Nuclear Physics

No, the Higgs boson is a hypothetical particle believed to explain why some particles in the Standard Model have mass larger than zero. However if it cannot be found there is an alternate theory called "Technicolor" that might explain this. Higgs is just a simpler theory to work with than Technicolor, so it is currently preferred as well as being easier to test with current technology.

I'm assuming we are talking about Rn222.

Rn222 is part of the U238 chain (also known as the Radium series).

Rn222 (half life 3.8 days) -> Po218 + alpha particle (5.59 MeV)

Po218 (half life 3.1 minutes) -> Pb214 + alpha particle (6.115 MeV)

Pb214 (half life 26.8 minutes) -> Bi214 + beta- particle (1.024 MeV)

Bi214 (half life 19.9 minutes) -> Po214 + beta- particle (3.272 MeV)

Po214 (half life .164 ms) -> Pb210 + alpha particle (7.883 MeV)

Pb210 (half life 22.3 years) -> Bi210 + beta- particle (64 keV)

Bi210 (half life 5.013 days) -> Po210 + beta- particle (1.426 MeV)

Po210 (half life 138.4 days) -> Pb206 + alpha particle (5.407 MeV)

Pb206 (lead) is stable so that is the end of the chain.

The plasma in plasma TV is actually real plasma. Many people tend to think that plasma is something made up by science fiction novels, but it's actually closer to home then you might think. plasma is a state of matter like a solid, liquid or gas but with different properties. It is best described as being similar to gas, but is not exactly the same. The reason why plasma is used in televisions is because it can be manipulated into showing different colours. Plasma is matter heated to roughly 10,000 degrees and so if you pause an image on a plasma screen TV and leave on for a long time it will begin to burn into your TV. Plasma is often commonly found in households as it is used in light bulbs.

Yes, carbon 14 is a radioactive isotope.

After an element's nucleus decays, it becomes one or more different elements. The type of decay determines what the new element(s) will be. The type of decay the nucleus of an element will undergo depends on the particular isotope of the particular element in question. For example, alpha decay results in an new element which has 2 less protons and 2 less neutrons (decrease in atomic number of 2 and decrease in mass number of 4). Fission results in an element splitting into two new elements of various sizes, accompanied by the release of other random particles. The two new "daughter" element's masses plus the masses of the other released particles will add up (approximately) to the mass of the original element. There are many other types of decay which produce different decay products.

There is not one, but many radioactive elements. Radioactive isotopes, to be more precise - because sometimes, one isotope may be stable, while another isotope of the same element is radioactive. All, or most, elements have radioactive isotopes.

In principle fusion should be better for the environment because it does not produce the active fission products. The snag is that it has not been made to work yet, and won't be for many years to come, so as a practical way of producing electricity it does not come into play, and we have to say fission is better than a non-existent fusion

Electron was the first subparticle discovered because it has a negative charge .later protons where discovered because using the foil method determined the protons existence .But because the neutrons are neutral and uncharged they where the last to be dicovered even though they take up almost all the mass of an atom

A nuclear pore can be like a restaurant in that both have specific entry points where molecules or customers can enter or exit. The nuclear pore regulates the passage of molecules in and out of the cell's nucleus, similar to how a restaurant controls the flow of customers in and out of its dining area. Both also have mechanisms for quality control, ensuring that only certain molecules or customers are allowed to pass through.

Yes. A radioactive atom is a radioactive atom. If that atom exists as a single atom and is uncombined and it is radioactive, it's radioactive. If that same atom is chemically combined with another or other atoms, it's still radioactive. It's just that simple.

Outer electrons in metal atoms are loosely held and can easily move, allowing metals to conduct electricity and heat. In contrast, outer electrons in nonmetal atoms are tightly held, making nonmetals poor conductors of electricity and heat. Additionally, metal atoms typically have fewer outer electrons than nonmetal atoms.

When atoms combine they have to merge electron shells which causes them to become quite unstable and to break down and release massive ammounts of heat enery when is then used in power plants to heat up water to turn turbines

Radioactive decay is a function of quantum mechanical probability. When will something happen? It might happen now, it might happen next week, and it might not happen for a thousand years. Let's do a practical example with a deck of cards. A randomly arranged deck of cards is face down on the table and we're turning up cards. When will the next red card appear? The next club? The next face card? The next queen? Same with radioactive decay. You might see two in a second, and wait an hour for another decay. It's a "crap shoot" in that respect. Odd, huh? But that's the way it is. Note that radioactice decay is a statistically derived characteristic. But we've counted carefully and over a long enough period in each case we've investigated to get a "good" number for the half life of a given radionuclide. Certainly in the case of the exotic elements beyond plutonium we've had to work harder and our numbers are a bit less precise because of the small quantities and short half lives. And there are some "kinks" with measuring the half life of something like bismuth-209. Other than that, we're down with making the measurements and doing so with "good" accuracy. A link is provided.

