GCSE PHYSICS - Revision Questions - Radioactivity - Isotopes - Alpha - Beta - Gamma - Half-life - Carbon Dating - Cancer - Safety - Fission - Nuclear Power

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Decay - Nucleus - Isotope
1	What is a Decay?	Answer
2	During Radioactive Decay, what can a Nucleus Emit?	Answer
3	Is Radioactive Decay a Random Process?	Answer
4	What are the Three Types of Radioactivity called?	Answer
5	What does the Nucleus of an Atom contain?	Answer
6	What is the Atomic Number?	Answer
7	What is the Mass Number?	Answer
8	What is an Isotope?	Answer
9	How can a Nucleus be Unstable?	Answer
10	How can an Unstable Nucleus change into a More Stable form?	Answer
11	What is a Radioactive Isotope?	Answer
12	What is a Radionuclide?	Answer

Alpha Particles
13	What does an Alpha Particle consist of?	Answer
14	How is an Alpha Particle written?	Answer
15	Does an Alpha Particle have More Mass than a Beta Particle?	Answer
16	Does an Alpha Particle have More Penetrating Ability than a Beta Particle?	Answer
17	Is an Alpha Particle More Ionising than a Gamma Ray?	Answer
18	What happens to the Mass Number when an Alpha Particle is emitted?	Answer
19	What happens to the Atomic Number when an Alpha Particle is emitted?	Answer
20	What is a Decay Series?	Answer

Beta Particles
21	What is a Beta Particle?	Answer
22	Where does a Beta Particle come from?	Answer
23	What is the Charge on a Beta Particle?	Answer
24	How is a Beta Particle written?	Answer
25	Does a Beta Particle have More Mass than an Alpha Particle?	Answer
26	Does a Beta Particle have More Penetrating Ability than an Alpha Particle?	Answer
27	Is a Beta Particle More Ionising than a Gamma Ray?	Answer
28	What happens to the Mass Number when a Beta Particle is emitted?	Answer
29	What happens to the Atomic Number when a Beta Particle is emitted?	Answer
30	What does a Neutron in the Nucleus become when a Beta Particle is emitted?	Answer

Gamma Rays
31	What is a Gamma Ray?	Answer
32	What is the Charge on a Gamma Ray?	Answer
33	How is a Gamma Ray written?	Answer
34	Does a Gamma Ray have More Mass than an Alpha Particle?	Answer
35	Does a Gamma Ray have More Penetrating Ability than an Alpha Particle?	Answer
36	Is a Gamma Ray More Ionising than a Beta Particle?	Answer
37	What happens to the Mass Number when a Gamma Ray is emitted?	Answer
38	What happens to the Atomic Number when a Gamma Ray is emitted?	Answer
39	What happens to the Nucleus when a Gamma Ray is emitted?	Answer

Penetrating Ability - Ionising Ability - Detection - Background Count
40	What is Penetrating Ability?	Answer
41	What does Penetrating Ability depend on?	Answer
42	What type of Radioactivity will be Stopped by Paper?	Answer
43	What type of Radioactivity will be Stopped by Air?	Answer
44	What type of Radioactivity will be Stopped by Aluminium?	Answer
45	What types of Radioactivity are called Ionising Radiation?	Answer
46	How can Radioactivity form Ions?	Answer
47	What does the Ability of Radioactivity to form Ions depend on?	Answer
48	What does Radioactivity do to Photographic Film?	Answer
49	What is a Film Badge?	Answer
50	What Windows are used in a Film Badge?	Answer
51	What does a Geiger-Muller Tube Detect?	Answer
52	What Gas is used to fill a Geiger-Muller Tube?	Answer
53	What is a Becquerel?	Answer
54	What is Background Radiation?	Answer
55	Name two Places where Background Radiation comes from.	Answer
56	Why is the Background Count not Constant?	Answer
57	How can you get an Accurate Reading for the Background Count?	Answer

Half-life - Radiodating - Carbon Dating
58	What is a Definition of Half-life?	Answer
59	What does it mean if Nuclei are Stable?	Answer
60	Can a Half-life be Less than one Second?	Answer
61	Can a Half-life be More than one Billion Years?	Answer
62	How can Half-life be measured from a Graph of Count Rate against Time?	Answer
63	If a Count Rate is 544 Bq now, what is it after 15 Hrs if the Half-life is 3 Hrs?	Answer
64	If a Count Rate is 2016 Bq now, and 63 after 35 Days, what is the Half-life?	Answer
65	What is Radiodating?	Answer
66	How old is a Rock with 1 K-40 (Half-life 1·3 Billion Years) to 3 Ar-40?	Answer
67	What is Carbon Dating?	Answer
68	Where does Carbon-14 in the Environment come from?	Answer
69	What are Archaeological Specimens?	Answer
70	Name two Things which can be Dated using Carbon Dating.	Answer
71	Name one Thing which can not be Dated using Carbon Dating.	Answer

Thickness Control - Smoke Detector - Tracer
72	What type of Radioactivity would be used in the making of Aluminium Foil?	Answer
73	Would the Radioactivity used to make Aluminium Foil have a Long Half-life?	Answer
74	What type of Radioactivity would be used in a Smoke Detector?	Answer
75	How does the presence of Smoke make the Detector set off the Alarm?	Answer
76	What is a Radioactive Tracer?	Answer
77	What type of Radioactivity could Detect a Leak in an Underground Pipe?	Answer
78	Would the Radioactivity used to Detect a Leak have a Long Half-life?	Answer
79	What type of Radioactivity could be Injected into Blood?	Answer
80	Would the Radioactivity Injected into Blood have a Long Half-life?	Answer

Sterilisation - Cancer - Safety Precautions
81	What is Sterilisation?	Answer
82	What type of Radioactivity would be used in Sterilisation?	Answer
83	Give one Example of the use of Radioactivity for Sterilisation.	Answer
84	What is a Mutation?	Answer
85	How can a Mutation lead to Cancer?	Answer
86	What does Exposure mean?	Answer
87	What does Intensity mean?	Answer
88	What is External Radiation?	Answer
89	Are all forms of External Radiation Harmful?	Answer
90	Which form of External Radiation is Least Harmful?	Answer
91	What is Internal Radiation?	Answer
92	Are all forms of Internal Radiation Harmful?	Answer
93	Which form of Internal Radiation is Least Harmful?	Answer
94	Give two Safety Precautions used when handling a Radioactive Source.	Answer

Rutherford and Marsden - Fission - Nuclear Power
95	What was the Plum Pudding Model?	Answer
96	What did Rutherford and Marsden fire Alpha Particles at?	Answer
97	Did some of the Alpha Particles go straight through?	Answer
98	Did some of the Alpha Particles change direction?	Answer
99	Did some of the Alpha Particles bounce back towards the Source?	Answer
100	What takes up Most of the Space of an Atom?	Answer
101	Where is Most of the Mass of an Atom?	Answer
102	What is Fission?	Answer
103	Does Fission of a Nucleus release a Large Amount of Energy?	Answer
104	Where does this Energy come from?	Answer
105	What is this Energy used for in a Nuclear Power Station?	Answer
106	What is a Chain Reaction?	Answer
107	How is the Speed of a Chain Reaction controlled?	Answer
108	Give two Advantages of Nuclear Power.	Answer
109	Give two Disadvantages of Nuclear Power.	Answer