How can you figure
out what happens when an element
undergoes alpha and beta decay?
Question:
How can you figure out what happens when an element undergoes alpha and
beta decay?
Answer:
Just like with a lot of chemical
processes, we need to follow the law of conservation of mass to find our
answer.
Alpha particles are helium nuclei,
meaning that they have two neutrons and two protons. When an atom gives
off an alpha particle, all we need to do is decrease the mass symbol (top
left) by four and decrease the atomic number by two. As a result, we
can see that when 238U undergoes alpha decay, we get the following
reaction:
238
U --> 234Th + 4He
Beta particles
are electrons, meaning that they have no mass (that you can account for in
this process, anyway) and an atomic number of -1 (because the charge of an
electron is -1). As a result, if an atom gives off an alpha particle,
the mass number doesn't change but the atomic number increases by one. As
a result, we can see that when
238U undergoes beta
decay, we get the following reaction:
238U --> 238Np + e-
Do you have a question
for Mr. Guch? Email him at
misterguch@chemfiesta.com
.