ALPHA PARTICLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Alpha particle

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/ˈælfə pˈɑrtəkəl/ Listen

Alpha particle

noun

A positively charged particle that is the nucleus of the helium atom; emitted from natural or radioactive isotopes.

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Etymology of 'Alpha particle'

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"Alpha particle" Quotes from Famous Books

... by ejecting an Alpha particle, becomes Uranium X. This substance, by ejecting Beta and Gamma rays, becomes Radium. Radium passes through a number of further changes, as shown in the diagram, and finally becomes lead. Some radio-active substances disintegrate much faster than others. Thus Uranium changes very ...

— The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) - A Plain Story Simply Told • J. Arthur Thomson

... should see a statistically significant difference between the error rates on the two boards. They did not observe such a difference. Further investigation demonstrated conclusively that the bit drops were due to alpha particle emissions from thorium (and to a much lesser degree uranium) in the encapsulation material. Since it is impossible to eliminate these radioactives (they are uniformly distributed through the earth's crust, with the statistically ...

— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0