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Obsidian/302. NUCE 2100 - Fundamentals of Nuclear Engineering/2024-08-27 Introduction.md

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Introduction false 18:00 21:00 2024-08-27 null

Parts and things related to atoms

Four main components

  1. Electron
    1. Basically massless.
    2. Don't have a huge effect on the nuclear physics.
  2. Proton
    1. Do have mass!
    2. Determine what the element is.
  3. Neutron
    1. Are the fuel. Hit things fast
    2. Don't change element by number.
  4. Photon
    1. Don't really interact with matter
    2. Can actually be a safety concern. Can harm people.
  5. Bonus! Neutrino
    1. Basically no mass.
    2. Balance out the energy equations.
    3. Light :)

The nucleus is really, really small. For ^4 He , V_\text{nucleus} / V_\text{atom} = 2.6\times 10^-12

Atom Identification

^A_Z X

  • A is the atomic mass
  • Z is the atomic number
  • X is the element symbol Some examples: ^{235}_{92} U ^4_2 He ^1_1 H

Nuclide - A type of atom characterized by the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of every atom of this type Isotopes - Atoms with the same number of protons but containing different numbers of neutrons. Isotopic Abundance - The percentage of an element that is a certain isotope. Sometimes abbreviated (a/o) Atomic Weight - The average weight of all isotopes weighted by their prevalence.

*Atomic Weight of ^A Z = 12 \frac{m\left(^A Z\right)}{m\left(^{12}C\right)} . Atomic mass of Z is in the slides

Molecular weight is the total mass of a molecule relative to the mass of a neutral ^{12}C.

Mass and Energy Equivalence

Einstein famously showed that E = m c^2