Abstract
While experimenting with the more and more popular neodymium magnetic ball sets, the author developed a method, by which models of atomic nuclei can be created. These macroscopic models visually represent several features of nuclei and nuclear phenomena, which can be a useful mean during the teaching of nuclear physics. Even though such macroscopic models are unable to depict the true quantum physical nature of nuclear processes, they can be much more useful didactically than the previously used disordered sets of balls, to represent the atomic nucleus.
Highlights
While teaching nuclear physics, a fundamental need can be experienced quite often to illustrate somehow the basic properties of atomic nuclei
While experimenting with the more and more popular neodymium magnetic ball sets, the author developed a method, by which models of atomic nuclei can be created. These macroscopic models visually represent several features of nuclei and nuclear phenomena, which can be a useful mean during the teaching of nuclear physics
The numbers of balls in the structures are definitely unlike any special number appearing in nuclear physics
Summary
A fundamental need can be experienced quite often to illustrate somehow the basic properties of atomic nuclei. The representations of atomic nuclei are usually disordered sets of two differently colored ball-like objects (see Figure 1). This depiction is quite rudimentary, as none of the most important properties of atomic nuclei are appearing on these models. The nowadays more and more popular neodymium magnetic ball sets can be a very good tool for the threedimensional modeling of the nucleus. The author used disordered spherical sets of two differently colored magnetic balls to illustrate the nuclei.
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