Question

A certain radioactive nucleus emits a particle that leaves its mass unchanged, but increases its atomic number by one. Identify the particle and write its symbol.

Answer 1

Given, on emission of particle, mass number is unchanged, but atomic number increases by one. Thus, the emission must be beta-particle.
\(\mathrm{z}^{P^{A}} \rightarrow \mathrm{z}_{+1} \mathrm{Q}^{\mathrm{A}}+{ }_{-1} \mathrm{e}^{0}\)
On emitting a \(\beta \)-particle, the number of nucleons in the nucleus (sum of protons and neutrons number) remains same, but the number of neutrons is decreased by one and the number of protons is increased by one.