10 questions🇬🇧English
☢️ Radioactive Decay & Half-Life – GCSE
Physics · GCSE — alpha, beta and gamma radiation, nuclear equations and half-life calculations
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Questions
Which type of nuclear radiation is stopped by a single sheet of paper?
Gamma
Beta
Neutron
Alpha
20s
What is an alpha particle made of?
Four protons and no neutrons
Two protons and two neutrons
Two protons and two electrons
One fast-moving electron
20s
What is meant by the half-life of a radioactive isotope?
Time for half the unstable nuclei in a sample to decay
Time for a single nucleus to lose half its mass
Time for the mass of the whole sample to halve
Half the time it takes for all the nuclei to decay
20s
Which type of nuclear radiation is the least ionising?
Alpha
Beta
All three are equally ionising
Gamma
20s
Which of these is a natural source of background radiation?
Nuclear power station accidents
Medical X-rays
Nuclear weapons testing
Radon gas from rocks
20s
In beta decay, what happens inside the nucleus?
A proton turns into a neutron and an electron
Two protons and two neutrons leave the nucleus
A neutron is ejected from the nucleus
A neutron turns into a proton and an electron
30s
Fruit is irradiated with gamma rays to kill bacteria. What is true about the fruit afterwards?
It stays radioactive for one half-life
It is not radioactive
It is radioactive and emits gamma rays
It is contaminated with gamma rays
30s
A sample has a count rate of 800 counts per minute. Its half-life is 2 hours. What is the count rate after 6 hours?
267 counts per minute
100 counts per minute
200 counts per minute
50 counts per minute
30s
Uranium-238 (atomic number 92) emits an alpha particle. What are the mass and atomic numbers of the new nucleus?
Mass number 234, atomic number 92
Mass number 234, atomic number 90
Mass number 236, atomic number 90
Mass number 238, atomic number 93
30s
An isotope has a half-life of 3 days. How long does its activity take to fall from 640 Bq to 40 Bq?
48 days
9 days
15 days
12 days
60s