What element is the product of dysprosium-166 (Dy) undergoing beta and gamma decay.

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anonymous · Answer

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jfraser · Answer

when an atom decays radioactively, there's actually a really simple way of keeping everything balanced. Dysprosium-166 is$$^{166}_{66}Ds$$ and it is the only reactant. The particle emitted is a beta particle, which is the same as an electron with a mass of zero and an atomic number of -1$$^{166}_{66}Ds \rightarrow ^0_{-1}e + ^{?}_{?}X$$
when predicting decay products, the total mass of the reactants must be the same as the total mass of the products, and the total atomic numbers must also be equal.

There's a total mass of 166 on the left-side, so there must be a total mass of 166 on the right-side.

There's a total atomic number of 66 on the left-side, so there must be a total atomic number of 66 on the right hand side.