How Do You Calculate Specific Charge Without Given Charge and Mass?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the specific charge of a nucleus in the context of AS Level Physics. The original poster is seeking assistance on how to determine specific charge when the charge and mass are not explicitly provided, using carbon-12 as an example.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the meaning of the numbers associated with the carbon-12 symbol, questioning how to derive charge and mass from those values. There is an exploration of the definitions of protons and neutrons and their contributions to the specific charge calculation.

Discussion Status

The conversation is ongoing, with participants providing clarifications about the components of the nucleus and their roles in calculating specific charge. Some guidance has been offered regarding the relationship between protons, neutrons, charge, and mass, but no consensus has been reached on a complete method for calculation.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that the original poster is working with limited information and is trying to understand the basic principles of specific charge without direct values for charge and mass.

LouPhyGENIU
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Specific Charge AS Level HELP??!

Hi, RIGHT, I am in desperate need of help I am attempting to teach myself Specifiction A AQA AS Physics and need help with how to figure out the specific charge of a nucleus when the charge and mass are not stated.
It is hard to explain without diagrams but if a nuclus is given, for example C with a small 12 on top and a small 6 on the bottom how would you work out the specific charge for this because my textbook says that you can only work out specific charge if you have the charge and the mass? Hope this makes a vague amount of sense and I may be being very silly but i need someone to explain this to me at a very basic level!
 
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"Specific charge" is the ratio of charge to mass for the nucleus (apparently expressed in coulombs/kg). What do the '12' and the '6' represent in the symbol for carbon-12 that you are describing?
 
Um they are the number of protens and neutrons (the number on top) and the number of protons (number on bottom) This is very basic AS Level Physics just don't know how to work out the specific charge from those two numbers!
 
LouPhyGENIU said:
Um they are the number of protens and neutrons (the number on top) and the number of protons (number on bottom) This is very basic AS Level Physics just don't know how to work out the specific charge from those two numbers!
Well, using those two numbers you can work out the charge of the nucleus, what is the charge of a proton and a neutron? You can also work out the mass of the nucleus.
 
LouPhyGENIU said:
Um they are the number of protens and neutrons (the number on top) and the number of protons (number on bottom) This is very basic AS Level Physics just don't know how to work out the specific charge from those two numbers!

All right, so what is the charge of the nucleus (what does the '6' also stand for)? You will want to convert that amount of charge into units of Coulombs.

If the number of protons and neutrons is 12, what is the mass of the nucleus? You will ultimately want to convert that into units of kilograms.

The specific charge is the ratio of the charge in Coulombs to the mass in kilograms.
 

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