Unit 7 Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics

Discrete energy and discrete energy levels

Transitions between energy levels

Radioactive decay

Fundamental forces and their properties

Alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays

Half-life

Absorption characteristics of decay particles

Isotopes

Background radiation

The unified atomic mass unit

Mass defect and nuclear binding energy

Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion

Quarks, leptons and their antiparticles

Hadrons, baryons and mesons

The conservation laws of charge, baryon number, lepton number and strangeness

The nature and range of the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force and electromagnetic force

Exchange particles

Feynman diagrams

Confinement

The Higgs boson

Describing the emission and absorption spectrum of common gases

Solving problems involving atomic spectra, including calculating the wavelength of photons emitted during atomic transitions

Completing decay equations for alpha and beta decay

Determining the half-life of a nuclide from a decay curve

Investigating half-life experimentally (or by simulation)

Solving problems involving mass defect and binding energy

Solving problems involving the energy released in radioactive decay, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion

Sketching and interpreting the general shape of the curve of average binding energy per nucleon against nucleon number

Describing the Rutherford-Geiger-Marsden experiment that led to the discovery of the nucleus

Applying conservation laws in particle reactions

Describing protons and neutrons in terms of quarks

Comparing the interaction strengths of the fundamental forces, including gravity

Describing the mediation of the fundamental forces through exchange particles