during a radioactive decay an atom can
completely transform to another atom,
the atom that changes is called the parent
atom wile the new atom is called the daughter atom, the
size of the daughter atom depends on the type of the decay undergone by the parent atom,
we have three type of radioactive decay
the alpha, beta and gamma, decays,
For the alpha decay the parent atom loses four nucleon, two protons
and electrons respectively, the daughter
atom then has drop by two in the periodic table , for example if uranium
undergo alpha decay, te daughter atom wilt be thorium -90
Beta decay when an atom
under beta decay, a neutron changes into a proton, the atomic number increases
by one while the mass number remain unchanged, an electron is emitted
accompanied by a electron neutrino
while atoms undergoing gamma decay do not change
to another element, they only emits
photons so that they could return to their ground state.
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