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Chemistry Ch. 8
Term | Definition |
---|---|
radioactivity | the spontaneous breaking up of unstable nuclei with the emission of one or more types of radiation |
When an atom loses an alpha particle... | it changes into an atom of the element two places before it in the periodic table. The mass number of the parent atom decreases by four. |
when an atom loses a beta particle... | it changes into an atom of the element one place after it in the periodic table. the mass number if the atom stays the same |
half-life | the time taken for half of the nuclei in any given sample to decay. |