Fill in each of the daughter products in the following decay chain:
To find the daughter products, the basic features of the specific decays are used. When an element emits an a particle, the nucleus is losing a helium atom. Therefore the atomic number decreases by 2 (the number of protons in a helium nucleus), and the atomic mass decreases by 4 (the atomic weight of a helium nucleus). In b decay, a neutron decays into a proton and an electron. Since no atomic mass is lost, the daughter product has the same atomic mass as the parent. However, the atomic number of the daughter product is 1 greater than the atomic number of the parent. To find the missing elements of the chain, the first step is to identify what the change is in the atomic number. From the new atomic number, the daughter element can be identified. The change in atomic mass is then used to identify which isotope of the daughter element is involved. This process yields the following answers for the blanks in the decay chain:
