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Verbal·Expression of Ideas·Rhetorical Synthesis

easy

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Physicist Chien-Shiung Wu designed the “Wu experiment” in 1956 to test the law of conservation of parity in subatomic physics.
• Parity conservation postulated that physical processes should behave identically to their mirror images (spatial inversion symmetry).
• Wu aligned the nuclear spins of cobalt-60 atoms at near-absolute zero temperatures using a strong magnetic field.
• She observed that beta particles were emitted preferentially in the direction opposite to the nuclear spin.
• This directional asymmetry proved that parity is violated in weak nuclear interactions, overturning a fundamental axiom of theoretical physics.

The student wants to emphasize the scientific significance of Wu’s experimental result. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A

By aligning cobalt-60 atoms at cryogenic temperatures in 1956, physicist Chien-Shiung Wu conducted an experimental test of weak nuclear interactions.

B

Theoretical physicists long assumed that physical processes and their mirror images were symmetrical under the law of parity conservation.

C

Wu’s discovery that beta decay exhibited directional asymmetry proved that parity conservation is violated in weak interactions, overturning a fundamental physical principle.

D

In the 1956 Wu experiment, a magnetic field was utilized to orient the nuclear spins of cobalt-60 atoms.