Marie Curie Radioactivity

Introduction to Marie Curie radioactivity

The study of nuclear physics began when Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1869, just one year after the discovery of X-rays. He found that accidentally, that an ore containing uranium emits an invisible radiation that can penetrate a black paper wrapper and expose a photographic plate. The rays are called as radioactive rays. Madam Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie conducted the most significant investigation in the field of radioactivity. After several years of careful and the laborious chemical separation process on tons of pitchblende, a radioactive ore, the Marie Curie reported the discovery of two previously unknown elements, both of them were radioactive. These were named polonium and radium. Madam Marie Curie was awarded Nobel Prize in 1903 for the discovery of radium. I like to share this Curie Law with you all through my article.

Marie Curie Radioactivity

Radioactivity is the spontaneous phenomenon exhibited by the heavy elements only. It is the property of the heavy elements, which disintegrates itself without being forces by any external agent. The total number of radioactive elements known at present is about 40. The natural elements with atomic number more than 82 are all radioactive, for example, Radium, Thorium, Actinium, Polonium etc. The phenomenon of radioactivity is not affected by pressure, temperature, chemical changes etc. The electrons orbiting around the nucleus are not responsible for the phenomenon of radioactivity. Please express your views of this topic Instantaneous Velocity Equation by commenting on blog.

Laws of Marie Curie Radioactivity

The laws of Marie Curie radioactivity are as follows:

(i) Radioactivity is a spontaneous process, which does not depend upon external factors like temperature, pressure etc.

(ii) During disintegration of an atom, either an alpha particle or a beta particle is emitted. Both of these particles are never emitted simultaneously. At a time, an atom will not emit more than one alpha particle or more than one beta particle.

(iii) The emission of alpha particle from an atom will change it into a new atom whose mass number is reduced by 4 and the atomic number be reduced by 2.

(iv) The emission of beta particle from an atom will change it into a new atom whose mass number remains same and the atomic number be increased by 1.