What are the differences between radioactive emissions?

Answer 1

Radioactive emissions consist of Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation. These are emitted from the nucleus of an radioactive isotope in different conditions, the condition of the nucleus will therefore decide what the main type of radioactive emission will be given off. For example alpha emissions occur mostly when the Nuclei is massive and needs to eject both protons and neutrons in the form of a helium nucleus. Beta emissions occur when the Nucleus is rich in Neutrons and is the emission of an electron and an anti-neutrino from the nucleus of a radioactive isotope, this causes one of the neutrons in the nucleus to therefore become a proton as the antineutrino and electron are released, enducing a charge. Finally, Gamma radiation is a method of releasing energy from a nucleus in the form of electromagnetic wave when an excess energy is present. This occurs mainly after Alpha or Beta decay and Gamma radiation never occurs alone, it also occurs during Alpha and Beta decay. With regards to the size and speed of the emissions, alpha is a strongly ionising, weakly penetrating emission which moves slowly. The strong ionising potential of Alpha is due to its charactoristics as a highly charged helium nucles (+2 charge) with a large density, this means that it can ionise many particles in a short space of time but only moves slowly. This ability to strongly ionise also effects its range as it soon runs out of energy to decay particles, explaining its short range. Beta decay is lighter and has less charge which would explain the longer ionisation range but the smaller ionisation energy. A beta particle moves at a high velocity as it has a small mass and has not got a large ionisation energy and so can ionise longer distances and can therefore travel further. Finally, Gamma can penetrate very large distances due to its lack of charge and ionising power. The poperties of Gamma radiation as an electromagnetic wave also allow it to travel at a high velocity, the speed of light, as it is emitted to release excess energy only and is not emitted in order to change the charge of the nucleus and so has very little ionising potential.