Name: ________________________

Constituents of the atom Class: ________________________

Date: ________________________

Time: 18 minutes

Marks: 12 marks

Comments:

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1. In a nuclear reaction is bombarded by neutrons. This results in the capture of one neutron
and the emission of one proton by one nucleus of . The resulting nucleus is

(Total 1 mark)

2. (a) is a neutral atom of thorium. How many protons, neutrons and electrons does it
contain?

____________________ protons

____________________ neutrons

____________________ electrons
(2)

(b) is a neutral atom of a different isotope of thorium which contains Z electrons. Give
possible values for X, Y and Z.

X = ____________________

Y = ____________________

Z = ____________________
(3)
(Total 5 marks)

3. A neutral atom of carbon is represented by

(a) Name the constituents of this atom and state how many of each are present.

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

(b) Which constituent of an atom has the largest charge-to-mass ratio?

___________________________________________________________________

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(c) Carbon has several isotopes. Explain the term isotope.

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________
(Total 6 marks)

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Mark schemes
B
1.
[1]

(a) 90 (protons) (1)

2.
(232 – 90 gives) 142 (neutrons), 90 (electrons) (1)
(2)

(b) X = 90 (1)

Y = (any value between) 212 and 252 (1)

Z = 90 (1)
(3)
[5]

(a) protons and neutrons (1)

3. 6p, 8n (1)
[or u and d quarks (1), 20u and 22d (1)]
6 electrons (1)

(b) electron (1)

(c) atoms with identical numbers of protons but

different numbers of neutrons (1)
[6]

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Examiner reports
As expected, most good candidates took this first question in their stride and obtained high
2. marks. A significant number of candidates failed to give the correct answer to the mass number
in part (b) and gave a numerical answer in the region of 142 instead. This appeared to be due to
candidates being confused between mass number and atomic number in the representation of
an atom.

This straightforward, introductory question was answered very well on the whole. It was
3. disappointing though to find that almost 25% of the candidates failed to give electrons as one of
the constituents of the atom in part (a) and almost 50% selected the proton as having the largest
charge-to mass ratio in part (b).

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