Coursework 2

A . The earth 's crust has fair amount of thorium and uranium . Uranium 238 undergoes alpha decay and the resulting Th-234 undergoes beta decay . The heat released is the energy lost when the nucleons reorganize into more stable arrangement . This phenomenon results to warming of the earth from the inside . The reactions are

23892U 23490Th 42He

23490Th 23491Pa 0-1e

The earth is warmed from the outside through nuclear fusion wherein Hydrogen nuclei combine to form Helium . This results to emission of light and heat that strikes to the earth . Nuclear fusion

powers the sun The reaction of the nuclear fusion would be

4 1H 2 e 4He 2 neutrinos 6 photons

B . Nuclear fission is basically the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts , usually producing free neutrons , photons , and other sub-atomic particles . An example of a nuclear fission is the splitting of Uranium-235 to Krypton-92 and Barium-142

235U 1 neutron 2 neutrons 92Kr 142Ba ENERGY

Considering another reaction , combustion of methanol in particular

CH3OH O2 CO2 H2O Heat

We could see that the reactions , the nuclear fission and the combustion of methanol released energy or heat . The two reactions are exothermic Also , it could be observed that identities of the reactants were conserved . That would be in terms of the number of neutrons for fission and in terms of the constituting atoms for combustion . The difference is that for fission , a sub-atomic particle triggered the reaction due to the formation of unstable nuclei . For combustion , the reaction...