# Nuclear equations and conservation of charge

1. Jan 11, 2012

### tsutsuji

Do you know why in most textbooks, like on http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Basic.html or http://books.google.com/books?id=xD0AwBQECasC&pg=PA196 beta decay equations are written like

$^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N+e^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{e}$

instead of

$^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N^{+}+e^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{e}$

Wouldn't the latter be more correct as regards conservation of charge ?

2. Jan 11, 2012

### daveb

I usually see it written as

$^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N+^{ 0}_{-1}e+^{0}_{0}\overline{\nu}_{e}$

3. Jan 11, 2012

### Vanadium 50

Staff Emeritus
The equation is discussing the nucleus, not the atom. So no need to put a + in front of the N.

4. Jan 11, 2012

### technician

completely agree with Vanadium..... the + is included in the 7 of Nitrogen

5. Jan 11, 2012

### tsutsuji

Thanks for all the replies.

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