Decay

In this Unit we learned about three different types of decay, alpha, beta, and gamma. Many nuclei are radioactive, which means they spontaneously decay, forming a different nucleus and producing one or more particles. The first type of decay we covered was alpha decay. Alpha decay is a common mode for heavy radioactive nuclides resulting in a loss of 4 in the mass number and a loss of 2 in atomic number.

Here is an example of Alpha decay

http://www.chemteam.info/Radioactivity/Writing-Alpha-Beta.html

The second type of decay we learned about was beta decay. Beta decay is a decay process for radioactive nuclides in which mass number does not change and the atomic number increases by 1.

Here is an example of Beta decay

http://www.cyberphysics.co.uk/topics/radioact/Radio/equations.htm

The third and final type of decay type of decay we learned about was Gamma decay. In gamma decay a nucleus changes from a higher energy state to a lower energy state through the emission of electromagnetic radiation but does not change the mass number, or the proton number.

Here is an example of Gamma decay

http://www.cyberphysics.co.uk/topics/radioact/Radio/equations.htm

If you are wishing to learn more about these types of decay you can go to these websites

Alpha-http://education.jlab.org/glossary/alphadecay.html
Beta-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_decay
Gamma-http://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/3.html