Question

Gamma rays are _______.

Answer 1

Gamma rays:

1. Gamma rays or gamma radiation is a stream of the high-energy electromagnetic radiation given off by an atomic nucleus undergoing radioactive decay.
2. Gamma radiation or gamma ray is an extremely high-frequency radioactive radiation consisting of high-energy photons.

Explanation:

1. An excited nucleus after disintegration through alpha decay or beta decay, comes to an unexcited state by releasing the energy in form of gamma radiation or gamma rays.
2. French chemist and physicist Paul Villard discovered gamma radiation in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium. In 1903 Ernest Rutherford named this radiation gamma rays.
3. Since gamma radiation takes place at the speed of light it is considered an electromagnetic wave.

Thus, gamma rays are electromagnetic wave.