The Sun emits infrared radiation, as well as a broad spectrum of other rays of electromagnetic radiation. It is the infrared band, that just beyond (and just longer in wavelength) what we see as the color red, which reacts with matter to increase its temperature. Infrared from sunlight heats the Earth's surface and atmosphere.

Scientists can bombard atomic nuclei with high-energy particles such as protons, neutrons, or alpha particles. Scientists synthesize a transuranium element by the artificial transmutation of a lighter element. ... It involves nuclear change, not chemical change. NOTE nuclear decay is a transmutation that happens naturally

When a radioactive nucleus emits a gamma ray, it releases high-energy photons without changing its atomic number or mass. This emission helps the nucleus transition to a lower energy state, leading to greater stability.

No, it is not an energy conversion as such. The fusion going on in the sun's inner region releases heat, which flows outward by radiation and convection. The outer layers of the sun reach a temperature of incandescence, around 6000 degC, and so radiate visible light as well as infra-red and ultra-violet EM radiation.

It's possible for an object to have velocity equals to zero at some moment and to have some acceleration (when you throw a baseball upwards with the gravitation present, the ball reaches its maximum point and then starts to come back at its maximum height its velocity is zero while acceleration equals g).

For all practical purposes, No.

However, there is a very small effect on some elements due to pressure (E.g. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/181/4105/1164), there is a small effect upon Beta Decay due to magnetic field strength, and there is an effect due to ionization.

There are multiple types of radiation, and there are different means of protecting yourself from them.

Solar radiation is, by far, the most common as it comes from the sun. Even though we depend on the sun and it has always been there, solar radiation can cause serious problems or even death with overexposure. Staying indoors and away from sunlight going through windows (including sunlight reflecting off of glaciers, snow, glass or water) is the surest way to avoid damage from solar radiation. Second to that would be clothing to cover as much of one's skin as possible and sunglasses to prevent solar radiation damage to one's eyes. Any skin that is exposed should have sunblock with both UVA and UVB protection, and an SPF factor of at least 30 before becoming exposed to sunlight.

Radioactive material, such as radium or xenon, is another source of radiation exposure. Any element with an atomic number higher than Bismuth is radioactive (technically Bismuth itself is radioactive, but the half-life of Bismuth is a billion times the estimated age of the universe, so it emits such a tiny amount of radiation that it would not register on most geiger counters) as well as heavier isotopes of lighter elements. Most smoke detectors use a tiny amount of radioactive material, but the radiation emitted by the material is slight and usually does not penetrate outside the shell of the smoke detector. Cell phones may have radioactive materials in them, but unfortunately it is not yet known how much of a problem they cause. Although the amount of radioactive material is small, it is a concern because of how close cell phones are kept to our bodies; even when not in use, most people keep their cell phone on their belt or in a pocket and when in use, its right against your head. Using Blue-Tooth or other wireless technology with your cell phone instead of directly putting a cell phone to your ear to handle a call can, at least, prevent whatever radiation might emit from being in such direct contact with your most vital organ: your brain.

Almost all nuclear fission reactors emit radiation that is higher than normal background radiation during normal operation. Ongoing research has found statistically higher incidences of cancer and other known side effects of radiation even when radiation emission from reactors do not exceed currently established safety limits. Unfortunately, the constant emission of radiation saturate broadly around the reactor over time. The only sure-fire effective way to avoid radiation damage from a nuclear reactor is to never live, travel or be near one.

Nuclear fission reactors are complex machines, and human error (such as occurred at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island) or natural disaster (such as the Fukushima reactor in Japan) can trigger the unintentional and potentially catastrophic release of radioactive material into the air and water in a meltdown or near-meltdown incident, contaminating the air and ground for dozens of miles. Radioactive dust can be breathed in, or water or food (plants, dairy, poultry, meat, etc.) produced in or transported through areas contaminated with airborne byproducts of runaway nuclear reactions may be contaminated with radiation. When disaster strikes a nearby nuclear reactor, it is a good idea to use a dust mask to avoid breathing in radioactive dust. If possible, get at least 20-30 miles from the reactor and not downwind of the reactor. Do not eat food or drink liquids harvested after the radiation release (generally, the stuff that was already in your fridge before the incident is okay; your house blocks some radiation and prevents most radioactive dust from getting inside except through ventilation or air conditioner, and refrigerators tend to be air-tight such that it is unlikely radioactive dust would get directly inside). Water that was already bottled before a nuclear reactor incident should be safe unless it was very close to really intense radiation.

