A discussion on systematics of nuclear properties are presented. Mass, mass excess, and mass distribution within the nucleus is presented. Mass excess data are used to calculate energies in decays. Equations for determining nuclear radii are provided. Models that are used to describe the stability of nuclei are introduced. Nuclear shapes and structures are introduced.
Finished the lecture powerpoint and quiz. Determining mass excess and energies of different reactions for the quiz was straight forward. The binding energy curve also helped me understand why certain atoms are used for fission versus fusion. I will be reading the text to reinforce my understanding and work on some problems.
ReplyDeletethanks for the comments. Let me know if more examples would be useful.
DeleteAt first, this course was a little bit of an informational overload. At least, that's how chapter 1 came across. But now I've worked out that I just have to read the text before watching the lecture and come to my own conclusions and then the videos just sort of reinforce those ideas. Overall, the ideas seemed pretty simple, albeit, a bit redundant. The general form made it seem more complicated then it actually turned out to be. I still have a bit more reading to do; it takes me forever since I take notes as I read, but I'm almost done!
ReplyDeletelecture 1 is an overview of the course. In the future I will stress this. You do not have to know all the terms in lecture 1. they will be discussed in detail during the course.
DeletePDF quiz 2 was assigned on the 21st but I still can't access it. Other than that, the lecture was fun and really helped me understand the concepts of fusion and fission.
ReplyDeletenot sure why there is an issued with pdf quiz 2.
DeleteFinished listening to lecture and submitted the quiz. When I was trying to use the Q-calculator for problem 3, 3.1 was fine, but the calculator wouldn't work for me on 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4. I computed them using the mass excess from the Nuclear Wallet Card website.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a bug in the Q value calculator. I have a lecture on this posted at: http://radchem.nevada.edu/classes/chem312/Lect%202%20Nucl%20prop.html
DeleteIt is the Q value calculator overview. This should answer your questions.
Got it. Listened to it and see where I went wrong. Looked at my hand calculated value and while mostly in the right ball park the thousandths place for those values are off.
DeleteFinished the lecture and currently reading the book, I find that It's more helpful just to look up the various Q values for each isotope
ReplyDeletethanks for the comments.
DeleteFinished the lecture, turned in the quiz. I hand calculated some of the Q values and compared them to the Q calculator values. That helped me understand the concept a bit better.
ReplyDeletesometimes you will get different Q values due to variations in databases.
DeleteFinished the lecture and submitted the quiz. Using the Q value calculator was straightforward. It was interesting to see that nuclei can be measured through particle deflection.
ReplyDeletethe Q value calculator will be used a bit in the course
DeleteDone with the lecture and quiz. Really enjoyed both and feel that my understanding of nuclear properties is much better than prior.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching a documentary about the universe discussing the fusion that occurs inside of stars. It mentioned that stars reached their death phase once they began to fuse iron and now I understand why. The binding energy curve shows iron to be the end of the line for fusion and the transition into fission. It also explains why we are going after hydrogen fusion as a possible energy source. It is the most cost effective option available.
we will discuss more stellar reactions for formation of elements
DeleteAlso I noticed that if I input "n" or "p" or even "alpha" into the Q-value calculator I can get the mass excess values for a neutron, proton or 4He respectively. Neat.
ReplyDeletegreat to see you are exploring the program!
DeleteI finished the lecture and submitted the quiz. Thanks for the video explaining how to use the Q calculator. I definitely would have been lost without it. It was interesting to see how this class ties into some of the things we learned in P Chem.
ReplyDeletegreat to hear the connection with P chem. the additional lecture is based on feedback from previous classes.
DeleteI have completed the assignment due today. With the tools made available in this course the Q-value calculator was easy to use.
ReplyDeletethanks. I am glad the web tools are helpful.
DeleteAfter using the Q calculator to answer the quiz, I took a look at the table of isotopes to compare Q values given. It made me wonder why the Q values for each type of decay was given only in the Q calculator and the table of isotopes only gave one or two
ReplyDeletethe table of the isotopes will give data only for the primary decays. The q value calculator will give data for any possible reaction.
DeleteI just finished watching the lectures and reading the material. Overall I have found reading before hand makes the videos much more enjoyable and easier to understand!
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment and keep pre-reading the material.
Deletesorry for the late comment but I was a little thrown off by the representation of mass as energy on the atomic level.
ReplyDeleteE=mc^2 in its application is very cool. thanks for the comment, even if it late.
DeleteI went back to look at the slides on the mass parabola. Just to clarify, are the mass differences that are referred to in the figure 2-7 on slide 16 the same as mass excess between the isobars? I'm also curious as to why only the two isobars on the bottom are considered stable on slide 17 when some of the other isobars in the chart also have even proton/even neutron counts. Is it just because those two are listed as B-stable?
ReplyDelete