11.1 Atoms, Nuclei & Radiation | CIE A Level Physics Topic Questions 2025

1a

4 marks

Ionising radiation often comes in three forms: alpha, beta and gamma.

Table 1.1 below shows information about the properties of each type of radiation.

Type	Nuclear notation	Relative charge
Alpha		+2
Beta	${}_{- 1}^{0}β$
Gamma

Table 1.1

Complete the missing information in Table 1.1.

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1b

2 marks

Identify one similarity and one difference between alpha particles and beta particles.

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1c

1 mark

The properties of ionising radiation that make it so useful is related to the study of the structure of atoms.

Evidence that atoms had an internal structure was confirmed by Ernest Rutherford. He was able to show that a thin sheet of gold foil scattered ionising radiation in ways that could not be explained by accepted models of atomic structure at the time.

State the type of ionising radiation that was scattered by gold foil in Rutherford’s experiment.

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1d

2 marks

Each of the observations from Rutherford’s experiment had profound implications about how atoms were structured.

In the space provided below, match each observation from Rutherford’s experiment to its corresponding conclusion about atomic structure.

Observation		Conclusion
A small proportion of radiation is slightly deflected by the gold foil		The atom is mostly empty space
The majority of radiation is undeflected by the gold foil		The mass of a nucleus is concentrated in a very small volume
A very small proportion of radiation is deflected back on itself		The nucleus carries a positive charge

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1a

3 marks

The study of beta decay provided early hints to the existence of a yet undiscovered particle.

Scientists were interested in the energy distribution of the beta particles emitted when a radioactive source decayed. The source has an activity of 120 Bq.

The energy released by each decaying nucleus was labelled as X and the total energy released each second by the source was measured to be 7.5 × 10^–11 J.

Sketch a graph to show the energy distribution of the beta particles and indicate X on the diagram.

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1b

2 marks

Determine the value of X to an appropriate degree of accuracy.

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1c

2 marks

Explain why no beta particles had an energy equal to X.

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1d

3 marks

Suggest the standard form of the two possible equations that represent this decay and define all the terms used.

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1a

2 marks

A nucleus X decays by emitting a β+ particle to form a new nucleus, ${}_{11}^{23}{Na}$ .

State the number of protons and the number of neutrons in nucleus X.

number of protons = ...............................................................

number of neutrons = ...............................................................

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1b

1 mark

State one similarity between a β⁺ particle and a β^– particle.

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1c

1 mark

State the quark composition of a meson.

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1d

2 marks

A hadron consists of two down quarks and a charm quark.

Determine the charge of the hadron. Show your working.

charge = ..................................... C

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Atoms, Nuclei & Radiation (CIE A Level Physics)

Topic Questions