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What are the characteristics of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation?

While most substances in nature are stable, others are unstable, or radioactive. Radioactive substances are those in which the atomic nuclei disintegrate over time. They shed three types of high-energy subatomic particles: alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays.

Alpha particles, identified by French physicist (a scientist specializing in the interaction between matter and energy) Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), are helium nuclei. An alpha particle has a positive electrical charge and consists of two protons (positively charged particles) and two neutrons (particles with no charge). Because of their great mass, alpha particles can travel only short distances, around 2 inches (5 centimeters) in air, and can be stopped by a sheet of paper.

Beta particles, identified by New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest...

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1. Chemists And Chemical Principles
   1. Who are some of the founders of modern chemistry?
   2. Who made the first organic compound to be synthesized from inorganic ingredients?
   3. Who is known as the founder of crystallography?
   4. When was spontaneous combustion first recognized?
2. Physicists And Physical Principles
   1. Who is generally regarded as the person who discovered the electron, the proton, and the neutron?
   2. What is the speed of light?
   3. What were some of the leading contributions of Albert Einstein?
   4. What is inertia?
   5. Who is generally regarded as the founder of quantum mechanics?
   6. Who is the founder of the science of magnetism?
   7. How is ''absolute zero" defined?
   8. Who invented the thermometer?
   9. What is the Kelvin temperature scale and how does it compare with Celsius and Fahrenheit scales?
   10. What is an adiabatic process?
   11. Why does a boomerang return to its thrower?
   12. Does water running down a drain rotate in a different direction in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres?
   13. What is a Leyden jar?
3. Chemical Elements
   1. What are the two most abundant chemical elements on Earth?
   2. Who developed the periodic table?
   3. What are the alkali metalls?
   4. What are the alkaline earth metals?
   5. Which elements are liquid at room temperature?
   6. What are the transition elements?
   7. What are some chemical elements whose symbols are not derived from their English names?
   8. Which elements have the most isotopes?
   9. Which chemical element is the most abundant one in the universe?
   10. What is heavy water?
4. Matter
   1. What are the four states of matter?
   2. What are the subatomic particles?
   3. How did the quark get its name?
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   5. Why is liquid water more dense than ice?
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   3. What are the colors in light?
   4. Why does the color of clothing appear different in direct light than it does under fluorescent lignt?
   5. What is the speed of sound?
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   2. What are the gas laws?
   3. How did the electrical term "ampere" originate?
   4. What is a mole in chemistry?
   5. What is "STP"?
   6. How did the electrical unit "volt" originate?
   7. How did the electrical unit "watt" originate?
   8. What does half-life mean?

1. Albert Einstein