Gamma Emission: Study with Video Lessons, Practice Problems & Examples

Gamma radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation with the highest energy, shortest wavelength, and highest frequency. It is represented by the symbol $0/0$. Gamma emissions occur when an electron absorbs energy, causing it to jump to a higher energy shell or orbital. Despite having the lowest ionizing power, gamma radiation is extremely penetrating and toxic to biological tissues, making exposure highly dangerous.

Gamma Emission Concept 1

Guys, in this new video, we're going to take a look at gamma emissions. So here we're going to say gamma radiation is related to the electromagnetic spectrum. Now, we're going to say gamma rays have the highest energy and therefore they have the lowest or shortest wavelength, and they have the highest frequency. So remember, you have to remember from electromagnetic spectrum theory, that when it comes to energy, energy and frequency are directly proportional. All that means is if one is high, the other one is high. But when it comes to wavelength, wavelength is inversely proportional to both of them. All that means is that wavelength is the opposite of the other two. If they're high, it's low. If it's high, they're low. So it's a complete opposite of frequency and energy, and remember, wavelength is just the distance from one wave to another wave. Where frequency is how many waves you get within one second. So if your distance between waves, the crests, the tops of them, is very large, that means you don't get many waves in a second. But if the wavelength is very small, if the distance between them is very small, you can cram a bunch of them in within one second. Okay. So then you would say the frequency is extremely high and the energy is high. Gamma rays have the highest behind cosmic rays. Cosmic rays would actually be a little bit higher than gamma rays. We usually don't hear about this in lecture, but in lecture, so strictly lecture, we're going to say gamma rays have the highest energy, and therefore they have the highest frequency, and therefore the lowest or shortest wavelength. If you went beyond just general chemistry, you go into physics and other, higher-level sciences, they'd start talking about cosmic rays, which are then even higher than gamma rays. But for right now, just focused on the simple electromagnetic spectrum, gamma rays are going to have the highest energy.

Gamma Emission Concept 2

Now we're going to say a gamma particle can be represented by 00 and the gamma symbol is this. Now, you're going to say because it's 00, you should realize that a gamma ray actually does not cause any change in your atomic mass or atomic number. And because of that, we usually see it happening with alpha decay or beta decay. But what's the whole purpose of gamma emission then? Well, we're going to say when it comes to gamma emission, it has to do with the absorption of energy. So here we're going to say this wavy live line represents energy, and this electron is in our first shell in our atom. So here in absorption, the electron is going to absorb that excess energy and become excited, and use that extra energy just absorbed to jump up to either a higher shell number or to a higher orbital number. So basically, if you go from 1^s to 2^s. So you're going from the first shell to the second shell, that represents absorption. You could also go from 3^s to 3^d. You can skip 3^p altogether, and just jump up straight to 3^d. Both of these examples represent absorption. The first one represents absorption where you jump from one shell to a higher shell, and then the 3^s to 3^d represents you absorbing energy and jumping up from a lower orbital to a higher orbital within the same shell. Both of them begin with the number 3, so they're both within the third shell of your atom, but d orbitals have more energy than s orbitals. So if we solve this, we'd have 4020 calcium. It undergoes a gamma emission, and we'd say that that calcium has an electron that had just absorbed energy and it's going to become excited. So we put a little asterisk by it to show that it's in an excited state. That will represent a gamma emission. Now, we're going to say that gamma particles, they have the lowest ionizing power, but they have the highest penetrating power. So if you're ever exposed to gamma emission, like gamma radiation, it's basically a done deal. You're not going to survive. Gamma radiation is extremely toxic to living tissue and biological systems. So any exposure to even the smallest amount of gamma radiation would completely eviscerate all the living cells and tissues within your body. It has the lowest ionizing power, but it's still extremely dangerous.

Gamma Emission Example 1

Now, if we go to this example, it says which of the following represents an element that has experienced a gamma emission? Here we have electron configurations for elements. Now remember, the normal pattern is, you go from 1s to 2s to 2p to 3s to 3p, 4s, etcetera. And remember, gamma emission involves the excitation or the absorption of energy gets you into an excited state, so you could actually have an electron skipping an entire orbital, like it's supposed to be in the 2s, but it gains so much energy it skips 2s and goes to 2p. Or you could have an electron gaining even more energy and going from 2s to 3s. So, if we look, the one that fits this excited state or this gamma emission state would have to be sodium, because we're supposed to see 1s followed by 2s, followed by 2p, followed by 3s. But what must have happened? This electron in here must have absorbed energy and therefore able to jump to a higher energy state. So the next one would be 3p. So it skipped the 3s and went straight to 3p. So this represents an element that has gained sufficient energy to become excited, which represents a gamma emission. So remember, gamma emission may not change your atomic mass or atomic number like alpha decay or beta decay, but it still does affect the atom in some way.

Here’s what students ask on this topic:

What is gamma radiation and how does it relate to the electromagnetic spectrum?

Gamma radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation characterized by the highest energy, shortest wavelength, and highest frequency within the electromagnetic spectrum. It is situated beyond X-rays on the spectrum. The relationship between energy, frequency, and wavelength is crucial: energy and frequency are directly proportional, meaning if one is high, the other is also high. Conversely, wavelength is inversely proportional to both energy and frequency, so a high energy and frequency correspond to a short wavelength. Gamma rays are highly penetrating and can be extremely dangerous to biological tissues.

What happens during gamma emission in terms of atomic structure?

During gamma emission, an electron within an atom absorbs energy, causing it to become excited and jump to a higher energy shell or orbital. This process does not change the atomic mass or atomic number of the element, as gamma rays are represented by 0/0. For example, if a calcium atom (40/20 Ca) undergoes gamma emission, an electron absorbs energy and moves to a higher energy state, indicated by an asterisk to show its excited state. This emission is highly penetrating but has low ionizing power.

Why is gamma radiation considered highly dangerous to biological tissues?

Gamma radiation is considered highly dangerous to biological tissues due to its extremely high penetrating power. Even though it has the lowest ionizing power among radiation types, its ability to penetrate deeply into tissues makes it highly toxic. Exposure to gamma radiation can eviscerate living cells and tissues, leading to severe biological damage or death. This makes even minimal exposure to gamma radiation potentially lethal.

How does gamma radiation compare to cosmic rays in terms of energy?

Gamma radiation has the highest energy within the electromagnetic spectrum, just below cosmic rays. Cosmic rays possess even higher energy levels than gamma rays, but they are less commonly discussed in general chemistry and more often in advanced physics. For the purposes of basic electromagnetic spectrum studies, gamma rays are considered to have the highest energy, frequency, and shortest wavelength.

What is the significance of the 0/0 symbol in gamma radiation?

The 0/0 symbol in gamma radiation indicates that gamma rays do not cause any change in the atomic mass or atomic number of an element. This is because gamma emission involves the release of energy without altering the number of protons or neutrons in the nucleus. The symbol helps to differentiate gamma radiation from other types of radioactive decay, such as alpha or beta decay, which do change the atomic structure.