No Kilojoules Energy Conservation

Does radioactive decay follow the law of conservation of mass and energy?

5.Can we apply Einstein mass and energy conservation law and newtons laws of motion to the particles been emitted in the radio active decay?

Public Comments

1. Yes. Absolutely.
2. maybe so.
3. Yes, Many nuclei are radioactive. This means they are unstable, and will eventually decay by emitting a particle, transforming the nucleus into another nucleus, or into a lower energy state. A chain of decays takes place until a stable nucleus is reached. During radioactive decay, principles of conservation apply. In alpha decay, the nucleus emits an alpha particle; an alpha particle is essentially a helium nucleus, so it's a group of two protons and two neutrons. A helium nucleus is very stable. An example of an alpha decay involves uranium-238: The process of transforming one element to another is known as transmutation. Alpha particles do not travel far in air before being absorbed; this makes them very safe for use in smoke detectors, a common household item. Beta decay A beta particle is often an electron, but can also be a positron, a positively-charged particle that is the anti-matter equivalent of the electron. If an electron is involved, the number of neutrons in the nucleus decreases by one and the number of protons increases by one. An example of such a process is: In terms of safety, beta particles are much more penetrating than alpha particles, but much less than gamma particles. Gamma decay The third class of radioactive decay is gamma decay, in which the nucleus changes from a higher-level energy state to a lower level. Similar to the energy levels for electrons in the atom, the nucleus has energy levels. The concepts of shells, and more stable nuclei having filled shells, apply to the nucleus as well. When an electron changes levels, the energy involved is usually a few eV, so a visible or ultraviolet photon is emitted. In the nucleus, energy differences between levels are much larger, typically a few hundred keV, so the photon emitted is a gamma ray. Gamma rays are very penetrating; they can be most efficiently absorbed by a relatively thick layer of high-density material such as lead.