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Secondly, he found the charge-to-mass ratio of alpha particles to be half that of the hydrogen ion. Rutherford proposed three explanations: 1) an alpha particle is a hydrogen molecule (H 2) with a charge of 1 e; 2) an alpha particle is an atom of helium with a charge of 2 e; 3) an alpha particle is half a helium atom with a charge of 1 e.
Alpha decay or α-decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle (helium nucleus) and thereby transforms or "decays" into a different atomic nucleus, with a mass number that is reduced by four and an atomic number that is reduced by two.
The following are among the principal radioactive materials known to emit alpha particles. 209 Bi , 211 Bi , 212 Bi , 213 Bi 210 Po , 211 Po , 212 Po , 214 Po , 215 Po , 216 Po , 218 Po
For Rutherford's alpha particle scattering from gold, with mass of 197, the reduced mass is very close to the mass of the alpha particle: = + = For lighter aluminium, with mass 27, the effect is greater: = + = a 13% difference in mass. Rutherford notes this difference and suggests experiments be performed with lighter atoms.
The alpha particle is an especially strongly bound nucleus, helping it win the competition more often. [57]: 872 However some nuclei break up or fission into larger particles and artificial nuclei decay with the emission of single protons, double protons, and other combinations. [55] Beta decay transforms a neutron into proton or vice versa.
This is a timeline of subatomic particle discoveries, including all particles thus far discovered which appear to be elementary (that is, indivisible) given the best available evidence. It also includes the discovery of composite particles and antiparticles that were of particular historical importance.
The nucleus of the other (and far more common) stable isotope of helium, helium-4, consisting of two protons and two neutrons, is called an alpha particle or an alpha for short. This particle is the daughter product in the beta-minus decay of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen: [citation needed]
In physics, the fine-structure constant, also known as the Sommerfeld constant, commonly denoted by α (the Greek letter alpha), is a fundamental physical constant that quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles.