Gamma Emission - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
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Gamma Emission
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Now gamma mission is unique because gamma mission offered occurs alongside alpha or beta decay and emits gamma rays. Now gamma rays are just seen as a high energy photon particle. Remember photon is just a particle of light, a special type of energy we're gonna say here because it's dealing with gamma rays, it's part of the electromagnetic spectrum. And because it's part of the electromagnetic spectrum and part of energy, we're gonna say it has uh no mass or charge and is symbolized as zero over zero with the gamma symbol or just simply the gamma symbol. Now gamma rays are emitted by an atom in an excited state. Here we have thallium in an excited state. Thallium 204. It undergoes gamma emission. And what's going to occur here is that nothing is changing in terms of our mass number or atomic number with the gamma particle. So it still stays thallium 204. What's happening here is basically in terms of the electrons in the orbitals of the excited atom, they're just going from one shell to another. She OK. It's an excited state. And what's happening here is that we're emitting energy, the electron is going down to a lower orbital state, more ground level state. And as a result, it's releasing this gamma ray, but it's staying the same, it's still the same exact isotope thallium tool four is still thallium 204. But again, remember we said this typically happens alongside alpha or beta decay. So it usually doesn't just stop here. It would continue or work in conjunction with an alpha decay or beta decay. So, keep that in mind when it comes to gamma emission reactions.
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Gamma Emission Example
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So one thing that I like about nuclear reactions is that we get to the lower level elements on the periodic table. And you'll start to notice that they have names that you're familiar with names connected to countries to planets, to people. Here in this example question, it says provide a balanced nuclear reaction for alpha decay of Americium 241 here it says show gamma mission. Now Emery is named after America. So it's am er IC I UN. So here are Maiti on 241. It's mass numbers 241. If you look on the periodic table, it's atomic numbers 95 we say that it undergoes alpha decay. So it would emit an alpha particle which is 42 alpha and then it also emits a gamma particle which is not gonna change. And right. So remember your mass number on both sides have to be the same, your number of protons overall have to be the same on both sides. We have 241 here on the reactant side. So we need 241 on the product side. Four of them are coming from the upper particle. So the remaining 2, 37 have to be part of our new isotope. Here, we have 95 protons on the reactant side. So we need 95 protons on the product side. Two of them are coming from the ava particle, meaning we need 93 more. This, if we look on the periodic table, 93 gives us neptunium named after Neptune. So again, when we get down to these heavy elements, we can see these interesting names. Again, they're being uh gifted, well not gifted people who have contribute to chemistry in some regard or in terms of a country or in terms of a planet, you'll start seeing that there's even an element for Einstein. OK. So for this one, we have Americium 241 undergoing alpha decay mixed with gamma mission to give us neptunium 237.
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Characteristics of Gamma Rays
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Now, with comparing gamma rays or gamma particles to the other energetic particles, we can say that gamma rays are the smallest in size. We're also going to say that they have lowest in ionizing power, but they have the highest in penetrating power. Here. When we look at the gamma ray or gamma mission compared to the other two. Here, the gamma particle would be zero over zero with the gamma symbol. Here we have thallium 204 becoming thallium 204. Again, it's just in terms of our electron moving from one orbital to another, in terms of size, they'd be the smallest since they have no mass and they have no atomic number here. In terms of ionizing power, they will be the lowest. And then in terms of penetrating power, they will be the highest because they have the highest penetrating power. We need to do as much as we can to protect or shield ourselves from their effect. So what could you use? Well, here, you would need a thick sheet of lead. Can any a thick sheet of lead or concrete? You need something that dense, that thick to protect you from the penetrating power of a gamma ray gamma particle. OK. So just keep in mind when we compare these different types of energetic particles, how they differ from one another.
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Gamma Emission Example
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Now, which statement is true about gamma rays can only be stopped by aluminum. Well, we know that's true. Even if we don't know the density of aluminum and aluminum is a lightweight metal, we know that lead is the metal that's typically used. So we know that it couldn't only be aluminum, if aluminum can even do it possesses the highest ionizing power. So remember they have the lowest ionizing power, not the highest it is capable of penetrating through many kinds of protective materials. Yes, because we need something as thick as lead or concrete to stop the progression of a gamma particle or gamma ray emitted by excited electrons. So here when it comes to gamma particles, it's not only in terms of excited electrons. When we talk about gamma emission, it can be coupled with alpha decay or beta decay, there could be an excess of protons or neutrons that are coupled with a gamma mission. It's not necessarily just tied to excited electrons. If it were then gamma missions will be happening all the time everywhere. So this is not true. So here c is the most true statement that's presented to us in this question?