21.3

21.3@21.3 Nuclear TransmutationsNuclear Transmutations  - Nucleus can spontaneously decay and for different elements  -A nucleus can also be stuck by a neutron or another nucleus and change identity, when this happens it is called **nuclear transmutation**.

 You can be asked to write out the reaction that would take place, when notating a neutron use (1/0)n and an alpha particle (helium) is (4/2)He  example of a equation:   Note that the top number is the mass number and the bottom number is the number of protons, or atomic number.  You can write this equations in shorthand form. example:  (27/13)Al(n,alpha) (24/11)Na. You should be able to go back and forth between the full eqaution and the shorthand equation.

__ Accelerating Charged Particles __  -Charged particles must be moving very fast to overcome the electrostatic repulsion between the particle and the target nucleus  -The higher the charge that faster the particle must be moving for a nuclear reaction to occur.  -This is why particle accelerates, or atom smashers, were invented. 

__ Neutrons/ Transuranium Elements __  -Common in medicine to use neutrons as the particle because they are neutral and therefore not repelled by the nucleus

- Transuramium elements are the elements with atomic numbers greater than 92 (the atomic number of uranium). None of these elements are stable; they all decay into other elements radioactively.
21.3