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…
