud containing all the possible places an electron could be)
 

α, β and γ radiation

Radiation is where an unstable nucleus emits energy in the form of EM waves, or subatomic particles
It does this in order to become more stable