Photo AI
A student models nuclear fission using this process: Step 1 - A uranium nucleus absorbs one neutron - OCR Gateway - GCSE Physics - Question 12 - 2022 - Paper 1
Question 12
A student models nuclear fission using this process: Step 1 - A uranium nucleus absorbs one neutron. - The uranium nucleus splits releasing three neutrons. The dia... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:A student models nuclear fission using this process: Step 1 - A uranium nucleus absorbs one neutron - OCR Gateway - GCSE Physics - Question 12 - 2022 - Paper 1
Step 1
The three neutrons can each repeat this process again for step 2
Answer
In step 2, each of the 3 neutrons produced can cause another fission event, each releasing 3 additional neutrons. Therefore, after step 2, the total number of neutrons released is:
So, 9 neutrons will be produced after step 2.
Step 2
and step 3. How many neutrons will be released after step 3?
Answer
In step 3, each of the 9 neutrons produced from step 2 can also cause another fission reaction, where again each neutron produces 3 more neutrons. Therefore, after step 3, the total number of neutrons released is:
In total, after step 3, there will be 27 neutrons released.