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Measuring and Detecting Radioactivity

Question

What affect do gamma rays have on charge or mass of the nucleus?

3 years ago

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4 Replies

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1949 views

C

Collin Hegmann


4 Answers

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Civan Verified Sherpa Tutor ✓

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Gamma ray is not a particle. It is an electromagnetic wave so has no effect at all

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A
Alaaeldin Mostafa

Emitting gamma rays has no effect on the charge and the mass number.

U
Umar Feras Ramzan

they dont have an affect

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Johann B Verified Sherpa Tutor ✓

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Actually, I do not agree with the previous replies. There are exotic reactions where gamma rays affect the nucleus. These are a special class of reactions called photonuclear reactions. For instance, if you impinge a beam of gamma rays with well-defined energy the nucleus can absorb it and emit either one (gamma-n reaction) or two neutrons (gamma-2n reaction). This is a brief answer but there is a lot more detail to it. Furthermore, emitting neutrons from the nucleus obviously changes the mass thereof. The shorthand for these reactions is:

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