Alpha Particles and Gamma Radiation

Blog Post #3

(September 25, 2015)

Recently, we talked about three different forms of radioactive decay: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

In alpha decay, the proton number goes down by two while the mass number goes down by four. Whenever you have an alpha decay equation you will always have 4 as the mass number and 2 as the proton number, while the element will be Helium.

In beta decay, the beta particles are electrons, and the mass of the electrons are so small that we can just ignore it and put a zero. Whenever there's a beta decay equation, the beta particle is always represented by 0 as the mass number, -1 as the proton number and e for electron (in the element space).

In gamma decay, gamma rays release high energy forms called radiation. There is no change in either number so the mass and proton numbers would equal to zero.