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Charge balance in Nuclear Reactions

  • 23-01-2012 5:07pm
    #1
    bluesky123
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3 ✭


    Hey so, I was just wondering:

    If Carbon-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons) decays into an electron, a neutrino, and Nitrogen 14 (7 protons, 7 neutrons) How is charge conserved? I get that nucleons are conserved, but if nitrogen-14 is neutral, then it has 7 protons and 7 electrons, versus Carbon, which had 6 protons and 6 electrons, so is this extra electron the one that comes from the decay of the neutron and is subsequently emitted? In this case, wouldn't Nitrogen-14 have 7 protons and 6 electrons (after the beta particle is emitted), and be an ion with a net positive charge of +1e? Thanks!


Comments

  • #2
    FISMA
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,616 ✭✭✭FISMA


    bluesky123 wrote: »
    If Carbon-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons) decays into an electron, a neutrino,

    An antineutrino, not a neutrino.
    Beta_Deca_of_carbon_14.gif

    The Nucleon number is conserved (top).

    The charge is conserved (bottom).

    Also, the Law of Conservation of Charge does not mean that charges cannot be created or destroyed, in fact they can (annihilation and pair production.

    Conservation of Charge means that after a reaction, there's no net charge.


  • #3
    SOL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,155 ✭✭✭SOL


    Okay, ususally people get banned for posting the same thing repeatedly, in threads which it doesn't belong, but since I'm guessing you are not a spam bot, and in the interest of having a friendly forum, I've decided to move it to a new thread. In future if you want to ask a question that is not addressed in any other thread then feel free to start a new one.

    And please read the forum charter.


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