Nuclear Breakup Balancing Reactions

Dealing With a Nuclear Breakup Balancing Reactions 

For purposes of this book, I define radioactivity as the spontaneous decay of an unstable nucleus. An unstable nucleus may break apart into two or more other particles with the release of some energy. This breaking apart can occur in a number of ways, depending on the particular atom that s decaying. 

If you know what one of the peirticles of a radioactive decay will be, you can often predict the other particle. Doing so involves something called balancing the nuclear reaction. (A nuclear reaction is any reaction involving a change in nuclear structure.) 

Balancing a nucle ir reaction is really a fairly simple process. But before I explain it, here s how to represent a reaction  

Reactants are the substances you stcirt with, and products are the new substances being formed. The arrow, called a reaction arrow, indicates that a reaction has taken place. 

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