Question #8b941
2 Answers
Think of it this way.
- The bombarding particle hits the target nucleus.
- The two particles temporarily fuse together to form an highly unstable nucleus.
- To become stable, the nucleus emits a neutron or a proton.
We could consider the bombardment of nitrogen by α particles as forming an unstable
This nucleus could become stable by emitting a proton.
The sum of the two reactions is
This is the transmutation of nitrogen to oxygen with the formation of a neutron.
In the same way, we could fire a deuteron at molybdenum and form an unstable
The unstable
The sum of the two reactions is
This is an example of the transmutation Mo-96 to Tc-97 with the formation of a neutron.
This is related to the process of transmutation. I will go over some examples related to beta decay.
In the process of beta minus decay a neutron is converted into a proton.
In the process of beta positive decay a proton becomes converted to a proton.
See discussion of beta minus and beta positive decay here: beta decay
Here is a video which discusses these types of decay:
Hope this helps...
Noel P.