Lecture 12: Nuclear Physics

I/ Reading passage
Explaining fission and fusion
In both fission and fusion, unstable nuclei have become more stable. Energy is released. In
order to explain these processes, we need to be able to say where this energy comes from. One answer
lies in the origins of the nuclei we are considering. Take, for example, uranium. The earth’s crust
contains uranium. In some places, it is sufficiently concentrated to make it worth while extracting it for
use as the fuel in fission reactors. This uranium has been part of the Earth since it was formed, 4500
million years ago.
The Earth formed a swirling cloud of dust and gas, at the same time that the Sun itself was
forming. These materials condensed under the force of gravitational attraction. But where did they
come from in the first place? It is believed that heavy elements (such as uranium) were formed in a
supernova. At some time in the distance past, an aging star collapsed and then blew itself apart in an
explosion of awesome scale. At the very high temperatures that resulted, there was sufficient energy
available for light nuclei to fuse to form the heaviest nuclei, which we now find if we dig in the Earth’s
crust. It is this energy, from an ancient stellar explosion, that is released when a large nucleus
undergoes fission.
We can extend this explanation by asking: How can we calculate the amount of energy released
in fission or fusion? To find the solution to this, we need to think first about the masses of the particles
involved.
We will start by considering a stable nucleus, 12C6 . This consists of six protons and six
neutrons, fortunately for us, because we have a lot of this form of carbon in our bodies, this is a very
stable nuclide. This means that the nucleons are bound tightly together. It takes a lot of energy to pull
them apart.
Consider the following simple experiment. On the left-hand side of a balance is a 12C6 nucleus.
On the right-hand side are six photons and six neutrons, the result of dismantling the nucleus. The
surprising thing is that the balance is tipped to the right. The separate nucleons have more mass than
the nucleus itself. This means that the law of conservation of mass has been broken. We have violated a
fundamental law of nature, something that was held to be true for hundreds of years.
Notice that, in dismantling the nucleus, we have had to do work. The nucleons attract one
another with nuclear forces and these are strong enough to make the nucleus very stable. So we have
put energy in to the system to pull the nucleus apart. Where has this energy gone?
At the same time, we have the mystery of the appearing mass. There is more mass when we
have pulled the nucleons apart than when they are bound together.
You probably already know that these two problems, disappearing energy and appearing mass,
can be solved together. We say that ‘energy has turned to mass’. If we let the separate protons and
neutrons recombine to make a 6C12 nucleus, the extra mass will disappear and the missing energy will
be released. This mass-energy conversion explains where the energy comes from in a nuclear fusion.
A better way to express this is to treat mass and energy as aspects of the same thing. Rather than
having separate laws of conservation of mass and energy, we combine these two. The total amount of
mass and energy together in a system is constant. There may be conversions from one to the other, but
the total amount of mass plus energy remains constant.
(From Basic Physics 1 and 2 by David Sang)
Exercise 1: Answer the following questions by referring to the reading passage
1. What happens in both processes of fission and fusion?
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2. What is assumption of the origin of the dust and gas formed by the Earth?
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3. What must be done first to calculate the amount of energy released in fission and fusion?
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4. Why does it take a lot of energy to pull the nucleons in a 12C6 apart?
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5. How has the law of conservation of mass been broken?
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6. What makes the nucleus strongly stable? The significance of this?
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7. What exactly explains where the energy released in a nuclear fusion comes from?
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8. If we combine the two separate laws of conservation of mass and energy, what name do you think
would be given to the common law?
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Exercise 2: Contextual reference (dealing with words in bold type one by one)
1. ‘These processes’ in line 2 refers to
a. the processes of fusion and fission
b. the process of releasing energy
c. both of the above

