Okay, alpha and beta decay are all about balancing those mass and atomic numbers, right? For alpha, mass number decreases by 4 and atomic by 2. For beta, mass stays same but atomic number increases by 1. You just adjust the daughter nucleus accordingly.
Honestly, I keep forgetting which one is which—so I drew a silly comic in my notes of an Alpha particle as a big, slow 'Appa' and a Beta as a fast, tricky 'Beta' villain. It stuck. Now my biggest worry is my physics sir finding that page, paavam.
#exams#study
Jump in to reply — no account needed.