Figure 40.17showed that a typical nuclear radius is 4.0 fm. As you€™ll learn in Chapter 42, a typical energy of a neutron bound inside the nuclear potential well is E_n= -20 MeV. To find out how €œfuzzy€ the edge of the nucleus is, what is the neutron€™s penetration distance into the classically forbidden region as a fraction of the nuclear radius?

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A radioactive decay has left the neutron in the n= 3 excited state. The neutron jumps to the n = 1 ground state, emitting a gamma-ray photon. Energy levels of a neutron in the nucleus O MeV 13.4 MeV n=4- -28.5 MeV n=3 n=2+ 40.4 MeV 47.6 MeV n=1 -50.0 MeV The diameter of the nucleus is 8.0 fm. Gamma-ray emission