Chemical and Nuclear Reactions Quiz

What kind of building materials do you think fallout shelters were made of in order to provide adequate protection?

• Concrete and steel

• Wood and glass

• Plastic and rubber

• Cardboard

________ changes in matter occur when atoms gain, lose, and share valence electrons as bonds between compounds break and form. During these chemical reactions, the identities of the atoms do not change; the atoms simply ________ in order to form new compounds.

• Physical, rearrange

• Chemical, rearrange

• Biological, merge

• Chemical, dissolve

Nuclear reactions are different from chemical reactions. Nuclear reactions involve changes in the ________ of an atom, which is what you see represented here. In a nuclear reaction, atoms can gain and lose protons, neutrons, and electrons. As a result, the ________ of these atoms also change.

• chemical bonds

• nucleus

• electron shells

• atomic mass

There are other differences between chemical and nuclear reactions. For example, chemical reactions involve ________ changes in energy while nuclear reactions involve ________ changes in energy. Chemical reactions can be affected by changes in the temperature, pressure, and concentration of reactants and products. Nuclear reactions are not usually affected by these changes.

Nuclear reactions involve changes that occur ________ the nucleus of an atom, which contains protons and neutrons. Recall that isotopes, such as these isotopes of hydrogen, are atoms of the same element that contain the same number of protons, but ________ numbers of neutrons. Some isotopes are more stable than others.

• inside, different

• outside, same

• around, varying

• within, no

Hydrogen-1 and hydrogen-2 are stable, but hydrogen-3 is ________. The composition of a stable isotope’s atom remains constant over time while an unstable isotope’s nucleus changes in order to become stable. An unstable atom ________ various combinations of protons, neutrons, and electrons in order to become stable.

• radioactive; emits

• stable; absorbs

• heavy; attracts

• light; repels

For example, the nucleus of an unstable polonium-210 atom emits two protons and two neutrons to become a stable lead-206 nucleus. The types of particles and rays of energy that are released as the isotope stabilizes are known as ________. The process of emitting radiation is known as ________.

• alpha particles and nuclear fission

• beta particles and nuclear fusion

• gamma rays and radioactivity

• alpha particles and radioactivity

Ernest Rutherford, famous for his gold-foil experiment, also studied how electric fields affect radiation. Rutherford passed radiation between two electrically charged plates toward a zinc sulfide coated screen. In doing so, Rutherford discovered three different types of radiation, which he named __________, __________, and __________ radiation.

• alpha

• beta

• gamma

The radiation deflected by the positively-charged plate was called __________ radiation, named for the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Rutherford was able to determine that alpha radiation has a __________ charge since it was attracted toward the negative plate.

• alpha

• positive

Radioactive material emits alpha radiation when it releases an alpha particle made up of two __________ and two neutrons. Alpha particles are sometimes represented with the symbol for __________ because a helium nucleus also contains two protons and two neutrons. Alpha radiation has a charge of 2+.

• protons

• helium