Is it possible to learn the majority of P2 the night before the exam?😅 what main topics should i be looking at?
Exactly what I'm doing right now! Did that for the chemistry as well, and managed to answer 80% of the questions on the exam, sooooo I guess we'll see if this was an effective way of revising when we get our results back
can anyone outline nuclear fission and fusion? Much appreciated, last minute revision.
Im sure I will be corrected if I am wrong but this is how I have learnt it. nuclear fission: a neutron is absorbed into the nucleus of an uranium (usually uranium-235) or plutonium (usually plutonium-239) which makes it unstable and causes it to split. It splits into two smaller atomic nuclei and spits out two or three neutrons. These neutrons could go on to be absorbed into the nucleus of another atom, causing it to split so it causes a chain reaction. (this is why control rods are used in power stations- they absorb some of the neutrons to control the chain reaction) Nuclear fission has many disposable issues and is very expensive way of producing energy
Nuclear fusion: This is the joining of two smaller atomic nuclei to form one larger atomic nucleus. It creates a lot more energy than fission and there is plenty of hydrogen available for fuel so people are trying to develop ways to use it. But it can only occur at 10 million degress C and it currently takes a lot more enrgy to get the reactor to this temp than it can produce