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Ch.20 - Radioactivity and Nuclear Chemistry

Chapter 20, Problem 79a

Write the nuclear equation for the most likely mode of decay for each unstable nuclide. a. Ru-114

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Hey everyone, we're asked to identify the expected motive decay and write the nuclear equation for palladium 1 19. Looking at palladium, we find that its atomic number in the periodic table comes up to 46 and we know that the stability of an isotope is dependent on our n over Z ratio. and since our Z is in between the values of 40 and 80, This means our N oversee ratio must be equal to 1.50 in order to be a stable isotope. Now let's go ahead and determine our N oversee ratio. We can do so by taking our mass number and subtracting our atomic number and dividing this all by our atomic number, plugging in our values, we get 1 19 minus 46. All divided by 46. This will get us to a value of 1.58. And as we can see this value is greater than our Valley of Stability, which is that 1.50 value. This means that we are above the valley of stability and since we are above the valley of stability, this means our motive decay is either going to be beta decay or neutron emission. Looking at our answer choices, we can see that beta decay is listed as two of our answer choices. So we can go ahead and cancel out C. N. D. Looking between A and B. In order to determine which ones are answer, we can see that the difference lies in our atomic numbers In order to find the atomic number of our missing particle. We can go ahead and take the atomic number of palladium, which is 46 and subtract that negative one from our beta particle. This will get us to a value of 47. So this means B is going to be our final answer. Now. I hope that made sense and let us know if you have any questions.