Week 1: Day 1

Today in class I took the Magnetism test. On the whole I feel I did rather well.

At home, I seriously started on the new unit.

I opened up the Decay simulation, but when I saw it I felt it would be better to have some background knowledge before trying it out seriously. So I went to the video. I already skimmed through it once, but now I took notes. When organized, it's very easy to wrap your head around it. There are three main ideas:

1. Alpha Decay: 2 neutrons and 2 protons are emitted from the nucleus of the atom to make it more stable. Mass decreased by four. (P - 2, N - 2)
2. Beta Decay: A neutron emits an electron, thus turning into a proton. The mass stays the same, but it's a new element. (P + 1, N - 1)
3. Gamma Decay: The particles rearrange themselves, causing waves of high frequency to be released.
4. Positron Emission: A proton emits a prositon (electrons with positive charge) and turns to a neutron as a result. Mass the same (P - 1, N + 1)

I went back to the simulation afterwards and understood it a bit better. One thing I noticed is the half-life line is not very significant in determining the time of change of a nuclei, even though the probability is to change is 50% there.