Student Exploration: Nuclear
Reactions
[Note to teachers and students: This Gizmo was designed as a follow-up to the Nuclear
Decay
Gizmo. We recommend doing that activity before trying this one.
Vocabulary: chain reaction, CNO cycle, catalyst, deuterium, electron volt, fission, fusion,
isotope, nuclear reaction, positron, positron emission, proton-proton chain
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
The chart to the right gives the isotope
name, element name, number of protons, and Isotope Protons Neutrons
number of neutrons of three isotopes. Hydrogen-1 1 0
1. What do you notice about the isotope Carbon-12 6 6
number and the sum of protons and Uranium-235 92 143
neutrons?
They all vary in numbers
2. The element symbol for uranium-238 is . This means U-238 has a total mass of 238
and contains 92 protons. Write the element symbols for the isotopes in the table:
Hydrogen-1 1/1 H Carbon-12 12/6 C Uranium-235 235/92 U
This study source was downloaded by 100000862985256 from CourseHero.com on 03-07-2023 06:45:44 GMT -06:00
2019
, Gizmo Warm-up
The Nuclear Reactions Gizmo simulates a particle accelerator.
Particle accelerators speed up atoms to very high velocities, then
crash the atoms together with enough energy to cause changes called
nuclear reactions. There are three particle beams available in this
Gizmo, protons, neutrons, and helium-3 nuclei.
1. Click Fire Proton to engage the first particle beam.
What happens? A positron flew out
2. Colliding particles don’t always react. Click Reset, and then click Fire neutron.
A. Does a reaction occur? no
B. Explain: the fire neutron flew through
This study source was downloaded by 100000862985256 from CourseHero.com on 03-07-2023 06:45:44 GMT -06:00
2019
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