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In artificial radioactivity alpha particles are used to change nonradioactive elments into radioactive elements. But why are alpha particles used in artificial radioactivity?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
An explanation for the use of alpha particles to create other radioactive elements is because it is relatively easy to do. We can concentrate an element that is an alpha emitter in the laboratory, and then use the "alpha bullets" to activate another material. The Curies did this. The alternative is to build a cyclotron, which is a particle accelerator, or a nuclear reactor so the neutron flux can be used to bombard sample. These ideas were a ways down the road when the Curies were conducting their Nobel Prize winning experiments. So these clever individuals isolated materials that were alpha emitters and used them.
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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What is the name for the emission of rays and particles by a radioactive material?
The name for the emissions of rays and particles by a radioactive material are called radioactive decay. There are many different types of radioactive decay that emit different rays and particles.
Would exposure to something which is radioactive make you radioactive?
Not much. There are various forms of radioactivity. A material can emit alpha particles, beta particles (high energy electrons), neutrons, gamma rays (high energy photos), or you can ingest it. If you eat, breathe or inject a radioactive material, it will be inside you and you will become "radioactive" in that you will emit particles or radiation. This is how PET works - the doctor injects a short-lived isotope and tracks the positrons emitted by them with a detector, so can track, say, the uptake of glucose in your brain. If you sit on a lump of radioactive material, the radiation will damage your skin and body to an extent depending on the intensity and type of radiation. If an emitted particle changes an atom in your body to an unstable isotope, this will later decay by emitting a particle itself. In this sense you will have been made "radioactive". This is I believe very unlikely - the side effects of radiation damage would kill you long before you had become significantly radioactive just from contact. A particle is more likely to break chemical bonds and create free radicals than to create a new isotope.
Types of radioactive emission?
The nuclei of radioactive elements may emitt one or more of the following; Gamma Rays --- very energetic electromagnetic wave pulses Beta Negative Rays --- electrons Beta Positive Rays ---- positrons (positive electrons) Alpha Rays ------ a composite particle consisting of 2 neutrons & 2 protons.
The nucleus of a radioactive element does not break down and give off particles and energy?
false
Does radioactive mean in science?
The atoms structure is unstable and it emits alpha or beta particles that changes the Atom
Is bombardment of alpha particles on beryllium artificial radioactivity?
You can say that as long as the alpha particle itself is not originating from a radioactive element. If however one is able to isolate the helium nucleus from the elemental atom and then used for bombarding towards the beryllium then it is considered as an example of artificial radioactivity. Or the production of a radioactive element(synthetic element) like Francium can be considered artificial radioactivity.
Is it true that the atomic bomb couldn't exist without radioactivity?
Simply to put it Yes. Atomic Bombs is a form as Nuclear bomb and Nuclear products/elements such as Uranium 235 (a material used in a atomic bomb) emits radioactive particles. Radioactivity Particles = radioactivity.
Who dicovered radioactivity?
This is credited to Henri Becquerel in 1896. The term "radioactivity" was first used by Marie Curie, while Ernest Rutherford investigated the precise nature of radioactive particles.
What is a nucleus that emits energy and particles spontaneously?
Any radioactive element gives off subatomic particles, and these particles carry considerable energy. That is the definition of radioactivity. Examples of radioactive elements include uranium, plutonium, polonium, radium, and many more.
Are some elements radioactive?
Radioactivity refers to the emission of ionizing particles which results from the spontaneous disintegration of atomic nuclei. Some examples of radioactive elements are uranium and plutonium.
Why does nonradioactive substances become radioactive when placed near a radium compound?
This phenomenon is rare, non obligatory. For example beryllium irradiated with alpha particles from radium emit neutrons.
What type of power plant most exposes us to radioactivity coal or nuclear plants?
nuclear plants because the fission reaction releases lots of radioactive particles causing radioactivity..
What is a nonradioactive material?
A non-radioactive element is an element that has at least 1 isotope that is not radioactive. The means that at least one isotope has a stable nucleus that does not break down by shooting off high-energy particles.
What is Radioactivity and artificial transmutations?
Radio Activity- The process in which an unstable atomic nucleus emits charged particles and energy Artificial Transmutations- The conversion of atoms of one element to atoms of another.
What particles give off high energy?
Radionuclide or radioisotope is a substance that give off high energy particles or rays as it disintegrates. They emit three types of radioactivity is alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays.
What two chemicals when combine produce alpha and beta particles that is nonradioactive?
This is impossible.
Uranium 235 and Uranium 238 are said to be what kind of radioactivity?
Uranium 235 and uranium 238 are especially alpha particles emitters. They are natural radioactive isotopes.
