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Eric NormanNuclear Engineering Dept. UC Berkeley and LBNL

http://www.lbl.gov/abc/

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The Four ElementsThe Four Elements

Earth Air

Fire Water

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The Beginning of Nuclear The Beginning of Nuclear ScienceScience

Scientists in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s made discoveries which would change the course of science and medicine.

Henri Becquerel

Marie and Pierre Curie

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Atomic and Nuclear StuctureAtomic and Nuclear Stucture Atom - smallest unit of a chemical element

Size on the order of 10-8 cm (1 Angstrom) Contains Z electrons (Qe = -1e, me = 0.511 MeV/c2)

– e = 1.602x10-19 Coulomb– and

Nucleus – Size on the order of 10-13 cm (1 Fermi ) Contains more than 99.9% of the mass of the atom Made of Z protons and N neutrons Proton (Qp = +1e, mp = 938.28 MeV/c2 ) Neutron (Qn = 0, mn = 939.57 MeV/c2 ) A = Atomic mass = Z + N Held together by strong nuclear force

ZXN where X = chemical symbolA

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Structure of the Nucleus

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RadioactivityRadioactivity

Ernest Rutherford determined there were 3 kinds of radioactivity

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Nuclear Reactions

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E = mc2

m = E/c2

Typical nuclear energies are on the order of millions of electron volts (MeV)

1 eV = 1.602x10 -19 joule

A Bit of Special Relativity

Albert Einstein

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RelativisticCollisions (RHIC)

Medium Energy (JLAB)

Low Energy (small accelerators)

Nuclear Astrophysics (small accelerators, FRIB)