Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann Discovered Fission by Bombarding Uranium

question 106

Multiple Choice

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered fission by bombarding uranium with neutrons.Their discovery was made possible by finding one of the fission products,barium (Ba,atomic no.= 56) .What is a reasonable explanation for why they were unable to initially observe the other product,krypton (Kr,atomic no.= 36) ?

• A)Krypton is a noble gas and it may have diffused out of the sample.
• B)The isotope of krypton generated might have a short half-life and had undergone radioactive decay to some other element.
• C)Krypton is a noble gas and therefore chemically unreactive,making it difficult to characterize by chemical means.
• D)both A and B
• E)all of the above

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Definitions:

Overconfidence

The condition of being excessively confident or assured in one’s ability, correctness, or reliability, often without sufficient reason.

Framing Effect

A cognitive bias where people react differently to a choice depending on how it is presented, or "framed," especially as a loss or gain.

Belief Perseverance

The psychological phenomenon where individuals maintain their convictions even when confronted with contrary evidence, showcasing the difficulty of changing deeply held beliefs.

Framing Effect

The cognitive bias where people's decisions are influenced by the way information is presented, rather than just the information itself.