Question

Polonium has a mass number of 212 and an atomic number of 84. In a balanced nuclear reaction, polonium releases an alpha particle to produce lead. Which option is the atomic number of lead?(1 point)
Responses

82
82

80
80

210
210

208
208

Answers

GPT-4o mini
In a nuclear reaction where polonium-212 (\(^{212}_{84}Po\)) emits an alpha particle (\(^{4}_{2}\alpha\)), the atomic number and mass number of the resulting element can be determined as follows:

When polonium emits an alpha particle, the reaction can be represented as:

\[
^{212}_{84}Po \rightarrow ^{4}_{2}\alpha + ^{A}_{Z}Pb
\]

To find the atomic number of lead (\(Pb\)), we can subtract the atomic number of the alpha particle from the atomic number of polonium:

\[
Z_{Pb} = 84 - 2 = 82
\]

The corresponding mass number of lead can be calculated similarly:

\[
A_{Pb} = 212 - 4 = 208
\]

Thus, polonium-212 decays to lead-208, and the atomic number of lead is 82.

Therefore, the correct response is:

**82**