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AP Physics 2
15.8 Types of Radioactive Decay
15.7 Fission, Fusion, and Nuclear Decay
IntermediateMCQMathematicalProportional AnalysisConceptual23.7k
Two stationary radioactive parent nuclei, Nucleus 1 with mass number \(A_1 = 204\) and Nucleus 2 with mass number \(A_2 = 104\), each undergo alpha decay by emitting an alpha particle (\(^4_2\text{He}\)). Let \(R_1 = \dfrac{K_{\alpha,1}}{K_{D,1}}\) represent the ratio of the kinetic energy of the emitted alpha particle to that of the recoiling daughter nucleus for Nucleus 1, and let \(R_2 = \dfrac{K_{\alpha,2}}{K_{D,2}}\) represent the corresponding ratio for Nucleus 2. Assuming the mass of each nucleus is directly proportional to its mass number, what is the value of the ratio \(\dfrac{R_1}{R_2}\)?

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