Question

What is the decay equation for the beta decay of uranium 237?

Answer 1

Hint: The elements which are not stable due to the presence of excess number of protons and neutrons in their nucleus are going to emit some radiation then those elements are called radioactive elements and they undergo the process of emission called decay.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is asked to write the beta decay equation of the uranium-237.
- Here 237 is the mass number of the uranium.
- The beta particle can be represented as $\beta _{-1}^{0}$ .
- Now we have to write beta decay from uranium - 237.
- The mass number is given in the question and it is 237 and the atomic number of uranium is 92.
- The chemical symbol to represent uranium with atomic and mass number is ${}_{92}^{237}U$ .
- Now we can write the beta decay from uranium -237 and it is as follows.
\[{}_{92}^{237}U\to {}_{93}^{237}Np+\beta _{-1}^{0}+\gamma \]
- The above chemical reaction is called beta decay of uranium -237.
- In the above beta decay of uranium we can see that the ${}_{92}^{237}U$ is going to convert into ${}_{93}^{237}Np$ and get stability.

Note:
Beta decay is nothing but the ejection of beta particles, nothing but the electron. Electrons are also called beta particles. By the decay of the beta particle the atomic number of the element which undergoes the decay process is going to increase by one unit and the mass number is not going to be affected.