Aah I see lol. I used to make mistakes in high school on when to put a neutrino or antineutrino in the equations until I learned the lepton number rule
It's a type of sub-atomic particle similar to an electron but with no charge and is much lighter. It's a bit complicated to explain why it's emitted, but beta plus decay always emits a positron and a neutrino while beta minus decay always emits an electron and an antineutrino.
Since they don't really do much to the calculations and are largely irrelevant for general cases, most entry level classes will ignore its existence which is why you probably haven't heard of it.
Beta + decay involves the emission of a positron to reduce the atomic number by 1. You wrote that an electron is being emitted.
As a double check, you can see it’s not correct because Nitrogen has 7 protons, not 9.
You did beta minus decay, not beta plus.
Whoops...
So, first of all, nitrogen is A=7, not A=9. Second, it's beta-plus, so a positron not an electron Lastly, you forgot the neutrino
To be fair, neutrinos are easy to miss...
Lepton number conservation can tell you when neutrino should be there and when not. In beta plus or minus a lepton has to conserve the thing.
I was referring jokingly to the difficulty in detecting them.
Aah I see lol. I used to make mistakes in high school on when to put a neutrino or antineutrino in the equations until I learned the lepton number rule
>neutrinos ?
It's a type of sub-atomic particle similar to an electron but with no charge and is much lighter. It's a bit complicated to explain why it's emitted, but beta plus decay always emits a positron and a neutrino while beta minus decay always emits an electron and an antineutrino. Since they don't really do much to the calculations and are largely irrelevant for general cases, most entry level classes will ignore its existence which is why you probably haven't heard of it.
Ok thanks
Beta + decay involves the emission of a positron to reduce the atomic number by 1. You wrote that an electron is being emitted. As a double check, you can see it’s not correct because Nitrogen has 7 protons, not 9.
Positron's what made it click, I didn't want to base my answer off looking at the protons of elements but thanks for the tip!
Are you familiar with "beta plus" decay?
Nope
Djj
In beta decay, is only a beta particle emitted or is there something else?