CLASS TEST ON NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY

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ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS
1. What is Natural Radioactivity? [3 Marks]
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2. State 3 factors that affect the stability of a nuclide [3 Marks]
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3. What is Half life? [2 Marks]
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4. Carbon-14 measurements on the linen wrappings from the Book of Isaiah on the Dead Sea Scrolls indicated
that the scrolls contained about 79.5% of the carbon-14 found in living tissue. Approximately how old are these
scrolls? The half-life of carbon-14 is 5730 years. [5 Marks]
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5. Phosphorus-32 is a radioactive isotope used as a tracer in the liver. How much phosphorus-32 was originally
used if there is only 3.50 mg left in a sample after 288 h? (The half-life of phosphorus-32 is 14.3 days.)
[5 Marks]
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6. Iodine-131 has a half-life of 8.1 days and is used as a tracer for the thyroid gland. If a patient drinks a sodium
iodide (NaI) solution containing iodine-131 on a Tuesday, how many days will it take for the concentration of
iodine-131 to drop to 5.0% of its initial concentration? [5 Marks]
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7. The half-life for the decomposition of H2O at 30°C is 2.5hrs. Calculate the decay rate constant of the
decomposition ? [5 Marks]
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8. State 2 positive uses of radioisotopes [4 Marks]

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9. The decay rate, measured on a Geiger Muller counter of a sample of sodium – 24 at different times are given

Time/Hr 0 5 10 15 20 25
Rate of decay/ counts/sec 730 570 455 365 292 232

below: [7 Marks]

a) find out the half-life of sodium – 24.

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b) What will happen to the rate of decay if

i. Temperature is increased ii. Pressure is increased?

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10. State 2 differences between nuclear and chemical reactions. [4 Marks]

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11. Expand the following condensed nuclear reactionsm and balance them. [7 Marks]
a) 27
Al (α, n) 30P

b) 23
Na (p, n) 23Mg

c) 9
Be (p, α) 5Li

d) 14
N (p, γ) 15O

e) 31
P (D, p) 32P

f) 14
N (n, p) 14C

g) 27
Al (D, n) 28Si

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