Balance these nuclear equations

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on balancing nuclear equations and the conservation of leptons, specifically electron neutrinos and antineutrinos. Participants explore the importance of conservation laws, including lepton number and charge conservation, in nuclear reactions. A specific example discussed is the beta decay of Cobalt-60, which was initially misrepresented in an exercise. Clarifications reveal that the task contained an error regarding the byproducts of the decay. The conversation concludes with an acknowledgment of the learning gained from addressing the mistake.
eminem4002
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Homework Statement
Balance these nuclear equations
Relevant Equations
The V's in the picture are electron neutrinos.
I was thinking that these reactions have something to do with the conservation of leptons but I am not certain.
 

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Hello eminem, :welcome: !

eminem4002 said:
Relevant Equations:: The V's in the picture are electron neutrinos.
They are greek letters n, written ##\nu##, pronounced nee according to some (I would venture: nyou )
I was thinking that these reactions have something to do with the conservation of leptons but I am not certain.
Is there such a law ? Any other conservation laws you learned ? If so, they are the Relevant equations.
 
BvU said:
They are greek letters n, written ν\nu, pronounced nee according to some (I would venture: nyou )
Greeks say neetrino, you say nyoutrino, Greeks say pee, you say pie, Greeks say psee, you say sigh ##\dots## let's call the whole thing off 🇬🇷##\not \in## 🇺🇸 .
 
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Ok, so I think I figured it out... Is this correct?
 

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Check for yourself ! e.g. Al here
And google decay of 60Co to find this

Conclusion: Well done !
 
BvU said:
Check for yourself ! e.g. Al here
And google decay of 60Co to find this

Conclusion: Well done !
Are you sure? Because on the website it says that there's an electron antineutrino as the byproduct and not an electron neutrino as I wrote.
 
Good point ! Overlooked that completeley o:) ! And now I'm painted in a corner: I expect the exercise composer wants a single entry in the empty box, and I'm unable to come up with one. Other possibility: exercise composer made an error here !

(In post #2 I was fishing for 'charge conservation'. Lepton number conservation is a nice one too.)
 
BvU said:
Good point ! Overlooked that completeley o:) ! And now I'm painted in a corner: I expect the exercise composer wants a single entry in the empty box, and I'm unable to come up with one. Other possibility: exercise composer made an error here !

(In post #2 I was fishing for 'charge conservation'. Lepton number conservation is a nice one too.)
Great! I was thinking so too, maybe the creator of this task has written it wrong, I'll ask him and come back to this discussion later.
 
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Alright, turns out the task was indeed incorrect and the correct answer is beta decay of Cobalt-60.
 
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  • #10
Bright side: this way we learned more than if it would have been correct :wink: !
 
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  • #11
True that, thank you for the help!
 
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