Question

What is the best description of what Becquerel observed in his experiment?

Answer 1

The answer is: D.unstable nuclei emitting high-energy particles as they formed more stable compositions.

Those high-energy particles are alpha particles , beta particles , gamma radiation.

For example, the decay chain of ²³⁸U is called the uranium series.

Decay start with U-238 and ends with Pb-206. There are several alpha and beta minus decays.

Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852 – 1908) was a French physicist and the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity.

Becquerel wrapped fluorescing crystal (uranium salt potassium uranyl sulfate) in a cloth, along with the photographic plate and a copper Maltese cross.

Several days later, he discovered that a image of the cross appeared on the plate.

The uranium salt was emitting radiation.

Because of this discovery, Becquerel won a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, which he shared with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie.

Answer 2

Answer;

D.unstable nuclei emitting high-energy particles as they formed more stable compositions

Explanation;

• Henri Becquerel was a French physicist best known for his work on radioactivity, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1903.
• He accidentally found that a uranium-rich mineral emitted invisible, penetrating rays that could darken a photographic plate, a process called nuclear radioactivity.
• He found that radiation is associated with certain elements such as Uranium, whose nuclei is unstable. Unstable nuclei undergo radioactivity, where the emit high-energy particles to form more stable compositions.
• Additionally, the process of radioactivity is not affected by factors such as temperature, pressure of ionization state of the unstable nuclei such as Uranium.