Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Gamma radiation emission is a nuclear process that occurs to rid an unstable nucleus of excess energy after most nuclear reactions. Both alpha and beta particles have an electric charge and mass, and thus are quite likely to interact with other atoms in their path.
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] The discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson [3] a year later was an
The discovery came after forty years of investigation into the nature and properties of radioactivity and radioactive substances. The discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in 1932 created a new means of nuclear transmutation.
Nuclear power is a type of nuclear technology involving the controlled use of nuclear fission to release energy for work including propulsion, heat, and the generation of electricity. Nuclear energy is produced by a controlled nuclear chain reaction which creates heat—and which is used to boil water, produce steam, and drive a steam turbine.
Ionizing radiation is also generated artificially by X-ray tubes, particle accelerators, and nuclear fission. Ionizing radiation is not immediately detectable by human senses, so instruments such as Geiger counters are used to detect and measure it.
In 1921, he was studying radioactivity at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin, Germany, when he noticed somethi Nuclear isomers were discovered 100 years ago, and physicists are ...
Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties. It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as the actinides , radium and radon together with the chemistry associated with equipment (such as ...