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Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Three of the most common types of decay are alpha, beta, and gamma decay.
2.2 Nuclear decay. 2.3 Nuclear scattering theory. 2.4 Fundamental forces. 3 See also. 4 Footnotes. 5 Sources. ... 3000 Solved Problems in Physics, Schaum Series. Mc ...
Radioactive decay is the process in which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting ionizing particles and radiation. This decay, or loss of energy, results in an atom of one type (called the parent nuclide ) transforming to an atom of a different type (called the daughter nuclide ).
Henri Becquerel Since the 1920s, cloud chambers played an important role of particle detectors and eventually lead to the discovery of positron, muon and kaon.. The history of nuclear physics as a discipline distinct from atomic physics, starts with the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896, [1] made while investigating phosphorescence in uranium salts. [2]
In nuclear physics, the Bateman equation is a mathematical model describing abundances and activities in a decay chain as a function of time, based on the decay rates and initial abundances. The model was formulated by Ernest Rutherford in 1905 [1] and the analytical solution was provided by Harry Bateman in 1910. [2]
There is a half-life describing any exponential-decay process. For example: As noted above, in radioactive decay the half-life is the length of time after which there is a 50% chance that an atom will have undergone nuclear decay. It varies depending on the atom type and isotope, and is usually determined experimentally. See List of nuclides.
The four most common modes of radioactive decay are: alpha decay, beta decay, inverse beta decay (considered as both positron emission and electron capture), and isomeric transition. Of these decay processes, only alpha decay (fission of a helium-4 nucleus) changes the atomic mass number ( A ) of the nucleus, and always decreases it by four.
In practice, this means that alpha particles from all alpha-emitting isotopes across many orders of magnitude of difference in half-life, all nevertheless have about the same decay energy. Formulated in 1911 by Hans Geiger and John Mitchell Nuttall as a relation between the decay constant and the range of alpha particles in air, [ 1 ] in its ...