Nuclear weapons are almost the worst radiation exposure that one can get, as there is an intense blast of pure radiation at the moment of detonation ... it does not need to be carried by wind as dust, the first dose of radiation will emit out. Some can be blocked by normal, healthy skin; some need a thin sheet of metal before it will be blocked, but some radiation emitted by a nuclear weapon detonation would need several inches of lead to be stopped. Avoid looking into the blast, and place yourself to put as much as you can directly between you and the blast. Draw curtains over a window and stay behind a wall or large object like a car, if possible.

A nuclear blast will generate a lot of smoke (the immense heat from the detonation can cause spontaneous fires miles from the point of detonation, depending on the detonation yield) and dust which will be contaminated with radiation. A cloud-like plume will rise from ground zero (the spot the weapon detonated) and will be carried by prevailing wind (the wind driving normal weather clouds); dust and moisture will cause radiation to essentially fall from this cloud, so you want to avoid being beneath this cloud with any means available. Any device containing electronic circuitry may be disabled by an invisible electromagnetic shockwave emanating from the nuclear blast, so a car exposed to this invisible shockwave may not start, and even if a cell tower survived the direct blast, a mobile phone or computer may not work at all; if you want to get away from the danger zone, you may have to do so solely on foot or with means not involving any electronic components (such as a bicycle or horse). The longer you are in the area of a nuclear blast, the greater your chances of serious radiation exposure, so get out when and how you can safely do so.

To date, only two nuclear weapons have been detonated in hostile acts: upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan some 66 years ago. There were a number of terrifying moments of the cold war between the United States and the then-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, aka the Soviet Union), and for a long time (especially early on) a lot of Americans believed or were lead to believe that a nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. was inevitable. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. engaged in a very worrisome nuclear arms race, racing with each other to build more and bigger bombs. Fortunately, in the 1980s, the cold war ended ... by that time, the crazy doctrine appropriately acronymed M.A.D. -- Mutually Assured Destruction -- had reduced the threat most Americans have felt about the likelihood of the U.S. becoming the target of a nuclear strike ... and after the fall, it seemed improbable, a silly, forgotten paranoia of a by-gone era.

Unfortunately, the world has changed and not for the better. Nuclear weapons have proliferated to smaller, less stable governments that seem to have less interest in self-preservation. The United States has incurred several terrorist acts in Oklahoma City, New York and our national capital. With the number of billions of people living in the world upticking higher and higher, and nuclear weapons being spread to less civilized places more and more despite stockpile reductions in the U.S. and Russia, the cold, hard fact is the United States is vulnerable to a nuclear weapon and it is a real and valid concern. Whether a crackpot state dictator, stateless terrorist or even domestic terrorist, the best missile defense we have can't protect against some guy lugging around a bomb in a box. Equipment and manpower to detect radiation from terrorist bombs is well beyond the budget of our government to constantly scan 100% of all incoming cargo (to say nothing of a homegrown bomb from a domestic terrorist). Add to the mix, the world economy being what it is and getting worse for some, those with a nuke on hand might be tempted more and more to make a buck pawning it to a nasty person ... so it might seem silly and paranoid because its never really happened on U.S. soil, but it is still sensible to plan for the contingency of a nuclear weapon detonation.

The isotope radon-198 will alpha decay to polonium-194 as shown here: 86198Rn => 24He + 84194Po The radon is shown on the left, and the alpha particle, which is a helium nucleus, is shown of the right with the polonium.

There are two different kinds of beta decay, negative and positive.

In negative beta decay, a neutron in the nucleus emits an electron and an electron antineutrino, becoming a proton in the process. This increases the atomic number of the atom by one, but it decreases the mass because the only thing really lost is the electron antineutrino.

In positive beta decay, a proton in the nucleus receives energy from outside the atom to convert into a neutron, a positron and a neutrino. This increases the mass of the atom by converting the energy from outside the atom into mass within it.

These are types of both particulate and electromagnetic radiation, and alpha and beta are the former while gamma is the latter. Let's look at each one in brief. An alpha particle is a pair of protons and a pair of neutrons all hooked together. It's a helium-4 nucleus, and it's particulate radiation. A gamma ray is electromagnetic radiation (an electromagnetic ray) of very high frequency and energy (which also means very short wavelength). A beta particle is one of two types of particles, either a beta plus particle or a beta minus particle. The beta minus particle is an electron, and a beta plus particle is a positron, or anti-electron (antimatter). Beta radiation is particulate radiation. What is key to understanding these guys is how they are formed. Use the links below to the three questions that specifically speak to the characteristics of each of these types of radiation. These questions are already posted and answered here; no need for repetition.

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers stars, such as our sun.