Question

What is the composition of $\alpha ,\beta \,and\,\gamma$ radiation?

Answer 1

An insight into radioactivity is all required to answer the question. One must be aware about radioactivity decay, radioactive half life and average life in order to understand the concept of $\alpha ,\beta \,and\,\gamma$ radiations completely, their formation to their utilization. Radioactivity is basically the concept of achieving stability by decay or emission of energy by unstable particles in the form of radiation.

Complete step by step solution:
$\alpha - particles$ : It is equivalent to a Helium atom $\left( {_2H{e^4}} \right)$ in terms of mass contained and charge present on it. Mass of alpha particles is approximately 4 times that of mass of hydrogen atom and the charge on alpha particles is twice that of charge on a proton, both equivalent to mass and charge of a Helium atom. $\alpha - particles$ are emitted to stabilize unstable radioactive molecules and the process of emission of $\alpha - particles$ in order to attain stability is known as $\alpha - decay$ which can be demonstrated as: $_Z{M^A}{ \to _{Z - 2}}M{'^{\,A - 4}}{ + _2}H{e^4} + Q$
$\beta - particles$ : These are equivalent to an electron particle, having negligible mass and negative charge $\left( {_{ - 1}{e^0}} \right)$ . Mass of a beta particle is about $9.1 \times {10^{ - 28}}\,g$ and charge on beta particle is about $1.6 \times {10^{ - 19}}\,C$ , both equivalent to mass and charge of electrons. $\beta - decay$ is the process of emission of high velocity electrons from radioactive substances until it achieves stability. $_Z{M^A}{ \to _{Z + 1}}M{'^A}{ + _{ - 1}}{e^0} + Q$
$\gamma - particles$ : They don’t have any mass and charge. These particles are emitted in order to obtain higher stability. Upon emission of $\alpha \,and\,\beta$ rays particles go to a further more stabilized state by emitting gamma radiation. They bring the compound to further ground state. These particles have very high penetrating power and have many applications in the practical world. $\gamma - decay$ can be illustrated as: $_Z{M^A} \to M + \gamma$

Note:
$\alpha - particles$ are positively charged particles hence in presence of electric and magnetic fields they get deflected towards negatively charged electric fields in clockwise direction. $\beta - particles$ are negatively charged particles hence in presence of electric and magnetic fields they get deflected towards positively charged electric fields in anti-clockwise direction. $\gamma - particles$ have no charge and mass hence they do not deflect in presence of any of the fields.