Gamma Emission - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
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The gamma particle does not create a new element like the other radioactive particles, but instead causes the excitation of electrons within an element.
Understanding Gamma Emission
A gamma particle has no atomic mass and no atomic number and is represented by the sign gamma.
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Gamma Emission Concept 1
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Hey guys in this new video, we're gonna take a look at gamma emissions. So here we're gonna say gamma radiation is related to the electromagnetic spectrum. Now, we're gonna say here, gamma rays have the highest energy and therefore they have the lowest or shortest wavelength and then they have the highest frequency. Mhm. So remember you have to remember from electromagnetic spectrum theory that when it comes to energy, energy and frequency are directly proportional. All that means is if one is high, the other one would be high. But when it comes to wavelength, wavelength is inversely proportional to the both of them. All that means is that wavelength is the opposite of the other two. If they're high it's low If it's high they're low. So it's the complete opposite of frequency and energy. And remember wavelength is just the distance From one wave to another wave. Where frequency is how many waves do you get within 1/2? So if your distance between waves, the crest, the tops of them is very large. That means you don't get many waves in a second. But if the wavelengths are very small, if the distance between them is very small, You can cram a bunch of them in within 1/2. Okay, so then you would say the frequency is extremely high and the energy is high. Gamma rays have the highest behind cosmic rays, cosmic rays would actually be a little bit higher than gamma rays. We usually don't hear about this in lecture. But in lecture, So strictly lecture, we're gonna say gamma rays have the highest energy and therefore they have the highest frequency and therefore the lowest or shortest wavelength. If you went beyond just general, kem you go into physics and other higher level sciences. They start talking about cosmic rays, which are then even higher than gamma rays. But for right now, just focused on the simple electromagnetic spectrum, gamma rays are going to have the highest energy.
Gamma radiation is involved in the electromagnetic spectrum. Gamma rays possess the highest energy, while radio waves have lowest energy in terms of the spectrum.
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Gamma Emission Concept 2
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now we're gonna say a gamma particle can be represented by 0/0. And the gamma symbol is this. Now you're gonna say because it's 0/0. You should realize that a gamma ray actually does not cause any change in your atomic mass or atomic number. And because of that we usually see it happening with alpha decay or beta decay. But what's the whole purpose of gamma mission then? Well we're gonna say when it comes to gamma mission it has to do with the absorption of energy. So here we're gonna say this wavy live line represents energy and this electron is in our first shell in our atom. So here in absorption the electron is gonna absorb that excess energy and become excited and use that extra energy just absorbed to jump up to either a higher shell number or to a higher orbital number. So basically if you go from one s to to us. So you're going from the first shell To the 2nd. Show that represents absorption. You could also go from the three s. 23 D. You can script skip three P. Altogether and just jump up straight to three D. Both of these examples represent absorption. The first one represents absorption when you jump from one shell to a higher shell and then the three S. The three D. Represents you absorbing energy and jumping up from a lower orbital to a higher orbital within the same shell. Both of them begin with the number three. So they're both within the third shell of your atom. But D orbital's have more energy than S orbital's. So if we saw this we'd have 40 over 20 calcium. It undergoes a gammy mission. And we'd say that that calcium has an electron that have just absorbed um energy and it's gonna become excited. So we put a little asterisks by it to show that it's in an excited state. So that would represent a gamma emission. Now we're gonna say that gamma particles they have the lowest ionizing power but they have the highest penetrating power. So if you're ever exposed to gamma mission like gamma radiation, it's basically a done deal, you're not gonna survive. Gamma radiation is extremely toxic to living tissue and biological systems. So any exposure to even the smallest amount of gamma radiation would completely eviscerate all the living cells and tissues within your body. So it has the lowest ionizing power, but it's still extremely dangerous.
Gamma Particles have lowest ionizing power, but are the most dangerous because of their highest penetrating power.
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Gamma Emission Example 1
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Now if we go to this example, it says which of the following represents an element that has experienced a gamma emission. Here we have electron configurations for elements. Remember the normal pattern is you go from one S to to US 22 P. The three of us, the three P. For us etcetera. And remember gammy mission involves the excitation or the absorption of energy gets into an excited state. So you could actually have an electron skipping an entire orbital, Like it's supposed to be in the two s. But it gains so much energy, it skips to s. And goes to two p. Or you could have an electron gaining even more energy and going from two s. 23 s. So if we look the one that fits this excited state or this gamma emission state would have to be sodium because we're supposed to see one S followed by two S, followed by two P, Followed by three s. But what must have happened, this electron in here must have absorbed energy and therefore able to jump to a higher energy state. So the next one would be three p. So it skipped the three s. and went straight to three p. So this represents an element that has gained sufficient energy to become excited, which represents a gamma emission. So, remember Yemen mission may not change your atomic mass or atomic number like alpha decay or beta decay, but it still does affect the atom in some way