2. ‘it’ in line 4 refers to

3. ‘these materials’ in line 9 refers to

4. ‘it’ in line 10 refers to

5. ‘this’ in line 18 refers to

6. ‘them’ in line 23 refers to

7. ‘a fundamental law of nature’ in line 29 refers to

8. ‘these’ in line 31 refers to

Exercise 3: Decide whether each of the following sentences is true or false. Write (T) for the true
ones, (F) for the false ones and (N) for the ones with no information to justify
1. ………….Energy is released in both fusion and fission and we call it extra energy.
2. ………….Without uranium, the earth could not have formed.
3. ………….Uranium was first discovered 4.500 years ago.
4. ………….Uranium has the heaviest nuclei of all elements,
5. ………….The calculation of the amount of energy released in fission or fusion requires considering
the masses of the particles involved.
6. ………….Due to strong nuclear forces among the nucleons in the carbon nucleus, pulling them apart
requires much energy.
7. ………….The separate nucleons of carbon actually have more mass than the nucleus itself.
8. ………….The nucleus is stable thanks to the strong nuclear forces among the nucleons.
9. ………….The extra mass is actually the energy that we put in to the system to pull the nucleus apart.
10. ………….The total amount of mass plus energy of the same object is constant.
KEY TERMS
(Capacitor, Alchemist, Strong interaction, Beta particle, Radioactive nuclei, Nuclear fission,
Positron, Nuclear fusion, Gamma emission, Chain reaction, Macro world , Background radiation,
Nucleus, Breeder reactor, Micro world, Gamma ray, Stable atom, Beta decay, Nuclear reactor,
Secular equilibrium, Parent nucleus, Quarks and leptons, )
1 .......................... (n): a scientist in the Middle Ages who tried to discover how to change ordinary
into gold. To alchemize (v); alchemy (n) the process of alchemizing.
2. .......................... (n): the natural radiation from radioactive elements and cosmic rays in our
environment.
3. .......................... (n): The process in which either an electron or a positron is emitted from a
radioactive nucleus.
4. ........................... (n): An electron or a positron.
5. .......................... (n): A nuclear reactor which produces nuclear fuel as a byproduct of its fission
reaction.
6. .......................... (n): An electric component that has an appreciable capacitance. It consists of at
least one pair of conductors, or of a conductor plus semiconductor. Each is separated by a dielectric (an
insulator). For most types of capacitor, the value of the capacitance depends on the geometry of the
device and the electrical properties of the dielectric, which may be solid, liquid, or gaseous. The
capacitance may be fixed or a variable value.
7. .......................... (n): When one event triggers other similar events, which in turn trigger others, and
so on.
8. ............................ (n): The process in which a nucleon of a radioactive nucleus moves to a lower-
energy state and emits gamma ray.
9. ............................ (n): A high-energy photon, released when a proton or a neutron moves to a lower-
energy state in a nucleus.
10. ............................. (n): the world of study concerning with things of large size and scope.
11. .............................. (n): the world of study concerning with things of very small in size and
scope.
12. .............................. (n): The splitting of a nucleus.
13. .............................. (n): The building of a larger nucleus from a smaller ones.
14. ............................... (n): A device using nuclear fission to generate heat that may be used to
generate electric power.
15 ...............................(n): The tiny center of an atom composed of protons and neutrons (thus having a
positive charge) and containing almost all of the atom’s mass.
16. ............................. (n): A nucleus that decays to form a different nucleus which is called the
daughter nucleus.
17. .............................. (n): A particle with the mass of an electron but with an opposite charge to the
electron’s charge. The antiparticle of the electron.
18. ................................ (n): believed to be the most elementary particles today, the particles that make
up all the other known particles.
19. ................................ (n): Unstable nuclei that emit either gamma rays or particles in the act of
losing energy to be come more stable.
20. ................................ (n): whenever the amount of a radioactive isotope remains constant because
nuclei are being added to the isotope at the same rate at which nuclei are disintegrating.
21. ................................ (n): An atom whose nucleus is stable, that is, un-changing in time
(unlessdisrupted by an external source).
22. ................................ (n): The short-ranged but extremely strong attractive force between the
nucleons of the nucleus.

II. Translate into Vietnamese: “THE HISTORY OF ANTIMATTER I, II” in “English in Physics
I” page 26.