Part A: Which of the following statements best explains why alpha emission is relatively common, but...

Part A:

Which of the following statements best explains why alpha emission is relatively common, but proton emission is extremely rare?

Alpha particles occur in the nucleus.

Alpha particles are the nuclei of an inert gas.

Alpha particles are very stable because of magic numbers of protons and neutrons.

An alpha particle has a higher charge than a proton.

Part B:

Which statement best explains why nuclear transmutations involving neutrons are generally easier to accomplish than those involving protons or alpha particles?

Neutrons are not a magic number particle.

Neutrons are smaller than protons or alpha particles.

Neutrons are attracted to the nucleus even at long distances, whereas protons and alpha particles are repelled.

Neutrons do not have an electrical charge.

Solutions

Expert Solution

Part A

The option c that talks about the magic number comes closest to the reason why Alpha particles are so stable in general.

Alpha particles, when emitted have 2 neutrons and 2 protons in their nucleus. This is highly symmetric and have a very high binding energy. These factors go a long way in ensuring the stability of the emitted alpha particle.

In the case of a proton emission, it is very unstable for a charge to exist as it is, implying that a lone charged particle is generally very unstable and would look to quickly combine with its opposite pair.

Part B

Neutrons are neutral particles that do NOT carry any charge hence are never repelled by the target nucleus when nuclear transmutation reactions are being performed.

If neutron had a positive charge, it'd have been repelled by the protons in the nucleus. Electrons would've repelled the neutron if it was negatively charged. It can easily be seen why the neutrality of neutron is the reason for its high success rate in nuclear transmuation reactions.

I hope this has helped. In case the answer is unclear, please feel free to leave a comment. I will be more than glad to help you out.

queen_honey_blossom answered 1 year ago

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