Question

Why radioactivity is a nuclear phenomena even there is change in electrons ? Example. Uranium with 92 electron changes to thorium with 90 electron

Answer 1

the decay is an `alpha` decay process of nucleus and two extra atomic electrons can combine with `alpha` particle io form He atom.

Explanation:

The radioactivity is nuclear process and the nucleus changes by emitting a alpha, or beta particles or gamma photons.

Therefore the 234U 92 which has 92 protons and rest 142 neutrons

the nucleus is written as A T Z where T is nucleus name and A is Atomic mass number and Z is proton number

( A= Z +N ) ,

Uranium gets converted to Thorium giving out an `alpha` particle which is a nucleus containing

two neutrons and two protons ,which is a 4He2 nucleus.

*If somebody is looking at Atoms of Uranium and Thorium

, the two atomic electrons which are left over may be caught by

the helium nucleus and then one gets a helium atom.*

In the alpha decay process the atomic electrons which are well far

from the bounded nucleus and whose interactions are very weak

is not participating .so one can not say that its an atomic event.