7. (EP2) When radium-226 decays radioactively, it emits an Alpha particle (a) i.e. the nucleus of helium, and the end product is radon-222. We can model this decay by thinking of the radium-226 as consisting of an a particle emitted from the surface of spherically symmetric radon-222 nucleus, and we can treat the a particle as a point charge. The energy of the a particle has been measured in the laboratory and has been found to be 4.79 MeV when the ca particle is essentially infinitely far away from the nucleus. Since radon is much heavier than the a particle, we can assume that there is no appreciable recoil of the radon after decay. The radon nucleus contains 86 protons, while the a particle has 2 protons and the radium nucleus has 88 protons. Given: 1 eV = 1.6 x 1019 J f. What is the electric potential energy of the a-radon combination just before they decay in MeV and in joules (Hint: recall that for points outside asymmetric sphere of charge the electric field behaves as if all the charge were concentrated at the center the same behavior holds for the potential due to a sphere.) Given: 1 eV = 1.6 x 1019 J g. use a result from part A to calculate the radius of the radon nucleus. %3D
7. (EP2) When radium-226 decays radioactively, it emits an Alpha particle (a) i.e. the nucleus of helium, and the end product is radon-222. We can model this decay by thinking of the radium-226 as consisting of an a particle emitted from the surface of spherically symmetric radon-222 nucleus, and we can treat the a particle as a point charge. The energy of the a particle has been measured in the laboratory and has been found to be 4.79 MeV when the ca particle is essentially infinitely far away from the nucleus. Since radon is much heavier than the a particle, we can assume that there is no appreciable recoil of the radon after decay. The radon nucleus contains 86 protons, while the a particle has 2 protons and the radium nucleus has 88 protons. Given: 1 eV = 1.6 x 1019 J f. What is the electric potential energy of the a-radon combination just before they decay in MeV and in joules (Hint: recall that for points outside asymmetric sphere of charge the electric field behaves as if all the charge were concentrated at the center the same behavior holds for the potential due to a sphere.) Given: 1 eV = 1.6 x 1019 J g. use a result from part A to calculate the radius of the radon nucleus. %3D
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Please help explain the steps on how to approach problem 7. Ty.
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