Chlorine has two stable nuclides, 35Cl and 37Cl. In contrast, 36Cl is a radioactive nuclide that decays by beta emission. (a) What is the product of decay of 36Cl?

Video transcript

Welcome back. Everyone in this example, we're told that the three naturally occurring isotopes of potassium are potassium potassium 40 and potassium 41. The isotope, potassium 40 is radioactive and undergoes beta decay, identify the product of the radioactive decay of potassium In a beta decay we would begin with our isotope which in this prompt is going to be potassium 40. Recognize that on our periodic table potassium corresponds to atomic number and it's going to undergo a beta decay where we would have the product of a beta particle being our electron, which we would recall has a atomic number of negative one in a mass number of zero. And we would also produce a second unknown new glide product which we need to figure the identity of by balancing this equation. So we need to figure out its atomic number Z. And its mass number A. So figuring out for our mass number first. The mass number of our product. We're going to plug in our knowns based on the reactant side which is our potassium 40, we have a mass number of 40. This is set equal to our product side where we have a mass number of zero plus our product of our new glide mass number being a. Which is what we're solving for. And this means that we would say that a is going to equal 40. Now solving for our atomic number, which we'll do in purple will say that ZR atomic number of our product plugging in our knowns is equal to our atomic number of our potassium isotope, which is 19. Set equal to our product side. Where we have the atomic number of an electron particle being minus one plus are unknown atomic number being Z. And so solving for Z, we would have 19 plus one equal to Z. Where we would say that Z is equal to 20. And this means that now that we know our atomic number Z, recall that on our periodic table. This is going to correspond to the atom calcium. And so for our full Balanced nuclear equation, we would have our potassium which undergoes a beta decay to produce a beta electron particle And our product Calcium 40 with the atomic number 20. So for our final answer, this is going to be the product of our radioactive decay of of potassium 40. Sorry. So this is our final answer. I hope everything I explained was clear. If you have any questions, please leave them down below. And I will see everyone in the next practice video.