Radioactive decay

What the syllabus asks of you

• Know that radioactive decay is a change in an 3 Know that isotopes of an element may be unstable nucleus that can result in the emission radioactive due to an excess of neutrons in the of α-particles or β-particles and/or γ-radiation nucleus and/or the nucleus being too heavy and know that these changes are spontaneous and random
• State that during α-decay or β-decay, the 4 Describe the effect of α-decay, β-decay and nucleus changes to that of a different element γ-emissions on the nucleus, including an increase in stability and a reduction in the number of excess neutrons; the following change in the nucleus occurs during β-emission neutron → proton + electron 5 Use decay equations, using nuclide notation, to show the emission of α-particles, β-particles and γ-radiation