WEEK 1

ELEMENTS, ATOMS, AND

THEIR HISTORY

Ms. Carmela M. Pantoja

Lesson 1.1 and 1.2

Introduction to Nuclear Reactions

NUCLEAR REACTIONS
• Are processes in which a nucleus either combines
with another nucleus (through nuclear fusion)
or splits into smaller nuclei (through nuclear
fission).

• These processes involve the emission of energetic

particles of an atom, a phenomenon known as
radioactivity.

• The radioactive particles may be elements,

electrons, protons, and neutrons, among others.
The following are the most common types of nuclear
reactions
Cosmic Origin of Elements
• The existence of all matter is believed to have
started with the birth of the universe.

• The most widely accepted explanation to the origin

of the universe is the big bang theory.

• The evidence of the theory was first

expressed in the early 1900s, when
Edwin Hubble offered an explanation
that the universe is expanding.
 • Stars and galaxies shine
with light shifted toward
the red end of the visible
spectrum, called redshift.

• This observation developed

into the Hubble’s Law,
which suggests that the
size of the redshift is
proportional to the distance
and speed of a star that is
moving away from Earth.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al;
Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
• The big bang theory postulates that approximately 14 billion
years ago, a hot, dense mass about one centimeter in diameter
experienced a huge explosion, spreading its product as a fast
moving cloud of gas.
• During the early universe,
protons and neutrons fused,
forming heavier nuclei of
deuterium, tritium, and helium.
• Isotopes are atoms of an element
that have the same number of
protons but different numbers of
neutrons.
• Atomic mass (left superscript)
and atomic number (left
subscript)
• Subsequent nuclear fusion reactions, in which two atomic
nuclei join to form a new type of nuclei, resulted in the
production of other light elements and their isotopes.

• Astronomers believe that a few minutes after the big bang, the
universe was composed of approximately 75% (by mass)
hydrogen, 25% helium, and trace amounts of lithium.

• The processes through which these light elements formed are

generally called big bang nucleosynthesis.

• Two isotopes of helium (3,2 He and 4,2 He) have been formed
from these reactions.

• 3,1 H, also known as tritium, is also an isotope of hydrogen

formed from big bang nucleosyntheis.
Stellar Formation and Evolution
Cross section of a supergiant showing nucleosynthesis and elements formed.
Lesson 1.3

Atoms from the Eyes of

Philosophers and Scientists

• 450 BC
• Empedocles asserted that all
things are composed of four
primal elements; earth, air, fire,
and water.
• 400 BC
• Democritus proposed that all
matter is made up of very small
particles called atoms, which
cannot be divided into smaller
units.
• 380-320 BC • 1799
• Aristotle proposed that all • Joseph Proust proposed
matter was continuous and can the law of definite
be further divided into smaller proportions.
pieces.
• 1808
• John Joseph Dalton formulated
the atomic theory and proposed
the law of multiple proportions.
• 1869
• Dmitry Mendeleev arranged
the known elements in a
periodic table based on
their atomic mass.
• 1890s
• Antoine Becquerel and Marie
Curie observed that radioactivity
causes some atoms to break
down spontaneously.
• 1895
• Wilhelm Rontgen
discovered X-rays.
 • 1904
• John Joseph Thomson
• 1897
suggested the plum pudding
• John Joseph Thomson
model of the atom (negative
discovered electrons
electrons dispersed in a positive
structure).
• 1908-1917 • 1910-1911
• Robert Millikan found that the • Ernest Rutherford
charge of an electron is equal to observed that atoms are
-1.6022x10^-19 C. mostly empty space.
• 1913
• Niels Bohr proposed an atomic model that shows electrons
move in concentric orbits around the nucleus.
• Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley used X-ray spectra to study
atomic structure.
• 1919 • 1932
• Ernest Rutherford discovered • James Chadwick discovered
protons. neutrons.