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Hello,
I am trying to fully grasp the transmutation of nitrogen into radiocarbon (radiocarbon or carbon-14) via gamma collision high in the atmosphere But, I don't because I cannot whether something also happens to the electron. The canonical description is thus. High energy gamma particles appellate chemicals in the atmosphere, stripping neutrons from their atoms, causing them to become like bullets. When a neutron hits a nitrogen atom, nitrogen spontaneously transmutes to unstable radiocarbon, emitting a proton.
10n + 147N --> 146C + 11p,
where 'n' is neutron and 'p' is proton. Fine. The numbers nicely add, all is conserved. But, whereas nitrogen has 7 electrons, radiocarbon has 6. Does it still have that extra electron? Does it now have a -1 overall charge? Is radiocarbon an anion now?
I am trying to fully grasp the transmutation of nitrogen into radiocarbon (radiocarbon or carbon-14) via gamma collision high in the atmosphere But, I don't because I cannot whether something also happens to the electron. The canonical description is thus. High energy gamma particles appellate chemicals in the atmosphere, stripping neutrons from their atoms, causing them to become like bullets. When a neutron hits a nitrogen atom, nitrogen spontaneously transmutes to unstable radiocarbon, emitting a proton.
10n + 147N --> 146C + 11p,
where 'n' is neutron and 'p' is proton. Fine. The numbers nicely add, all is conserved. But, whereas nitrogen has 7 electrons, radiocarbon has 6. Does it still have that extra electron? Does it now have a -1 overall charge? Is radiocarbon an anion now?